Unit 1: Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Improving your rhetorical analysis skills is an important step on the journey to becoming a better,
more strategic writer. Rhetorical analysis requires you to successfully examine rhetorical situations and consider
what writing tactics do and do not succeed. With practice, you can analyze your own rhetoric and become more
purposeful and successful.
This assignment asks you to consider how and why a specific written text works (or does not work)
rhetorically. You will be using the homework readings from the textbook, along with the class resources and
discussions about rhetoric and the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, and logos) as you write your paper. Your
analysis should focus on the specific argumentative strategies or elements that the author uses. Your paper
should focus on analyzing the text and evaluating its use of rhetoric, not on summarizing the text or presenting
your own personal response to the text’s topic or rhetorical strategy.
The Assignment
• Write an essay in which you analyze one of the following essays from your textbook:
• “Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces,” Palfrey, p. 666
• “Thick of Tongue,” McWhorter, p. 650
• “Why Funny Animal Videos Are Good for You,” Heath, p. 589
• “Featuring Disabled Women in Advertisements: he Commodification of Diversity?” Houston, p. 561
• “What Happens When Toxic Office Behavior Moves Online While Working from Home,” Liu, p. 597
• Your paper should be a minimum length of four pages (double-spaced), plus a Works Cited page, and should
be formatted in MLA style.
• To better understand the text you chose, you may need to research it to find out who the intended audience
was, who the author is, where the text was published or when it was written, and any other important
contextual information. If you use any information gained from this research in your paper, document it with
in-text citations and on the Works Cited page.
• A successful rhetorical analysis essay will do the following:
o Describe the rhetorical situation (purpose and original target audience) surrounding the text
o Accurately (but briefly) summarize the text’s argument
o Include a clear and precise thesis statement (an analytical claim with reasons about how the text
works or does not work), along with organizational cues and patterns to guide its readers
o Explain and analyze how the author’s specific writing choices help fulfill the author’s purpose and
connect with (or fail to connect with) the target audience
o Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of how rhetorical appeals are working in the text
o Support its claims with quotations and/or paraphrases from the text