Rhetorical Analysis of Professional Writing

Analyze the paper you selected and try to answer the following questions about the document you are analyzing:

What do you think was the author’s purpose in producing this writing?

Who was the intended audience?

What style and tome did the author use? (Formal, informal)

What rhetorical appeals did the writer use? (ethos, pathos, and logos)

What strategies were used to develop ideas? (description, narration, process analysis, compare and contrast, argument, cause and effect, definition, exemplification, division and classification)

How is the text organized, and why do you think the author chose this particular organizational pattern? Is there a particular format that is used?

Why do you think the author included or omitted particular information?

What kinds of evidence did the author include to support his/her point of view, and how was that evidence used?

Decide which rhetorical appeals and strategies you will focus on in your paper. (A writer might use many appeals and strategies, but some are more important than others in achieving the writer’s purpose. So you need to be selective; choose those that you think are the most important and write about them in your body paragraphs)