Transcription
Hey everyone, welcome back to Coach All Rights. In today's video, I'm going to give you my number one tip to earn a four out of six on an AP Lang rhetorical analysis essay.
The essays that I've seen that have scored a three in row b, therefore earning a four out of six, have had commentary that wasn't superficial. In fact, it thoroughly explained the connection of at least one rhetorical choice to the rhetorical situation.
Now, if you're wondering what exactly is the rhetorical situation, let me tell you. The rhetorical situation is the situation from which the text arises. There are six components: the speaker, audience, context, exigence, purpose, and message or argument.
There are two ways that you can remember this. One is the acronym SPACE, which stands for speaker, purpose, audience, context, and exigence. Or SOAP, which is speaker, occasion (which means context), and exigence, audience, and purpose.
Now, notice that in this graphic, the rhetorical situation is represented by a circle. I did that on purpose because I wanted to show my students that each of these components work together. Think of them kind of like puzzle pieces. They work together to influence the passage.
Now, let's talk about how to connect to the rhetorical situation. The first thing you're going to want to do is look at the prompt on your AP Lang exam. You're going to see one of three phrases in your prompt: "convey a message," "develop an argument," or "achieve a purpose." I would encourage you to underline or circle that phrase. That way, you know what you're supposed to be talking about in your essay.
You might think, "Oh no, don't worry about it, I'll remember." But honestly, I've seen a lot of essays where students did not actually reference the purpose, message, or argument. When you're writing under pressure for the exam, sometimes it's hard to remember your own name. So, be kind to yourself. Take a second to underline it in the prompt and make sure you're actually addressing that in your essay.
Now, technically speaking, at least in my opinion, all passages have a purpose. There's a reason why somebody wrote it or spoke it. So, even if you're not asked about the purpose, let's say you're asked about the message or the argument, you can still incorporate purpose into your analysis because, remember, it's part of the rhetorical situation.
Another tip is to make sure that you explicitly mention what the message, argument, or purpose is, and do so within each body paragraph. Now, for a purpose, you don't necessarily need to use the word "purpose." You can, but usually, when we say the word "to" (like T-O) or the phrase "in order to," what follows is the purpose. So, you don't actually have to tell us it's the purpose.
Now, with message or argument, you might actually need to use the word "message" or "argument." However, don't just stop there. Don't just say "to develop an argument" or "convey a message." Tell us what the message or argument is. So, an argument against this, or an argument in favor of that, or a message of blank. Actually, tell us what the message is because if you don't, then it shows us that you don't really understand the passage.
Also, sometimes the message or argument is included in the prompt. They tell you what it is, but it's usually a bit superficial. So, go beyond what the passage says and be more specific.
Now, you might be thinking, "Okay, but if I'm supposed to talk about this in each body paragraph, and maybe even more than once in the body paragraph, that's going to be redundant." And you might be right. So, I have a tip for you. Before you even start writing your essay, after you've read the passage, though, think about what the purpose, message, or argument is. Write it down on your paper. Then, try to come up with at least three other ways to say that.
So, let's say that your passage is a eulogy, for instance, a funeral speech. Well, the purpose is probably to honor the deceased person. So, on your paper, write "to honor." Then, write three other ways to say that. You might say "to memorialize," "to solidify someone's legacy," "to pay tribute," or "to pay respects." Now you have multiple ways to convey the purpose throughout your essay, that way you're not using the phrase "to honor" every single time. And that tactic also works for the argument or the message as well.
And you might be thinking, "Oh, it's okay, I'll remember that as I'm writing." Again, when you're writing a timed essay, sometimes it's really hard to even remember your name. So, take good notes as you are examining the message, purpose, or argument. Really think about how the choice helps the speaker convey that message, achieve that purpose, or develop an argument. Remember, we're looking for the "why" and the "how."
Now, the message, purpose, and argument are a portion of the rhetorical situation, but it's not the entire rhetorical situation. So, what about the rest of it? Well, let's talk about the speaker. When you're analyzing a passage, ask yourself, "What are the speaker's credentials?" Sometimes this is provided in the prompt. They might tell you that the person is a president, or a senator, or an activist. Use that information to your advantage. You can include it in your essay because the person's credentials influence the topic that they're talking about and also the choices that they're making. So, keep that in mind. What are the speaker's credentials? What is their role in the situation?
You also want to think about the different adjectives that you could use to characterize the speaker. Are they passionate? Are they patriotic? Are they honest, or frank, or candid? Add that to your notes as well.
