ENG 333 Communication for Science and Research

Jamie Larsen, Instructor

Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical analysis is just a fancy way of suggesting how to look at any given text. It is important to be careful readers, as well as effective writers. Conducting a rhetorical analysis on a text is a way of looking at what the motives are of a writer, what methods the writer is using to persuade you to accept any given claim, and how effective you feel the writer is in achieving his/her agenda.

Rhetoric, by definition, is the study of the effective use of language. It involves the word choice you use to convey information. I believe everything is rhetorical. For example, I could say, "It is raining outside," and I have let you know the current weather conditions. I could also say, "The raindrops are going pitty-pat on the brick walkway outside," and I have conveyed the same information, just in a different manner. Even though we are working on technical communication in this course that does not mean it is devoid of style. When we delve into argumentation, you will see that this level of word choice is a crucial part of persuading someone to accept your point of view.

The following definitions by famous authors illustrate the importance of rhetoric, and why it is useful to study it as a way of determining the effectiveness of documents, or websites:

• Hemingway, in the The Green Fields of Africa, defined rhetoric by saying, "Rhetoric is the blue sparks from the dynamo."
• Aristotle said, "Rhetoric is the art of discovering in the particular case the available means of persuasion. It has to do with things about which we commonly deliberate."
• Kenneth Burke, a leading rhetorician today, said, "Wherever there is meaning, there is persuasion, and wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric."

Basically rhetorical analysis involves considering the following aspects as related to this assignment:

• Purpose (Why is the website out there? To sell things, to recruit employees, undeterminable?)
• Audience (Who is the website content, and graphics, geared to - technical audiences, younger audiences, undeterminable?)
• Content (Is the content sufficient to meet the audience's expectations, or is it too much, or too little?)
• Organization (Is the navigation through the site easy, intuitive, or is it a mess with broken links and no cohesiveness?)
• Style (Is the tone and visuals appealing? Does the site make you want to stay, or go?)

For Assignment 3, I will not be juding whether or not your opinions are "right" or "wrong." I will be looking for an organization to your PowerPoint presentation, a list of criteria you used to compare the two sites, and the persuasiveness you use to convince a fellow student in your written script to visit the site that you decide is the most useful in the job search process.

Conducting a Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical reading strategies can help you understand a text. Sometimes the real point of a text needs to be inferred or constructed. You must create meaning from the words that you read (or the images that you see). Rhetorical analysis can also help you determine if the writer had hidden agendas.

Linda Flower and John Ackerman in their text, Writers at Work , developed a usable rhetorical reading strategy. This three-pronged method provides a good framework for the presentation that you will give for Assignment 3. They recommend that you read for:

• Intentions
• Conventions
• Context

Reading for intentions

Thinking about the five W's of news writing can help you identify the intentions of a writer: who, what, when, where, and why - with a big emphasis on why.

Reading for conventions

Reading for context

The example I provide illustrates the use of the above rhetorical strategy, although it does not exactly match the content analysis for a job search that you will need to do.