Pre-Writing for Rhetorical Analysis Paper
YOU MUST WRITE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR PAPER – please use these terms.
Intro – Introduce the source text to your audience.
Mythos – Is it working within the status quo or against it? Why?
Logos – Is it logical? Why or why not? Are there any logical fallacies?
Pathos – Are emotional appeals uses? Remember empathy, apathy, sympathy, and pathetic.
Ethos – Is the rhetor reliable? Trustworthy? Credible? Biased? Why or why not?
Conclude
To help, think about these questions:
What is the argument?
By what means does this author know the truth of his/her statements?
By what means does he/she persuade the reader of it?
Your task is NOT to determine whether the text tells the truth – but rather discover its methods for discovering and explaining what it asserts as the truth.
Evidence:
Data/Studies/Statistics:
Secondary Sources:
Primary Sources:
Personal Reflections:
Observations:
Other:
6. Does he/she acknowledge any counter evidence? If so, does he/she deal with it fairly and thoroughly? Or does she give it the short shrift?
7. What audience does she seem to expect will read this piece? What textual clues tip you off to his/her expected audience?
8. Pay attention to
word choice:
argumentative methods:
(both conscious and unconscious)
anything else that might affect the reader’s understanding and response to material:
9. What does she leave out in her argument? Why?
Is it potentially revelatory?
B) How does she select what is meaningful and what is not? What does the selection do to persuade you – the reader?