Hey guys! Here’s some advice for writing that rhetorical analysis essay on the ap lang/comp exam in a few weeks:
intro paragraph:
This should only be 3-4 sentences long. Don’t spend too much time on it! Make sure you cover the SOAPS.
This is how I like to do it:
speaker, occasion, subject (1 sentence)
purpose (1 sentence)
audience (1 sentence)
thesis (1 sentence)
Your thesis should tell what you’re proving about the effects of the author’s techniques-- it shouldn’t straight up list the techniques you’re discussing! Also, your thesis will ideally be a complex-compound sentence, which means it will have at least one dependent clause and two independent clauses. That makes your writing more sophisticated!
Here’s an example thesis (that I wrote for an analysis of a single paragraph):
“As Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ addresses the criticism of his actions and defends his methods, his twenty-third paragraph declares his complaints against the intransigence of the white moderate, defining the white moderate’s innate complacency as the single greatest obstacle in the Negro pursuit towards freedom.”
body paragraph:
There should be 2-4 body paragraphs, depending on the length of the passage. Remember: go with the flow of the text, and don’t force yourself to write exactly 3 body paragraphs.
The paragraphs should be organized chronologically through the text, not by technique! This means sectioning the text by paragraph (1, 2, 3) or breaking it into parts (beginning/ middle/ end), depending on the format of the passage.
My body paragraphs generally follow this structure:
topic sentence- briefly describe what the paragraph is about. use transition words to identify the segment of the text you’re talking about
2-3 CSAs (basically examples)
claim: your position on the use of a rhetorical strategy
support: the quote, summary, or paraphrase of the text
analysis: explain how the strategy enhances the meaning and purpose of the text
synthesis to tie together the examples and state how they work together
closing sentence
Limit yourself to 2 strategies per paragraph to keep your essay focused. When writing under time constraints, I tend to be able to provide 2 examples of one strategy and 1 example of a second strategy, per paragraph, but that’s not a hard and fast rule.
conclusion paragraph:
Make this short and relevant. You’ll still have one more essay to go after this!
restate your thesis using different wording (1 sentence)
call to action, reflection, or extension (2-3 sentences)- it can be any of the following:
ask readers to evaluate the message of the piece
ask readers to agree with writer’s purpose
ask readers to examine how message is pertinent in modern-day
ask readers to reflect on the appropriateness of the piece in modern-day
another closing idea
