How to Perform Rhetorical Analysis
Becoming a critical reader means learning to recognize audiences, writers, points of view and purposes, and to evaluate arguments. In addition to the rhetorical triangle, structure of an argument, and rhetorical appeals, you should look at the following devices used by authors when performing critical analysis. Keep in mind too that these are only some of the devices, and that authors may use other rhetorical devices as well.
Word choice
Denotative language. Words that relate directly to the knowledge and experience of the audience. Includes specialized, precise or familiar words that speak to logic. Specialized terminology from medicine or law speaks to doctors or lawyers. Precise language that shuns emotional coloration appeals to people who use logic and reason, regardless of profession.
Connotative language: Words that relate to deeper, symbolic levels of meaning. It includes social meanings acquired through use and emotional associations. It can also reflect social, racial, political, or religious stereotypes. For example, a writer who refers to liberals as “bleeding hearts” communicates not only her or his own bias, but an expectation that the audience shares this bias.
Tone: can be characterized as the author’s attitude toward the reader or toward the topic.
Formal: Creates a distance between the writer and audience by removing most I’s and you’s, and by using elevated, specialized language. Formal tone suggests a serious, high-minded, probably well-educated audience.
Informal: Introduces the personal. When a writer is informal, the kinds of stories she relates, the way she presents herself, even the words she uses suggest audience attributes by indicating what she expects them to accept.
Irony: Points to discrepancies between what exists and what ought to be. It is a subtle tactic that assumes an audience of careful readers. It implies some sort of discrepancy or incongruity, and it counts on the readers’ ability to understand this discrepancy.
Sarcasm: Also points to discrepancies between what exists and what ought to be. A writer using sarcasm often attacks an argument by saying the opposite of what he means.
Humor: Tactic that plays on social group bias. When we laugh at something, we join with people who are of like minds to laugh at the other—the distorted, the unusual, or the exaggerated.
Point of View
Objective: the writer seems removed from what she writes about. Objective writing uses concrete, unemotional words that relate facts, events, and data. It leads readers to action by appealing to logos and ethos.
In conclusion, both Hobbes and Locke theories were influential in politics. They both examined the “state of nature” of man without any government and that in this state that all men are equal. They also both believed that this created risk. Hobbes has a much more pessimistic view than Locke. (http://lifeexaminations.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/comparing-and-contrasting-locke-and-hobbes-state-of-nature/)
...nd, advocated for a representative democracy. This is reasonable as well, because the cooperative, social nature he attributed to human beings made it unnecessary to instill fear, and more effective to simply work together. It was necessary for Locke to find a way to organize this cooperation, which he did by entrusting executive power to a governing assembly. Since the aim of Locke’s government was to protect the property of its constituents, the best way to do this was to ensure that justice was brought through an indifferent, selfless and consistent system. Hobbes’ sovereign’s goal was to provide peace and security to its subjects, and Locke’s government was intended to do the same. Therefore, although it seems as though Hobbes’ and Locke’s arguments may be completely irreconcilable, the differences can all be attributed to the ways they interpreted human nature.
Dramatic irony: exists when the reader or viewer understands something that the character does not
The understanding of the state of nature is essential to both theorists’ discussions. For Hobbes, the state of nature is equivalent to a state of war. Locke’s description of the state of nature is more complex: initially the state of nature is one of “peace, goodwill, mutual assistance and preservation”. Transgressions against the law of nature, or reason which “teaches mankind that all being equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty and possessions,” are but few. The state of nature, according to Locke’s Treatise, consists of the society of man, distinct from political society, live together without any superior authority to restrict and judge their actions. It is when man begins to acquire property that the state of nature becomes somewhat less peaceful.
Hobbes explanation of the state and the sovereign arises from what he calls “the State of Nature”. The State of Nature is the absence of political authority. There is no ruler, no laws and Hobbes believes that this is the natural condition of humanity (Hobbes 1839-45, 72). In the State of Nature there is equality. By this, Hobbes means, that there is a rough equality of power. This is because anyone has the power to kill anyone (Hobbes 1839-45, 71). Hobbes argues that the State of Nature is a violent, continuous war between every person. He claims that the State of nature is a state of w...
