Analyzing Rhetorical Techniques
Format:Microsoft Word, three pages, double-spaced, 12-pt. font, standard margins
Insteand of merely describing the content of an author’s claims (“what” is being said and whether you as a reader agree or disagree), your eaasy should instead be an analysis of the tactics and techniques that writers use to push her points across. “Rhetoric” comes from a word meaning “to weave” (from the classical Greek) and this third paper should focus on how a writer cuilds an argument and a point-of-view out of the fabric of language. This again means a microscopic attention to the way that words, punctuation and blank space are set down on a page. Remember how the word “argumentative” is being used here-in academic terms an argument is not so much a quarrel as a piece of attempted persuasion. As well, the paper should search for techniques like “hyperbole” (or exaggeration) and “antithesis” (or contrast).
Where is there irony or sarcasm of tone? How are the active and passive voices contrasted? You cannot be too “small” in register. Focus on the tiny elements with which an argument is construted. Why begin a series of paragraphs on the word “The”? Why transtion between paragraph in certain ways?
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