And the last bullet point is also really important because it's based off of one of the AP Lang standards: What are the speaker's needs, beliefs, desires, or values? Now, notice it says "or," meaning that you do not have to analyze all four. And sometimes, admittedly, there is a bit of overlap. However, I like my own students to examine the needs, beliefs, desires, or values as they're thinking about the speaker because our needs, beliefs, desires, or values influence how we speak and what we speak about. It influences the rhetorical choices that we make. So, maybe the person values education, or security, or maybe they need justice. Think about that as you're reading the passage.
We also want to think about the relationship with the audience. So, is it a mother writing to a son? Is it a president speaking to his constituents? What's that relationship there? And is it reluctant, or is it amicable? Meaning, are they hesitant to accept the message or the argument? Are they going to be resistant to it? Or are they already sort of on the speaker's side, therefore the speaker doesn't have to be as convincing or persuasive because they already agree with them? Keep that in mind as well.
And then, just as we look at the speaker's needs, beliefs, desires, or values, we also want to think about the audience's needs, beliefs, desires, or values because speakers tailor their message to their audience. We change the way we speak depending on who our audience is.
Now, let's talk about the context and exigence, or we can combine it and call it the occasion. So, I like to think of the context as sort of like the timeline, big picture. It could be relevant events that happen before, during, or after. It could be local, national, or global. So, big picture stuff. The exigence, however, operates on a much smaller scale because the exigence is like the catalyst or the impetus. The exigence is what prompts the writer to write or the speaker to speak.
These questions are what I want you to think about as you're actually approaching a passage. But how do we actually take these insights and put them in an essay? How do we connect the choice to the rhetorical situation? Well, let's look at an example.
For this example, I'm going to be talking about FDR's speech after Pearl Harbor. It's one of my favorites to teach. I even included it in my ebook about rhetorical analysis. In the beginning of that speech, FDR creates a common enemy. Why does he do this? Well, ultimately, he wants Congress to declare war on Japan. But in order for them to declare war, they have to believe that war is justified. And fun fact, at the time, the U.S. was isolationist, meaning that they didn't want to get involved in the war or European affairs. So, they were reluctant to join the war. However, after this attack, feelings changed. So, in the beginning of his speech, FDR creates a common enemy. That's what he's doing.
Now, how is he doing that? Well, through repetition and condemnatory diction. Fancy word there, but remember, diction is word choice. We want to put some sort of descriptor or adjective in front of the word "diction" because otherwise, we're just saying that the writer uses words, and that's not exactly a profound thought. You could also use "patriotic diction" or "accusatory diction," whatever you want to do to describe it, but put a word in front of the word "diction."
So, let's look at a sample paragraph here. Now, this is not the entire paragraph. It actually spans multiple slides, but I wanted to talk you through the process of how you can start to incorporate what we talked about earlier in the video into your writing.
So, let's start by acknowledging the purpose. You can see there in the blue, it says, "in order to ultimately convince Congress to declare war." Well, that's the purpose. Now, notice that I never actually used the word "purpose" in that sentence. However, it's clear that that's what he wants to accomplish. So, let's look at the rest of the sentence. It says, "in order to ultimately convince Congress to declare war, FDR must convince them that remaining isolationist poses more of a threat than entering World War II." So, we start with the purpose there. And you can actually use that as a sentence frame, meaning that you could use that same concept and apply it to a different passage. So, you could start your paragraph with "in order to," and then talk about the purpose of your passage. Then, tell us what the speaker does at the beginning of the speech.
Now, the light blue portion of that sentence, that's the context. In this case, it's some outside information, though you can sort of infer it from reading the speech itself. For some passages, you might know more about the context than others. So, if you don't know a lot about the context or the exigence, don't panic. Just use what you know from the passage. Also, double-check the prompt because the College Board likes to include little details in there that are very helpful. But that sentence there is a way to incorporate some of the context. It tells us what was going on in the world at the time. It also starts to address the audience a little bit too, because we know that the Congress members were isolationist.
Now, let's continue. It says, "as such, FDR notes the sudden and deliberate nature of the attack." So, I have some evidence there. I incorporated two different words, "sudden" and "deliberate," into a sentence of my own. You can use one word or a short phrase. Just try not to use huge quotes because it's not your own words, and it's harder to embed it into a sentence. Those quotes there are embedded, meaning that I put them into my own sentence. We don't want to just drop a quote.
The next sentence says, "his matter-of-fact yet condemnatory description of Japan's actions demonstrates Japan's guilt because the U.S. thought the two nations were at peace." In the gray there, you can see that it says "matter-of-fact yet condemnatory." Those words help to modify the word "description." We want to use precise adverbs and adjectives to help add clarity to our writing. Now, I could have just said, "his description of Japan's actions." That would have made sense, but by adding those adjectives, it helps me to better convey what he was actually doing. The last part of that sentence, "demonstrates Japan's guilt." Remember, we said earlier that verbs like "demonstrates," "highlights," and "suggests" can lead to commentary. Well, here's an example of that.
