Psychology Concept Exercise: Understanding Rhetorical Analysis

PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT EXERCISE 1
Psychology Concept exercise
Student’s name
Affiliated school

PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT EXERCISE 2
Overview
Rhetorical analysis is used to gain an understanding of the writer or speaker success in
communicating to the reader or the listener. Rhetorical analysis is a means of evaluating the
work of another person to evaluate how he/she has successfully achieved the intended
communication. The main objective of this paper is to explain what rhetorical analysis is and
how it is done using various examples of rhetorical analysis. Basically, the paper is a tool for
concept learning with regard to ensuring that high school students are able to conceptualize and
write a rhetorical analysis of any case literature or visual work.
For the purpose of this paper, in order to achieve the above-mentioned objective, I will start by
explaining the concept of rhetorical analysis. The general overview will include the definition of
what rhetorical analysis is and what it is not; the critical; and variable characteristics. For a
detailed understanding of the concept, various examples and non-examples will be used in the
analysis of their critical and variable features. The assessment of the student understanding of the
concept will be carried out by administering a test. The student is expected to do the test and the
assessment results will be used to assess the understanding of the whole concept of rhetorical
analysis.
Part I: Concept Definition & Analysis of Features
A) Concept Definition
Rhetoric explores how the writer or the speaker has employed different ways to deliver the
intended message or influence the readers or the listeners. Rhetorical analysis is generally a
form of criticism which uses principles of rhetoric to establish the interaction that exists
between the writer or the speaker and the audience. The analysis breaks the work of the
writer or the speaker into parts and how those parts have formed conveyed the message.
Rhetoric can be used for persuasion, entertainment or information. Rhetorical analysis is
done on various literal works and arts including non-fiction, cartoon, advertisement, or oral
performance. When writing rhetorical analysis your opinion is not valid on whether you
agree or not with the writer or speaker argument. Instead, you are expected to explain how
the writer is able to communicate his/her message of persuasion, entertainment or
information to the intended audience. When applied to a literary work, rhetorical analysis
regards the work not as an aesthetic object but as an artistically structured instrument for
communication.
B) Critical Features
For the purpose of this concept, there are various critical features which must be there for an
analysis to qualify to be called a rhetorical analysis. Critical features are those features of the
concept which MUST be present in order for an item to be considered to belong to the stimulus
class. With regard to the aforementioned definition, the following are critical features of a
rhetorical analysis.

PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT EXERCISE 3
i. The introduction, body, and conclusion
The rhetorical analysis consists of the thesis statement in the introduction, the body
covering various discussions about the item, and conclusion to bring out the student
remarks on the author’s work.
ii. Discussion of the author’s choice of various stylistic literary devices
A rhetorical analysis will be wholly incomplete if the stylistic devices used by the writer
or the speaker are not addressed. In any literary or visual work, there are various artistic
devices used to convey the message to the audience. Identifying and detailing them in
any rhetorical analysis is critical.
iii. Provide the use of ethos, pathos, and logos
These are the various critical appeals the author use to communicate to the readers or the
listener.
iv. Discussion of how effective the author has communicated
The writer of the rhetorical analysis must be ready to defend his/her opinion or
suggestions made based on the genre of the work being analyzed. One must be able to
provide a reason(s) to deviate or modify a specific part of the communication being
made.
C) Variable Features
As opposed to critical features, variable features are those features of a stimulus (or item) which
can be present but are not necessary in order for the item to be considered within the stimulus
class. In addition, these features can vary across different examples yet not exclude the item from
being considered a member of the stimulus class. As long as all critical features are present, the
variable features can essentially be considered irrelevant with respect to their impact on the
discrimination process.
Below are the variable features for the concept of the rhetorical analysis.
 Target Audience: rhetorical analysis is not restricted to any specific audience. The
audiences vary from one genre and topic to the other.
 The topical issue: the student is expected to analyze various types of works ranging
from non-fiction to audio and visual, thus, there is no at any given time is expected a
similarity of the topical issues in rhetorical analysis. The topic issues vary from one
author to the other with respect to the targeted audience.
 The persuasiveness of the analysis: rhetorical analysis is believed to be based on
persuasive articles or visual items. The authors may or may not be able to achieve the
intended persuasion level.

PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT EXERCISE 4
D) Example
For the purpose of illustration, we will look at an example of a rhetorical analysis:
Persuading the Medical Community
In his article “Leech, Leech, Et Cetera”, Lewis Thomas explain the changes in the patient care.
The world of medicine is ever changing and the interaction between the doctor and the patient is
being overlooked. Using references he is able to explain the transformation that has taking place
over the years in the medical field.
The essay has gained credibility his use of intelligent tone. His persuasions use logic to capture
the audience’s attention. Showing how “leech the doctor... [carries] the implication of knowledge
and wisdom,” Thomas accurately states how the medical profession was once viewed. Doctors
were most respected and high profile people attracting a lot of admiration. On the other hand,
Thomas gives the other side of the word leech referring to the worm. He uses words like “blood”
and “tax collectors” which are associated with this form. Thomas is persuading the medical
physicians and students to go back to the old ways of medicine.
Along with using word meanings, Thomas appeals to the reader’s emotions by giving
explanations on how the family was in those days. He says that “touching was the real
professional secret,” when patient felt the real treatment by the doctor. Today, “the doctor can
perform a great many of the most essential tasks from his office in another building without ever
seeing the patient”. He is showing how the profession has changed over time and patients are not
feeling the care. This triggers the emotion of the audience by making them be attached to the
issues.
In addition to the above, the word choice of the author is convincing to the doctors and medical
students to change their way of serving the patients. The use of a word like “leech” to refer to
doctors and “dehumanizing” to describe their training has triggered negative impression of
doctors. Thomas uses cold and impersonal tone to describe the medical world.
The writing of Thomas has clearly shown how the medical profession has changed to distance
the doctor-patient relationship. His argument could convince the students to rethink their passion
for the profession and how they expect to treat patients.
The overall persuasiveness of the essay is a success. He may be able to convince the doctors to
change their ways of interacting with patients. Through proper use of emotional and logical
appeals, he is able to give a convincing essay to the medical practitioners. However, the essay
fails to show his motive. The question is if the doctors change; will the number of the patient
being healed increase? The patient may not be interested in the relationship but both are
interested in a cure.