Rhetorical Analysis Overview

The voice that tells the story. It can be a character in the story or an outside observer.

The main problem or challenge the characters face.

The sequence of events that happen in the story.

The big idea or message the story is trying to convey.

Whether the story feels realistic and believable to the audience.

The process where the creator of a message puts their intended meaning into it.

The process where the audience interprets the meaning of a message.

A rhetorical text that forms the identity of those addressed, absorbing them into the mainstream ideology.

Multiple meanings within a single text or representation.

The cultural practices of seeing, informing what we pay attention to, how we interpret, and how we see.

The everyday condition where social interactions, power dynamics, and context are shaped by the visual, making sight a social fact.

Visual texts that create narratives through layered meanings, like a puzzle where different parts come together to form a story.

Iconic photographers whose work becomes widely recognized and circulated, often representing a larger idea or concept.

A figure of speech in visual art that compares two things, using three main techniques: Substitution, Fusion, and Juxtaposition.

The process of critical analysis where viewers temporarily suspend their own beliefs to understand how an image invites them to see and believe.

A type of speech or writing that defends or justifies an action or belief.

A type of speech or writing that criticizes a problem in society and calls for improvement.

A theory explaining how ordinary people support ideas that benefit the elite.

The implied persona created by a discourse about the speaker.

The implied persona created by a discourse about the audience.

Repeated, emphasized symbols (words, phrases, visuals) that evoke particular associations.

A figure of speech that compares two dissimilar things to convey meaning.

The abstract idea being explained by a metaphor.

The familiar, concrete thing used to represent the Tenor.

Events or actions crucial to the plot's progression, acting as major turning points in the story.

Elements that add depth and context to the story but are not essential to the plot's advancement.

Narratives that encompass a community's fundamental questions, reflect their spiritual values, beliefs, and expectations, and establish their moral understanding.

Stories repeated within a culture that shape its understanding of normality, probability, and reason.

A rhetorical approach that analyzes communication through the lens of five elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose.

A figure of speech that uses a concrete symbol to represent a broader concept.

A figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole or vice versa.

The idea that a person's gender is shaped by their race, ethnicity, class, nationality, physical ability, sexuality, ideology, and religion.

The concept that gender is not something someone is, but something someone does. Gender is performed through behaviors, actions, and communication.

The dominant system of power that values masculinity over femininity, creating inequalities in society.

Unearned advantages that are often unnoticed by those who benefit from them. These advantages are tied to a person's social group.

A system that promotes the dominance of masculinity and disadvantages femininity. This system affects power structures and access to resources.

The power exerted through formal institutions like laws and government policies.

The power that operates through social expectations, norms, and everyday interactions.

The audience that a speech is directly intended for.