Rhetorical analysis readings

This week’s readings were longer than I really had time for this week. Not so much because of the amount of pages, but because of the amount of information I wanted to focus on in those pages. This seems to be what our focus is to be about for this class as well as the final project. “Rhetorical Analysis” again talked about the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, and how to examine arguments based on each one. In regard to Pathos, I liked that it stated that “emotions can add real muscle to arguments”. I found Aristotle’s basic structure of logical arguments to be “statements” and “proof”. While that is the  basics, in rhetorical analysis you are looking at so much more. You look at who is saying what, who are the saying it to, why are they saying it, who benefits from what is said, and on and on. I believe I will be going back to this chapter over and over again to better understand how to write a rhetorical analysis.

I found “Finding Evidence” to be very helpful not only for doing a rhetorical analysis, but for any research. I have mostly used printed works and a few online resources, but was not too familiar with all the sources that were in this chapter. I found helpful the information given on personal ways to gather evidence like, conducting interviews, observations, and surveys.