WRD 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bumper Sticker, Chicago Tribune, Op-Ed

• School: DePaul University
• Department: Writing Rhetoric and Discourse
• Course: WRD 104
• Professor: Hohenzy Victoria

Document Summary

A close reading of the text to find out how it works to persuade (and if it is effective): ethos, pathos, logos. Especially when you encounter puzzling, troubling, or very successful appeals, a rhetorical analysis can help you understand how they work. By using a rhetorical analysis to break down the structure of an argument and looking at its components, you can see how it (cid:862)works. (cid:863) What type of genre of argument is it? (ad, editorial, public speech, bumper sticker?) What are the contexts (historical, social, cultural, etc. ) Do(cid:374)"t assu(cid:373)e that authors will (cid:271)e upfro(cid:374)t, do a little resear(cid:272)h: are they being sponsored, what are their affiliations, what else have they produced, how are they being funded. Most arguments are composed with a specific audience in mind. This affects strategies, content, tone and language. Some (often ads) are an attempt to win over audiences with promises. Others can add weight with issues or ideas.