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Writing Resistance – Fall 2020
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Discussion Form: “What in the world is a rhetorical analysis?” (DUE 9/11)
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Posted by Shamecca Harris on September 8, 2020 at 8:53 pmPost your response to the assigned reading (100 – 150 words) on the group discussion forum. See discussion question(s) below.
- Discussion Question(s): What is one idea from the text that interests or confuses you? Why? After reading this text, what strategies might you use to write your Source-Based Essay?
- To post your response, reply to the discussion forum here.
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After reading ” What in the world is a rhetorical analysis.”, I start realizing my biggest mistake when I start doing a rhetorical analysis: the difference between “Says” summarize the text’s content and “Does” words that describe the author’s moves. When doing rhetorical analysis, it is hard for me to identify how the author’s purpose can be related to how the writer conveys the message. But, after reading and analyzing the text, I now can understand where my problems at writing are and work with it too; later on, to convert it into one of my strengths. Some strategies I might be using to write my essay are that I would try to make a persuasive appeal to connect with the readers to make them see through my eyes and create a link. And finally, I will try to use punctuation to create a unique effect on what I’m trying to do with my writing.
After reading the article “What in the world is a rhetorical analysis?”, an idea that I found really helpful and interesting is the in-depth about what a rhetorical analysis should not look like. It gives me the chance to understand the mistakes that are made while writing a rhetorical analysis. The authors explanation made one thing very clear; rhetorical analysis is a thorough analysis investigating a texts purpose, language, strategies, etc but that it is NOT a summary. The author describes how important knowing the audience is. Recognizing the audience will help to clearly know authors vision and reasons behind the writing. The article gave me a clear explanation on the questions I should ask myself to read the article from the author’s perspective and a better get understanding of the authors purpose.
One idea from the text that is a very vital takeaway is the distinction made between a summary and a rhetorical analysis. A summary gives a brief overview of the text while a rhetorical analysis explores what techniques the author uses to make their argument compelling and effective. I think the chart at the end of the article is a strategy I will use to write my source-based essay. An interesting point made in the article is that your essay must focus on all accounts that the author employs. So it’s going to be very dense because there is a lot of ground to cover. I noticed one of the sample essays used sections to create distinctions between articles. That idea inspired me to do the same. If not for my final draft, just for myself.
In the article, “What in the World is a Rhetorical Analysis,” one point that I found interesting is how the articles state that there’s a difference between a summary and a rhetorical analysis. For example, it states, “A rhetorical analysis requires you to apply your critical reading skills in order to ‘break down’ a text.” In other words, the difference between a summary and a rhetorical analysis is that a summary states what is being written, and rhetorical analysis is how it was written. To put it simply, a rhetorical analysis is to understand how and why the author wrote what he/she intends the audience to take away. After reading this article I realized that a lot of times when analyzing a text I often focused too much on what is being written than actually what the piece of writing wants me to take away. In my own source-based essay I want to write in a way that the reader can easily understand what I am trying to convey to them through my writing.
One idea from “What in the world is a rhetorical analysis?” that I noticed is the author made sure to include the opposite of what a rhetorical analysis is. Focusing on what a rhetorical analysis is not allows me to better understand what it is I am supposed to do for my source-based essay. After reading this text, I decided I will use the table provided on the last page when writing my source-based essay. I will also make sure to keep the suggested questions in mind when re-reading my sources. I feel like prior to reading this text, I had a lot of anxiety about this essay. This text was very easy to comprehend and helpful because I now know how to construct my essay.
As I further read the article, I realize that the concept of a rhetorical analysis is to separate certain parts of the text in order to understand the writer’s strategies. It’s interesting that you have to keep in mind all these concepts like audience, genre, purpose, etc., in order to properly analyze the text. When analyzing you’re not even discussing what the piece is about but more about what he/she uses in the text to make his article or video. In the previous rhetorical analysis I wrote I didn’t keep in mind that I had to “break down” the author’s methods, instead and I went into detail about what he was talking about. Now, for my next essay I know that I have to first identify all the strategies he uses and instead of implementing my own opinion I have to put into detail how he/she put their opinion into perspective.
After reading “What in the world is a rhetorical analysis” I felt that I had a better understanding on rhetorical analysis. The article introduces the correct way to write and formulate a rhetorical analysis. I realized that in order to complete a well written rhetorical analysis you have to take into consideration the purpose of writing and the targeted idea. This article made me understand that a rhetorical analysis isn’t about summarizing, but to make points and connections. I found the article helpful because I felt that I did not properly make connections to my topic in a way where readers could understand my end point. When writing my rhetorical analysis I will select a formal language and better strategize my points.
An idea from the text that interests me is that the most common mistake in writing a rhetorical analysis is writing it as a summary of a literary work. It seems like in my rhetorical analysis, i made this mistake. I could’ve used examples from my video to demonstrate a better analysis of my source. By thoroughly dissecting my sources for rhetorical features, I show my audience that I have a better understanding of not only what they are saying, but more importantly, how. It’s important to keep in mind the how, not only because it’s the goal of the rhetorical analysis, but because you uncover the goal of the author. After reading this text, some strategies I might use to write my Source-Based Essay is to re-read my sources, use the questions from this article to analyze my sources, and proofread to avoid grammatical mistakes.
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