What Is It?

A rhetorical analysis is when one breaks apart and interprets a piece of media, be it a magazine ad or television show, and distinguishes the parts that appeal to logos, pathos, and ethos. Then he or she reflects on how the use of these rhetorical strategies affects the intended audience and whether the media was effective or ineffective. The purpose of a rhetorical analysis is to become better aware of the media that surrounds us every day in order to make informed decisions and create accurate opinions about what we see. We also use rhetoric to draw forth the main points in a persuasive text or media to help us come to our opinions and ideas. Distinguishing the message, addressing all three appeals on the rhetorical triangle, distinguishing who the intended audience is, and deciding how effective or ineffective the advertisement is must be put into and discussed when attempting a rhetorical analysis. An analysis should be set up in a similar way as what I have just mentioned or in order of what is most important for the specific piece of media that is being analyzed. The set up should be detailed and contain the writer’s personal opinion of what the piece of media means and how it influences them.


I plan to organize my analysis in the order that I have mention in the last paragraph beginning with the message and ending with the effectiveness of the advertisement in general. My introduction paragraphs will introduce the advertisement and why I have chosen to write my rhetorical paper on it. This will included a description of the magazine advertisement stating who is in it, how they are interacting, and where they are placed in regard to one another. It will also state my opinion on the ad and whether I think it is effective or not followed up with my points on why I feel it is positive or negative. The next parts of my paper will defend my opinions and arguments toward the piece of media, which will take up more than a few paragraphs. Within these paragraphs I would like to discuss how the use or lack of use, of pathos, ethos, and logos help or hurt the media and how the intended audience will interpret the media as well. While discussing the audience I will mention how different people may view and interpret the magazine ad in different ways depending on their personal beliefs and opinions. I would then like to discuss the company that produced the advertisement. I will include what the company stands for or believes in and how the media negatively or positively affected their name and logo. Hopefully these topics will take up a good amount of the paper leaving me with only the conclusion. My conclusion will reinforce all my earlier points about the media stating again what the advertisement consists of and who the audience is. I would then like to add my personal opinion of the media and how I personally viewed it when first coming across it. I do have a personal story I would like to share that relates to the media and will explain why I feel the way I do about its message.