GENRE AND RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Rhetoric is the art of speaking persuasively

Rhetorical Analysis is a critical analysis that, using the elements of the
rhetoric, examines the relationship between a text, its author and the
audience. It can also use to evaluate images, web pages, adds, etc.
A rhetorical analysis has to be unbiased, so that the writer doesnt state if he
agrees or disagrees with the argument. Instead, the writer should find out if
the approach used is successful.
Genre
Genre refers to the tone of the document, image or other material analyzed
in a rhetorical analysis. Genre is a response the audience has to certain
argument. There are different types of genres.

Genre

Purpose

Activities
Characte
r sketches
Compari

Students observe carefully and choose

Descripti precise language. They take notice of
ve
sensory details and create comparisons
Writing (metaphors and similes) to make their
writing more powerful.

sons
Descripti
ve essays
Descripti
ve sentences
Found
poems

Exposito Students collect and synthesize

ry
information. This writing is objective;
Writing reports are the most common type.
Students use expository writing to give
directions, sequence steps, compare one
thing to another, explain causes and
effects, or describe problems and

Alphabet
books
Autobiog
raphies

Direction
s
Essays
solutions.

Posters
Reports
Summari
es

Business
letters
Courtesy
letters
DoubleStudents write to themselves and to
entry journals
specific, known audiences. Their writing is
Journals personal and often less formal than other
E-mail
and
genres. They share news, explore new
messages
Letters ideas, and record notes. Students learn
the special formatting that letters and
Friendly
envelopes require.
letters
Learning
logs
Personal
journals
Narrativ Students retell familiar stories, develop
e
sequels for stories they have read, write
Original
Writing stories about events in their own lives, and short stories
create original stories. They include a
beginning, middle, and end in the
Personal
narratives to develop the plot and
narratives
characters.
Retelling

s of stories
Sequels
to stories
Story
scripts

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ements
Book
and movie
reviews

Persuasion is winning someone to your

Persuasi viewpoint or cause using appeals to logic,
ve
moral character, and emotion. Students
Letters
Writing present their position clearly and support to the editor
it with examples and evidence.
Persuasi
ve essays
Persuasi
ve letters

Acrostic
poems

Poetry
Writing

Students create word pictures and play

Color
with rhyme and other stylistic devices as
poems
they create poems. Through their
wordplay, students learn that poetic
Free
language is vivid and powerful but concise
verse
Haiku I
and that poems can be arranged in
Am poems
different ways on a page.
Poems
for two voices