A Rhetorical Analysis does not “review” the speech. If you find yourself wanting to write things like, “I don’t agree with the speaker that. . .” or “In this awesome speech by. . .” you aren’t conducting Rhetorical Analysis. Again, your analysis and your thesis have nothing to do with whether you like the speaker, like the speech, or agree or disagree with the ideas presented. Your thesis will either say that when analyzing how the speech/speaker uses rhetorical strategies of ___, the speech was more successful or less successful in reaching the audience it was intended for and displaying the purpose of the speech. (Or some variation of this). Your essay will introduce the strategies you examined and explain why and how the strategies worked or did not work successfully (or maybe some worked well and others did not). Avoid second and first-person pronouns when you write your analysis. Don’t directly address your reader, although you can certainly analyze if your speaker/speech directly addresses their listeners via “you” and the effect of that. Avoid the “language of assignment.” Nowhere in your essay should you say something like, “When I chose this speech for this essay. . . .” No one wants to read an assignment. Scholars want to read real arguments, analyses etc. written by academic writers who are curious about the world and enthusiastic about bringing their part of the conversation to the table, yes, but we want to believe you have written this because you wanted to write it and can’t wait to talk about it in an unbiased and academic way, professionally. Introduce the speech and speaker and set up the context for the occasion of the speech. (2) Give a brief summary of the speech. (3) Discuss the most important rhetorical strategies/techniques used by the author/speaker to communicate his or her argument, explaining how these techniques support or work against the speaker/author and his or her primary purpose in delivering the speech. (4) Your analysis might focus on your interpretation of the effects of any or all the following: rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, logos, and Kairos; figurative language (such as metaphor); tone, repetition for effect, vocabulary, etc.—basically any feature of the writing itself that might persuade readers to accept (or possibly reject) the author’s ideas. MLA format
