APEY’S WRITING TIPS

Or
So You’ve Been Assigned a Rhetorical Analysis Paper…

Hello, bright-eyed humans. I’m Apey, and I’m here to help you
with your first rhetorical analysis paper.

Let’s start by examining the prompt. In fact, some people think that “AP” stands for “Answer the
Prompt” and that’s frankly some good advice. So, here’s the prompt:

In a well-developed essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies [author] uses to

[achieve his/her purpose]. Support your analysis with specific references to the text.

All Question 2 prompts will look something like this, just with the name of the author in the spot
provided and, if you’re lucky, some rudimentary
purpose or message given to you in the last part.
Either way, you’ve got to remember something
It’s not WHAT:
REALLY important: the prompt is NOT asking you
to summarize what is being said. It’s asking you
HOW the author said it. That’s what we mean by
“rhetorical strategies.”

Let’s change this up for a second and use an

analogy I know you humans will understand. Let’s
imagine we were talking about COOKING instead
of writing. So the prompt might look like this:

“Eat this meal carefully. Then, analyze the

COOKING STRATEGIES the chef used to make the It’s HOW
meal satisfying.”

So, what would we say? We would say something

like, “the chef used a lot of cayenne pepper in
order to give the meal some heat.” In that answer, notice how we gave a specific strategy (the use of
cayenne pepper) and also said what the effect was of using that strategy (gave the meal some heat).
Now, let’s look at how that would play out in rhetorical analysis.
 DO DO NOT
 Answer the Prompt!  Summarize what the piece SAYS
 Look at CHOICES the writer made  Only tell your audience what the piece
regarding individual words MEANS
 Examine sentence structure: length,  RESTATE the piece in your own words
type, etc.  FORGET TO ANSWER THE PROMPT!
 Break apart the TECHNIQUES being
used
 Recall the rhetorical triangle to help you
understand relationships

Evidence
Show me
As far as EVIDENCE, when you state that a rhetorical strategy is
being employed, make sure you QUOTE IT DIRECTLY. That is,
don’t merely SAY something is happening—SHOW THE READER
WHERE. You can sometimes use line numbers if provided, but
make sure you POINT DIRECTLY AT THE EVIDENCE either
through direct quotation or other method.

EVIDENCE