Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade. When a standard in grades 11-12 asks you to analyze rhetoric, it wants more than a list of techniques. You determine the author's point of view or purpose in a text where the rhetoric is particularly effective, and you analyze how style and content contribute to its power, persuasiveness or beauty. The key word is how: not "the author uses repetition" but "the repetition makes the point feel inevitable."
Start with purpose and point of view
Before you look at devices, answer three questions.
- Purpose: what does the author want the audience to think, feel or do?
- Point of view: what is the author's position on the issue?
- Audience and occasion: who is being addressed, and in what situation?
Everything else in the analysis is explained by these answers. A device matters only because of what it does for the purpose.
Content: the three appeals
Classical rhetoric describes three ways a writer persuades. Most strong texts blend them.
- Logos appeals to reason: evidence, logic, clear cause and effect.
- Ethos builds credibility: the author's experience, fairness, shared values with the audience.
- Pathos appeals to emotion: vivid examples, stories, imagery that make the audience feel something.
Style: the choices in language
Style is how the author says it. Common choices to look for:
- Diction: word choice and its connotations. "Regime" and "government" point to the same thing but not the same attitude.
- Parallelism: repeating a grammatical pattern to create rhythm and link ideas.
- Repetition: returning to a word or phrase so it echoes in the listener's mind.
- Antithesis: placing opposites side by side to sharpen a contrast.
- Rhetorical question: a question asked for effect, with the answer assumed.
- Tone and sentence length: short sentences can feel firm or urgent; long ones can build and release tension.
Worked example 1: Lincoln at Gettysburg
The Gettysburg Address is in the public domain, and it is short enough to study closely. Consider two lines.
First: "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Style: parallelism, three matching phrases that build to the verb. Effect: the repetition gives the sentence a rhythm that sounds like a vow, and it gathers the whole nation into one list, so the audience hears the ideal as shared. Purpose: to rededicate listeners to the unfinished work of preserving the Union.
Second: "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Style: antithesis, with note and remember set against forget, and what we say set against what they did. Effect: the speaker lowers himself and the audience (words are small) and raises the soldiers (deeds are lasting). This works as ethos, because it shows humility, and as pathos, because it honors the dead.
Notice how each observation follows the same pattern: the device, the effect, and the link to purpose.
Worked example 2: an invented editorial
Here is a short invented passage for practice: "Every morning, 200 students wait on a corner with no shelter. Do we call this a bus stop? We should call it a failure. A roof costs less than a single field trip. It costs nothing to ask the board to fund one."
Analysis: the opening sentence uses a concrete image (pathos), and its details are specific. The rhetorical question draws the audience in, and the answering sentence uses blunt diction ("failure") to claim the moral high ground. The comparison to a field trip is an appeal to logos, because it frames the cost as small, though a careful reader would ask for the actual figures. The final short sentences create a brisk, confident finish and a clear call to action. Purpose: to persuade the board to fund the shelter.
A careful analysis also notes weaknesses, such as an unsupported cost claim, because evaluating effectiveness is part of the work.
A pattern for your analysis paragraphs
- Name the technique and quote the exact words.
- Explain what the technique does to the reader.
- Connect that effect to the author's purpose and the audience.
Common mistakes
- Listing devices without effects. A list of terms is not analysis.
- Summarizing instead of analyzing. Retelling the argument does not show how it persuades.
- Ignoring the audience. A device that works on one audience can fail on another.
- Assuming every device is persuasive. Sometimes a device is overdone or backfires.
- Treating style and content as separate. The strongest analysis shows how they work together.
Practice ELA Grades 11-12 questions with an explanation for every answer, or read the guide to California ELA Grades 11-12 practice.
Source: the California Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, RI.11-12.6.