University of Yale Rhetoric Analysis of Faces of Homelessness Essay

What to Do:

Step 1

• Using a word processing program such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, open a new doc.
• At the top left corner of the document, add an MLA-style heading that contains your name, the class (ENG 111-HUA), your instructor’s name, and the date.
  • The Purdue Owl website (Links to an external site.) has everything you need regarding MLA formatting!
• Add your last name and page numbers to the top of every page.
  • Help for Word users (Links to an external site.)
  • Help for Google Docs users (Links to an external site.)
• Add a title for your essay. “Rhetorical Analysis of ________” is fine, but something more personalized is best.
• Your Rhetorical Narrative essay must be in 12 point, Times New Roman font and double spaced.

Step 2

• Choose one of the following texts and read/view it thoroughly:
  • “Faces of Homelessness”  (Links to an external site.)(located at 1225 Vine St., Cincinnati, Ohio, created by street artists “ICY + SOT (Links to an external site.)” )
  • Montgomery County, Ohio Sheriff’s Department PSA (Links to an external site.) (posted to their official Facebook page in January, 2020)
  • Dove soap aActions 

Step 3

Compose an essay in which you analyze how your chosen text employs the rhetorical concepts we’ve been learning about. At the end of your essay, make an argument about how effective the text is in communicating its message. Specifically, make sure your essay addresses the following in detail:

1. Describe the rhetorical triangle of the text. This section may serve as your intro paragraph.
   • What is the text, exactly?  Describe what you observe using your senses, and give any factual details you can derive during your viewing, too. Name the genre of the text.
   • What is this text’s subject and message?  What is its purpose?
   • As far as you can tell, who or what is the rhetor (identity, persona, how the rhetor presents themselves)?
     • Name them if you can, and describe what you already know or believe to be true about them based on this text.
   • Who do you think is the specific, intended target audience of the rhetor’s message, based on this text? Who do you think they are trying to reach, exactly?
     • Hint:  this is never “the general public” or “anyone” or “everyone”. Use context clues within the visual text you’re analyzing to help you determine the target audience, and be sure to name them.
2. Describe how the text makes appeals by using the following:
   • Ethos
   • Logos
   • Pathos
     • Remember that texts often use more than one type appeal, but may emphasize one type of appeal more than others. If you see this, address it.  Also, if one of the appeals isn’t present, don’t ignore it; discuss why you think it wasn’t included, and/or how including it would have helped or harmed the argument. Show me that you understand the usage of each appeal and can discuss them in the context of the chosen text. Be sure to use the terms/vocabulary, too.
3. Describe the claim, evidence, and warrant of the rhetor’s argument, and provide examples of your observations.
   • Show that you understand the concepts of “claim”, “evidence” and “warrant” by using the terminology. I will be looking for the clear use of these words. 
   • Is one of these missing? Be sure to say so, and explain why you believe it is missing (if the rhetor chose to leave something out, they likely had a reason for doing so. Use your critical thinking skills to suss possible reasons out).
4. To conclude your essay, use the information from the three prompts above to describe how effective you believe the text is in communicating its message to its audience. That is, make a claim about the effectiveness of the text, and then back up that claim using evidence and warrants.  Is this message, in this format, effective for the target audience? Why or why not?