1. Rhetoric and Analysis

2. Rhetorical Analysis
An examination of how a writer has crafted a text so that it conveys meaning, achieves a purpose, or creates an effect for an audience
Who is the intended audience?
The first & most important question
Implied and Explicit

3. Key Questions to ask of a text
What is the central point, major idea, the author wants readers to understand about the subject? (major claim or thesis, aka “take-home idea”)
What is the author’s primary purpose? (inform, convince, persuade, clarify, amuse, etc)
What is the tone? (author’s attitude toward the subject matter as evidenced by the text)
How does the author prove to the audience that he/she is credible, trustworthy, worth listening to? (ethos)
What emotional effect does the author want to have on readers? (pathos)

4. Hypothesizing about the main idea
Offer, as a theory, your answer to the big central question (whatever it may be)
Find examples, evidence, reasons that support your theory
Identify and explain the unspoken assumptions and ideas that come into play for the readers of your analysis when you connect your theory with evidence
This should all sound familiar because it is ….

5. Hypothesizing about the purpose
Identify all the possible purposes – in the real world there is usually more than one!
Identify varying purposes and which is the primary verses the secondary

6. Hypothesizing about the Tone
We are going beyond formal vs. informal now, and talking positive, negative, and neutral
We are then trying to label the specific tone (a feeling, attitude, usually an adjective)

7. Hypothesizing about the Author’s Credibility
Intelligence
Good Character
Good Will

8. Hypothesizing about the emotional effect
Important to consider the intended audience and not us, the modern day reader (unless we ARE the intended audience)
Put yourself in the shoes of the intended audience

9. How are the main idea, purpose, tone, credibility, and emotional effect achieved??
Arrangement: The shape of the text
Its parts, transitions, beginning, middle and end
Divide the text into sections, and then ask: what is each section as a whole doing and what is happening within it to convey the main idea, purpose, tone, credibility, or emotional effect?
Diction: word choices that make meaning, purpose come to life
Syntax: The formation and structure of sentences in the text
Imagery and Allusions
Figurative Language

10. The Key
The key to a good analysis is not to just point out features of arrangement, diction, syntax, imagery, and figurative language, but to show you understand how these features bring to life the main idea, purpose, tone, credibility, and emotional effect.
Lesson #1 – Everything is an argument! Including your analysis. Arguments, must be proven true.
Lesson #2 – In your analysis, you do not have to discuss all of the elements that contribute to the main idea, purpose, tone, credibility, and emotional effect.
Lesson #3 – You must choose wisely those you want to discuss and analyze in depth (which are the most important?)

11. 2008 AP RA Prompt Let’s analyze the prompt!
Let’s read the passage and annotate observations as we read.
After reading jot down the answer to the question roughly.
Go back through the passage to determine the evidence worth using (add/delete to what is already noted)
Roughly outline your writing plan
Write!
Read the student samples, annotate as you like, then give each a score on the 1-9 rubric scale