Day 28: How to Do a Rhetorical Analysis

Short List

1. Attendance Check and Warm-up
2. Discovering 3 Rhetorical Appeals
3. Proof that we know it!
4. Explanation of the Homework 

Homework:

TONIGHT, the entire Unit 2, Essay Basics, essay will be due. Please do not forget the late policy and save your grade--turn it in by midnight on Compass2G.

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The Details
Schedule of events:

1. [10 minutes] Attendance Check and Warm-up:
Here are two slides from a PowerPoint on Analysis.  We know that we are going to write a rhetorical analysis essay, and we even know what rhetoric and the rhetorical situation are.  But how do we analyze the rhetoric well?

1. What is Analysis?

2. What does analysis take?

3. If you were a teacher assigning an analysis, what would you tell your students to do?

2. [15-20 minutes] Good and Bad Analyses
Look at these four analyses of the Mona Lisa.  Choose the best one and explain why it is the best here.  Please be as specific and as thorough as possible.

Artwork being analyzed:

Analysis 1:

Leonardo used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Her folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid. Her breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands. The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles. Leonardo referred to a seemingly simple formula for seated female figure: the images of seated Madonna, which were widespread at the time. This formula was modified in order to create the visual impression of distance between the sitter and the observer. The armrest of the chair functions as a dividing element between Mona Lisa and the viewer.

Analysis 2:

The Mona Lisa deserves to be in a great museum because the painting is beautiful and you can easily say this painting is very successful.

Analysis 3:

I find this artwork valuable because the artist put his feelings and emotions in to this portrait. He shows in this painting how dull, worried, or bothered he seems.

Analysis 4:

Painting the Mona Lisa, Leonardo elevated himself into another station of artist, those that create new forms and perspectives. The relatively small painting of Mona Lisa manages to craft one of the most intense and effective art experience into a compact 30" by 20 ½" frame. As for what kind of paint Mona Lisa was originally envisioned with, oils were used on poplar wood panel and have been restored numerous times. In recent years, curators at the Louvre have begun to worry that the painting appears to be breaking down more rapidly than in the past.

Leonardo places his model in the midst of the painting, using a pyramid design to center her. The fold of her hands forms the front of the pyramid and he uses the same glowing light for her breast, neck and face. His lighting is important as he uses it to create many of the geometric shapes - circles and spheres - that compose the painting. The form of the painting itself is very simple, a modification of the Seated Madonna, a form very popular during the 15th and 16th centuries for portraits.

When everyone has submitted what they said, we will discuss and look for trends.  What are things that make an analysis well done.

3. [20 minutes] Preparing to Write our Own
For the next step, we will need to break into small groups based on the set of articles that we read for today.  Then, once we are in small groups, we will need to:

1. Open our homework document for today
2. Compare with our group members:
• What did we disagree on? 
• Why?
• What did we agree on?
• Why?
• Is there anything we can add or change based on what our partners observed? 
3. Look at our documents compared to this document that adds some elements of what we learned on Monday and today.  
4. Decide on some points that you might consider as strong points in these arguments and some points that you might consider as weak points in these arguments.  

Homework:
To be explained in person in class.

Attribution: This lesson is from Jin Kim's 2013 original. I have adapted it to fit my teaching style and classroom atmosphere.