College Composition / Unit 28 CMP 0690 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Text Evidence and Analysis of Effect
The idea
In a rhetorical analysis, the evidence is the text itself, and each body paragraph pairs a quoted or described passage with analysis of its effect.
In practice
Build each paragraph in order. First, a topic sentence naming one strategy and its role in the argument. Second, a brief quotation or description of where the strategy appears. Third, an explanation of how it works on the audience. Fourth, a judgment of how well it serves the purpose. Fifth, a link back to the thesis. Organizing the body by strategy, rather than by the text's paragraphs in order, keeps the analysis from turning into a summary.
Where people slip
Summary is the main danger. Retelling what the text says, paragraph by paragraph, is not analysis; each paragraph must explain how a choice persuades.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for College Composition