write an ap of life? please ans.me
Answers
Things you must know in order to accurately analyze a text:
1. SOAPS
2. Rhetorical Strategies
a. Appeals (ethos, logos, pathos)
b. Style (diction, syntax, details, imagery, tone, etc.)
3. Why did the author choose these strategies for the particular audience, occasion, and/or purpose?
a. This is the analysis part! Without this, you are merely summarizing the text.
b. Think about these questions:
i. HOW do the rhetorical strategies help the author achieve his/her purpose?
ii. WHY does the author chose those strategies for that particular audience and for
that particular occasion?
Once you’ve identified the information above, it’s time to begin putting your thoughts and ideas into a
format that proves you have accurately analyzed the text. There are many ways to write an effective
rhetorical analysis essay. Below is one way that is a good, simple format to help you get started. You may
find as you become more comfortable with analysis that you want to deviate from this format. That’s fine
as long as you are still focusing on numbers 1-3 from above.
Introduction
The introductory paragraph to an analysis essay is usually brief. However, it must contain some essential
information.
Put SOAPS in your introduction and follow this format:
FORMAT:
1. Speaker, Occasion, and Subject
(Writer’s credentials), (writer’s first and last name), in his/her (type of text), (title of text), (strong
verb – see list at end of this handout) (writer’s subject).
2. Purpose
(Writer’s last name)’s purpose is to (what the writer does in the text).
3. Audience
He/she adopts a[n] (adjective describing the attitude/feeling conveyed by the writer) tone in order
to (verb phrase describing what the writer wants readers to do/think) in his/her (intended
audience).
EXAMPLE:
Novelist, Amy Tan, in her narrative essay, “Fish Cheeks,” recounts an embarrassing Christmas Eve
dinner when she was 14 years old. Tan’s purpose is to convey the idea that, at fourteen, she wasn’t able to
recognize the love her mother had for her or the sacrifices she made. She adopts a sentimental tone in
order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in her adult readers.