- Analysis Draft — Draft a one-paragraph rhetorical analysis of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.Preview the document” Copy and paste your analysis directly into the Discussion Board Post. (Do not attach a file.)
In your analysis, identify one specific rhetorical strategy that King uses to persuade his audience.
Suggestions for writing:
You may be tempted to examine a few of King’s rhetorical techniques, but for this exercise, your goal is to go deep with your analysis of one specific strategy.
The difference between a summary and an analysis is that a summary simply reports what the author says; a rhetorical analysis makes claims about how the author is getting their message across. For example, in a summary, you might write, “King responds to calls to be patient and argues that Black people have endured too much to wait any longer for justice, and claims.” In an analysis, you would add, “To support his claim, he appeals to pathos, listing in a 325-word sentence, various injustices, both large and small, King and his community have experienced as a result of racism.”
Begin your analysis with a main claim. This will work kind of like a thesis. For example, you may begin with a sentence like, “In his letter, King makes effective use of logos. For example, . . . ” Or you may begin, “Although King employs a number of rhetorical strategies that make his letter effective, he uses appeals to pathos particularly well.” As you move deeper into your analysis, you will support your main claim with more specific claims. For example, if you are analyzing pathos, you will point to particular examples of pathos and make claims about how they work specifically–what kinds of emotions are sympathies is King appeal to, for example?
Support your claims with evidence from the text. You can refer to specific passages by summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting. Connect your evidence to your claims.