For Hobbes, the state of nature is equivalent to a state of war. Men place their individual safety above everything else, causing a natural tendency to distrust and fear others. Because of this, man’s primary instinct would be to protect himself, leading Hobbes to claim that man is innately ordered towards the individual. Therefore, in a Hobbesian world, every man fends for himself as “men have no pleasure in keeping company” (Hobbes 88). However, Locke’s description of the state of nature is slightly more complex. Locke claims that, initially, the state of nature is one of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance and preservation. To
Applicable Standard: ELAGSE7RI4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the
They both believed that there should be peace, but Hobbes had a few preferences. Locke defines political power as the right to make law for protection and regulation of property. He thinks that these laws are only accepted by people because they are for the public good. Lock also thinks that all men are in original state of nature. A man in this original state is bound by the laws of nature, but otherwise he can do whatever he wants with his possessions. Human beings have an obligation to protect each other’s interests since they are all God’s children, and they are all the same in his eyes. But there is also the obligation to punish the ones that go against God’s will. The people can be punished by compromising their life, liberty, and possessions. He summarizes the differences between the state of nature and the state of war. In the state of nature people live together, governed, but without need of common superior. He states that there is a difference between the war of society and the war of nature.In society war ends with an act of force, while in nature the war isn’t over until the aggressive party offers peace.
One of the more interesting concepts is the "Chain of signifiers", in which the signifier itself points not to the signified, or concept, but rather points to another set of signifiers, which each point to another set of signifiers, ad infinitum. It is this idea that "the word...never reaches the point when it refers to a signified" (Tyson 252) that positions language as nonreferential, with no end-game where a signified is met and all the supplements provided by the signifiers are resolves. There is no point at which language "refer[s] to things in the world" (252) instead relying on how we, through our own structures of signification, view concepts. Each chain of signifiers is dependent upon the structure that acts upon the creation of meaning and experience, and no longer dependent on the signified itself. For instance, a text never reaches the point where it relays the disparate ideas that formulated the text in the mind of the author - it instead is formulated of supplements that point to poten...
Having provided simplified premises and conclusions of the two accounts of the state of nature, this portion of the paper is dedicated to further evaluating other specifics of each thinker. I argue that inhabitants in a Lockean state of nature enjoy greater individual security and protection in comparison to Hobbes’s account through assessing
Irony is, among many other reasons, problematic in the sense that it is both hard to define as well as sometimes hard to understand. Even the most critical and experienced of readers have missed instances of irony at times, and even more so ordinary readers.
The nature of the raw materials and the operational conditions used during anaerobic digestion, determine the chemical composition of the biogas. Raw biogas consists mainly of methane (CH4, 40–75%) and carbon dioxide (CO2, 15–60%). Trace amounts of other components such as water (H2O, 5–10%), hydrogen sulphide (H2S, 0.005–2%), siloxanes (0–0.02%), halogenated hydrocarbons (VOC, < 0.6%), ammonia (NH3, <1%), oxygen (O2, 0–1%), carbon monoxide (CO, <0.6%) and nitrogen (N2, 0–2%) can be present depending upon the type of feedstock being digested.
The project investigates the health, environmental, cultural and economic impacts of anaerobic digestion in developing countries. The paper presents an overview of biogas production, biogas composition, biogas applications and finally the health, environmental, cultural, and economic impacts of biogas in developing countries.
Biogas produced through the different organic material such as agriculture residues, animal manure, and municipal organic waste etc. if this organic matter is not properly treated, it can be caused by GHG emission. In Pakistan, there is not properly system for collecting the urban organic waste due to lack of capital and transport facilities which is a big threat to the local and global environment. Natural
Friendship is the most wonderful relationship that anyone can have. Ideally a friend is a person who offers love and respect and will never leave or betray us. Friends can tell harsh truths when they must be told. There are four different types of friends: True friends, Convenient friends, Special interest friends, and historical friends. To have friendship is to have comfort. In times of crisis and depression, a friend is there to calm us and to help lift up our spirits.