Rhetoric is well-known as the art of persuasive speaking or writing. Meanwhile, a rhetorical analysis essay is the examination of the tools and strategies used by the author to sound convincing to the target audience. Don’t treat this kind of writing as a summary, as it doesn’t need you to rehash or interpret the context. Instead of explaining what the author is saying, you need to explain how he/she is doing it. You have neither to support nor disagree with his/her thoughts and ideas.
A rhetorical analysis essay can be written on a piece of prose, poetry, article, movie, advertisement, or any other thing that features some elements of rhetoric to be addressed. Being based on high-level thinking, this analysis is widely applied for tests and other standardized exams.
An AP rhetorical analysis essay is often assigned for students who are undertaking an exam. While this kind of academic writing is limited in time, it requires the extensive knowledge of the subject matter. In this case, it won’t be hard for you to break the text into pieces and conduct a thorough analysis.
At the first stage of working on a rhetorical essay, you should read the body paragraphs and analyze them properly. When reading the text, you need to make notes of all the key details. You will need this information again while you will be working on your essay. Hence, your future paper should contain the answers to the following questions:
With the above questions in mind, it will be much easier for you to proceed with the analysis of the writer’s strategies. They build up a basic outline for your future work by letting you understand how the author aims to persuade the target audience.
When it comes to rhetorical analysis writing, there are a lot of things to pay attention to. Before examining the different tools used by the author, you need to understand the basic elements of writing. This is where SOAPS can be of great use.
Don’t forget about one important thing, namely “tone.” This includes the language, voice, and imagery created by the author. While answering the above questions, you need to do it through the prism of the general tone of the story.
Rhetoric, as the art of efficient speaking and writing, has the key concepts it relies on. While they may sound like a bunch of magic words, they are actually the major elements of persuasion established by Aristotle! So, let’s have a closer look at them:
Now that you know those magic words, don’t forget to use them for the analysis. This is probably the only way to make your rhetorical essay work.
The general knowledge of writing a rhetorical analysis is important for the overall success. But it won’t take you far without a proper topic. If you are free to choose what to write about, you should think of something you personally find interesting. For instance, this can be a famous autobiography or a graduation speech. Also, you can write an essay based on a famous movie or even a popular commercial. But don’t choose something too wordy or complicated.
While rhetorical analysis essay topics are unlimited, make sure you find something relevant for you. This way, you will make the whole writing process smooth.
The rhetorical analysis essay outline doesn’t differ from the one featured by other kinds of academic writings. It includes introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Let’s check what information to integrate into each of these structural elements.
Writing an introduction: Being the so-called roadmap for the reader, an introduction happens to be a crucial part of any essay. By setting the tone of the entire paper, it reflects on the main ideas, goals, and purposes to be covered in the main part.
Nothing damages the balance of an essay as badly as a poorly-written opening paragraph. Thus, it’s important that you work on this aspect by enabling a continuous flow from one sentence to another, and from one paragraph to another. An introduction should not reveal all the details but rather provide a general idea of what to expect from the body paragraphs.
Writing body paragraphs: Body paragraphs happen to be the flesh and blood of the entire paper. They contain all the points associated with the major topic. Generally, there is no limit in a number of arguments to be included, but it is recommended to have at least three points to carry sufficient value for analysis. Depending on the kind of writing, some more paragraphs might be required to address all the aspects of the story. While this part consists of several paragraphs, it is important to organize them properly to make the paper look cohesive. Thus, your ideas and thoughts are to be integrated into the essay to connect with each other in a chain reaction. Each point should be connected to the next one until the final idea is fully covered. Every point you make should contribute to the in-depth understanding of the arguments you are trying to cover.
Regardless of rhetorical essay topics, you can split each body paragraph into different ideas to extract ethos, pathos and logos. Each paragraph should have one claim and evidence, not more. If you still struggle to see the difference between these rhetorical devices, check out some sample works below.
Writing a conclusion: To conclude a rhetorical analysis essay, you do not need to retell everything you wrote before. It’s enough to highlight the most crucial points on the described persuasive strategies and demonstrate their significance as the parts of the coherent text. In conclusion, you solely wrap up all arguments into the final point, showing the importance of the analyzed text. But don’t make things too boring here. After all, you want your target audience to be impressed with your work.
Whether you are looking for the right topic for your essay or just want to see what the completed rhetorical analysis looks like, you need a couple of samples. Going through a rhetorical analysis essay example, you will gain a better understanding of how to deal with this kind of academic writing. Thus, this analysis will become much easier for you. To see some examples, follow these links:
To make your rhetorical essay even more impressive, you may need some tips. Here are some of them you should consider:
Now that you know everything about rhetorical analysis essays, you can proceed with the writing process. However, it doesn’t mean that you will actually do it. Whether your English competence is not sufficient or you don’t have good academic writing skills, you can always apply for professional assistance online. This is where an academic writing service steps in. Being aware of all the peculiarities of rhetorical essays, the qualified and experienced writers know how to take this kind of challenge. For that reason, their proficiency can help them fulfill the requirements of the most demanding orders. If you are not ready for your rhetorical analysis, entrust this kind of work to real experts. They will prove their proficiency to you easily!