English 112|Writing the Rhetorical Analysis Essay
-Which strategies are central to your interpretation of the text?
-Locate specific examples of these strategies
-Analyse how the writer uses them to communicate an idea/argument
-Explain explicitly their effects (both +/-) on the success of the essay (in achieving its
purpose)
Essay Structure:
1/ Present Introductory Details: The Rhetorical Context
-Introduce the focus of your essay:
-writer and article title
-writer’s motivating occasion
-article’s audience
-summarize the article’s purpose and thesis
2/ Selecting Data and Formulating your Thesis Argument
-Conclude your introduction with YOUR thesis statement.
Thesis:
-Indicates the focus of your analysis
-Expresses your Critical Stance
-Identifies essay’s main features (strategies)
-Comments on the significance of those strategies
Sample Thesis Statements:
1/ Ed Finn’s editorial “Harnessing our Power as Consumers” works beautifully to persuade
an audience sympathetic to social justice issues by using Finn’s personal experience to
build a positive ethos and by making points about historical labour struggles, boycotts, and
the causal link between cheap products and overseas labour.
2/ Ed Finn’s editorial “Harnessing our Power as Consumers” will not reach dissenting
readers because he fails to acknowledge opposing views of sweatshops, relies heavily on
his own experiences as a consumer, and does not address readers’ real financial need for
cheap products.
3/ Although PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) YouTube video Meet
you Meat makes powerful verbal and visual appeals to pathos, the film fails to persuade
meat eaters to change their ways because it distorts its evidence and disregards all other
