Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Learn How to Write It With Our Guide

Many students reading this article may have never heard about rhetorical essays. It makes sense because usually, only AP English or college students receive such assignments. Still, knowing how to complete one is beneficial.

With this guide from StudyCrumb, you will learn what rhetorical analysis is and which appeals authors can use. You will find out how to write a rhetorical analysis essay. Cheer yourself up, as after going through our recommendations, you will meet your professor's highest expectations!  

Let's begin with a rhetorical analysis essay definition. It is crucial to understand the differences between various types of papers. As for rhetorical analysis – it is an essay that focuses on the publication author's main ideas. In contrast to literary analysis essay, we should be less concerned with what they say and notice how they sound instead.

While reading a suggested or assigned piece, students should keep an eye on:  

The primary task is breaking a non-fiction work (speech, advertisement, article) into parts. Then, one should define how they perform together to convince, educate or entertain an audience. You shouldn't write about whether you agree or disagree with the author. Alternatively, you aim at discussing how their argument is made and what tone they use. Evaluate their approach in terms of being successful.

Writing a rhetorical analysis essay requires you to understand and distinguish rhetorical appeals. These persuasive techniques are used to convince readers and get their approval by calling to emotions, experience, and other characteristics of human nature. There are three main kinds of appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. In his book "Rhetoric," Aristotle brought these concepts to life. Now, these rhetorical techniques are excellent strategies that authors use to persuade their audience.

But what exactly do these terms mean? Let's make it clear:  

Summing it up, a good persuasive argument can include all of these appeals. So if you want to make a massive impact on your public in your writing, consider using all of them.

By now, you might be wondering: "How to start a rhetorical analysis essay?" The answer is clear – start with text evaluation. In context of rhetorical analysis, it's not necessarily a written piece you should review. It could also be a commercial, debate, or illustration. In such cases, you should also mind imagery and sound aspects.

While analyzing your text, consider applying the SOAPS action plan. Here, the first S stands for speaker, O – occasion, A – audience, P – purpose, and the last S is for subject. To put it into practice when you read the text, ask yourself these questions:  

Lastly, you should closely examine the text's main point. Find an explicitly stated claim, define presented evidence that supports it. After that, find the warrant – reasoning that connects supporting evidence with a claim. Also, look at rhetorical appeals the writer uses and outline them in your paper.

Once you complete your analysis part, get ready to write a rhetorical essay introduction. It should give your readers a message of what your paper will be about. An appropriately crafted opening paragraph should include:

The main body of a rhetorical analysis paper is where you directly describe your findings of a text. It usually consists of 3 paragraphs. Sometimes you can focus on a single appeal in each section. Dedicate one for showing how pathos works, the other one for ethos, and the last one for logos. However, it's not always necessary to follow this structure. If the text's part you are analyzing includes specifics of two concepts at once, you can outline this in a single paragraph.

Start each section with a topic sentence that gives an overview of what this paragraph will be about. Include quotations from your text as evidence and cite them correctly to avoid plagiarism. Next, express your argument by analyzing how this piece of text functions in rhetoric using ethos, pathos, or logos concepts. End each body paragraph with a brief concluding statement that shows the core of your analysis. And remember: your main body sections should directly relate to the thesis statement you have developed before. 
 

Last but not least, let's find out how to conclude a rhetorical analysis essay. This paragraph should draw the final line in your paper.

There are a couple of simple recommendations that will help to answer the question, "How to write a good conclusion for an easy?"

After you've completed your essay, all that's left is editing and proofreading. Don't skip this process, and never overestimate your abilities. It's always better to double-check what you've done and ensure that your work is impeccable.

You may need rhetorical analysis topics for your essay. Check them out in our blog.

A rhetorical analysis essay can be a tricky task. Nevertheless, writing one following our tips will help you breeze through this assignment and get a high grade. As you've got all necessary tools, completing this task won't be a headache anymore.