AP Exam Rhetorical Analysis

 This question will always have a passage that you must analyze. Remember the importance of not only analyzing the strategies an author uses but always getting to the “so what.”  This is where having a working knowledge of rhetorical terms and strategies is helpful.

Rhetorical Analysis  Avoid merely summarizing the passage. Doing this will get you a 1.  The level of your writing should be a direct reflection of your critical thinking

Rhetorical Analysis The wording for the prompts is quite broad and similar to the following: 1.“Analyze the rhetorical strategies President Lincoln used…” 2.“Analyze how Woolf uses language to convey the lasting significance…” 3. “Analyze how the author produces a comic effect…” 4.Analyze how the poetic devices convey the speaker’s attitude…”

Rhetorical Analysis For AP Language, the different types of analysis include analysis of the following: Structure (modes of discourse; organization and form) Purpose (author’s reason for writing) Style (unique way an author presents an idea: DIDLS, SOAPSTone, etc)

Rhetorical Analysis Structure Analyze some of the ways an author re-creates a real or imagined experience

Rhetorical Analysis Purpose  Analyze an author’s view on a specific subject  Analyze rhetorical devices used by an author to achieve his or her purpose  Analyze the author’s purpose and how he or she achieves it  Discuss the intended and/or probable effect of a passage

Rhetorical Analysis Style  Analyze stylistic elements in a passage and their effects  Analyze the author’s tone and how the author conveys this tone  Compare/contrast two passages with regard to style, purpose, or tone  Analyze how an author presents himself or herself in the passage

Rhetorical Analysis To respond to these prompts, students are required to 1.identify devices and techniques of language 2.explain their effect

Rhetorical Analysis To do this, students need to know the rhetorical strategies on two levels: 1.Structure (mode of discourse, organization, form, etc.) 2.Language (Style, i.e., diction and syntax and Rhetorical Devices (Style, i.e., diction and syntax and Rhetorical Devices)

Rhetorical Analysis Structure: Modes of Discourse  Exposition  Narration  Description  Argumentation

Rhetorical Analysis Strategies to Develop Modes of Discourse  Exemplification  Comparison/contrast  Definition  Cause/effect  Process analysis  Classification  Description  Narration  Assertion/justification

Rhetorical Analysis Language: Rhetorical Devices Impacting Style  Metonymy  Synecdoche  Apostrophe  Anaphora  Cataphora  Polysyndeton  Asyndeton  Chiasmus  Diacope  Allusion  Parallel structure  Repetition  Antithesis

Rhetorical Analysis Language: Familiar Methods to Analyze Style  SOAPSTone  Subject  Occasion  Audience  Purpose  Speaker  Tone  DIDLS  Details  Imagery  Diction  Language  Syntax

Rhetorical Analysis Where Do I Start? 1. Deconstruct the prompt. a.You have to adhere to the prompt for a high score b.AP means Address the Prompt

Rhetorical Analysis Prompt: The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas, and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Rhetorical Analysis What’s Important? The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas, and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Rhetorical Analysis What’s Important? The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas, and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Rhetorical Analysis What Next? 2. Read and annotate text. a.Concentrate on the parts that apply to the prompt b.Read actively to deconstruct the text c.Note the dominant and subordinating forms to develop the mode of discourse

Rhetorical Analysis Now What? 3. Write your introduction. a.Spend some time on your first paragraph to maximize your score b.Relate a direct reference from the passage to the topic c.Identify both the text and the author in the first paragraph d.Have a solid thesis statement

Rhetorical Analysis That’s done. What next? 3. Write your body. a.Adhere to the prompt b.Use specific references; quote from the source c.Adhere to the prompt d.Repeat key ideas and use “echo words” e.Adhere to the prompt f.Use transitions g.Adhere to the prompt

Rhetorical Analysis What’s left? 3. Write your conclusion. a.Make a final statement b.Leave a final image

Rhetorical Analysis Success!