A) Laura Bolin Carol’s article “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” guides and teaches readers about the process of rhetorical analyzing. She examines several claims on how to interpret a rhetorician’s speech. The first thing I learned was the rhetorical triangle which is a method that outlines three important elements of rhetoric, that can persuade the audience. Examples of rhetoric appeals include pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos appeals to emotions, ethos addresses credibility, and logos establish statistics and evidence. It allows us to understand how the rhetoric functions within the context. The second thing I examined was how rhetoric is incorporated with writing and media. Media persuades us to make decisions, think, buy, and have an effect on the way we perceive things. Overall, media is one of the reasons why learning rhetorical analysis is so essential. The last thing I learned was how to implement rhetorical analysis in our own writing which can make our arguments stronger. It allows us to create questions in order for a deeper analysis. For example, “Does the rhetoric address the problem it claims to address? Is the rhetoric targeted at an audience who has the power to make change? Are the appeals appropriate to the audience? Does the rhetorician give enough information to make an informed decision?” These questions give an insight on how to make your analysis clearer.
B) One important quotation taken from the article, “rhetorical discourse is usually responding to some kind of problem. You can begin to understand a piece’s exigence by asking, “What is this rhetoric responding to?” “What might have happened to make the rhetor (the person who creates the rhetoric) respond in this way?” These questions allow us to expand our knowledge on a topic to take a deeper stand on a subject.
C)After reading this article, it will definitely affect my essay because I’ll be reviewing my essay and making sure I follow the proper format of analyzing rhetorical analysis successfully.
Thanks for these comments. I don’t think that there’s only one format for doing rhetorical analysis, but I hope that some of the questions she suggests that we can ask about a piece of rhetoric are useful for your essay!