A rhetorical analysis is identifying the strategies that an author uses to persuade to a certain audience. The elements that make up a rhetorical analysis are writer/author, message and audience. For a rhetorical analysis you would need to identify those three elements and find how they work together. When looking at the writer or speaker you need to think if the authors familiar with the subject, is he reasonable, does he show good judgement,etc. When you identify the audience you should think about who the author is writing this for. Think of the age, race, sex, social status, religious, etc. The message is just the purpose of the writing. What claims are made, are they strong, the evidence used, etc. Identifying the three elements and showing how they work together is a rhetorical analysis.
I analyzed two apartments. Both of the apartments might have had similar messages but they had a different author and audience. While I was doing my rhetorical analysis it helped me see if the place was pretty or ugly. Which brings us ro how this connects to our class. Our class is about architecture, so we learned how to view a building, notice if something is wrong with the building or if its appealing to the eye. When we do our analysis we have to think like an architect would. We have to think about the purpose of the roo,, why did they add something, etc. Thinking like an architect can help a lot when doing a rhetorical analysis about apartments.
Two World Travelers Sunny, Plant-Filled Manhattan Loft talks about what a couple who travels does to it’s apart. They basically give a house tour and show the audience what they have done with their home hoping they would learn something. In Apartment Therapy, the website in which the article is located in, there are a lot more article similar to this one however, each house tour seems to have a different audience but the same purpose which is to show people how the homeowners decorated their place.
In Two World Travelers Sunny, Plant-Filled Manhattan Loft one thing they mention is the amount of sunlight they get. Which they say is a lot of sunlight compare to what most people would get. Instead of complaining about the amount of sunlight they get they decide to use the sunlight to decorate their apartment in ways they can benefit from the sunlight and the way they do it is by filling their apartment with plants. Well after reading the article we know who the author is, which is the couple, Jean and Jeff. The audience is anyone who wants to redesign their home, especially those who receive more sunlight than others. The message is self explanatory which is the couple just want to show the people what they have done with their home.
The next rhetorical analysis I did was on a book called Iggy peck, Architect. This is a children’s book where a kid named Iggy Peck picks up the habit of building things at a very young age and then he starts to build things everywhere with anything. Until the second grade where a teacher had a traumatic experience where she doesnt like architects. She then makes Iggy stop his passion for architect in the class until Iggy’s passion is needed for her and her class to be saved. In this children’s book the author tries to convey the message that no one should ever try to stop you from your passion, since it could one day it may be the reason why it helps you or someone.
In the book the author shows a kid who is passionate about architecture up to the point where the kid uses anything to build and he’s really good at it but then someone comes and tries to stop him from doing what he loves. Yet that person later needs the kids help. The picture the author shows how the teacher was breaking the kids spirit. You can also see how happy Iggy was when he saved his classmates with his passion. This is a children’s book, so the intended audience is kids in grades under than third grade. The message of the book and pictures is for kids to never let anyone stop them from doing what they love.
I find rhetorical analysis very useful, since it helps me analyze everything better. Since everything has a purpose, an audience and a writer/speaker. Especially when I find the connection between all three elements. I feel like when I break down the elements one by one , understanding the article or the reading is so much easier. But when I find how they connect it just helps me analyze the reading. Learning rhetorical analysis is the most useful tool when analysing a reading, since it can work in both a nonfiction and fiction reading. This task was very important and useful.
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