Now, let's see how the paragraph continues. It says, "since Congress must protect the American citizens." Okay, well, that's addressing the audience's needs, beliefs, desires, or values. They need to protect the citizens. They will want to be sure that going to war is not only justified but necessary. So, again, building off of those needs, beliefs, desires, or values. Knowing this, FDR lists a series of locations Japan attacked the night before.
Now, notice that I didn't actually say "repetition" or "repeats" here. I said "lists," but I'm still referring to repetition. FDR could have listed those locations in a single sentence. Yet, he chose to repeat the phrases "last night" and "attacked" to convey the magnitude of Japan's actions. Okay, so let's break that sentence down a little bit. I wanted to think about why did he repeat the phrase? So, he repeated the words "last night" and "attacked." Now, a lot of times, students want to just say, "Well, he does it for emphasis." Okay, that's true, but why? Well, he wants to emphasize that it was intentional. How does he do that? Well, he shows that they attacked multiple locations, so it was widespread. You see how if we ask ourselves "why" and "how," we can actually be more specific.
Also, something else about this sentence that I think is kind of interesting is we want to think about what he didn't do, not just what he did. Now, I'm not saying that you should use this tactic in every single paragraph, but for this one, FDR listed each location in its own sentence. He could have just put it all in one sentence, but it was more impactful for it to be separate sentences, especially because it was a speech. People heard the word "attacked" four times. If he had put it all in one sentence and said, "The Japanese attacked this place, this place, this place, and this place," then he wouldn't have been repeating the word "attacked."
Remember his purpose? He's trying to create a common enemy. So, repeating the word "attacked" helps him to achieve that purpose by creating a common enemy. Congress is more likely to declare war. So, you see what we did there? We started to think about the choice. We have some evidence to prove it, and we're thinking about how it helps with the purpose. You can see that we dig into it more here.
"Doing so erases any doubt that the attack on Pearl Harbor could have been an accident, as the Japanese attacked multiple other locations in the Pacific." So, again, why does he repeat the words "attacked" and "last night"? He wants Congress to know that it was intentional. Why does he want Congress to know that it was intentional? Because if they know it was intentional, they are more likely to declare war. If they don't think it's intentional, they could just miss it as an accident, and then they wouldn't want to go to war. Now, his audience was a bit hesitant already. They were isolationists, so they're not going to be willing to risk their lives over what could have been an accident. He has to prove that it was malicious.
The paragraph continues, and if this seems long, by the way, it's because I tend to prefer very developed paragraphs to developed paragraphs instead of three mediocre ones. That's just my philosophy. I encourage my students to develop their paragraphs as thoroughly as they can before moving on to the next one. So, let's look at the remainder of the paragraph.
It says, "since radio was a popular way of disseminating information at the time, by broadcasting the speech on the radio, FDR simultaneously informs Congress and the American public of the attack on the U.S. naval base." I highlighted the beginning of the sentence in blue to represent context. That's because that's outside information that I know. I know that during the World War II era, they relied on radio and newspapers for their information. They didn't have Twitter, they didn't have Snapchat, no Instagram, no TikTok. They had newspaper and radio. It didn't tell me that necessarily in the passage itself, but I was able to use my own knowledge of the time period and incorporate that into my analysis.
Now, look at the next sentence. It says, "repeatedly noting." So, you don't always have to say "uses repetition" or "repeats." Sometimes you can say "repeatedly notes" or "repeatedly claims." It still conveys the idea of repetition without actually using the word repetition. And in my opinion, saying "repeatedly noting" sounds much better than "he uses repetition." "Repeatedly noting Japan's guilt rouses a sense of patriotism within his audience." Okay, so now we're starting to connect to an appeal. He's appealing to patriotism. Remember that choices create appeals. So, by repeatedly mentioning Japan's guilt, he evokes a sense of patriotism within his audience, preparing them to accept his inevitable forthcoming call to action: the U.S. must declare war.
So, again, I'm ending my paragraph by tying it back to the purpose. And notice that I didn't say "purpose," however, it's clear by saying "call to action" and "the U.S. must declare war" that that is what the goal of a speech is. Ultimately, he wants Congress to declare war. That's why he's proving that Japan was guilty.
All right, if you made it this far in the video, first of all, thank you so much for watching. If you found this video helpful, it would mean a lot to me if you would do me a huge favor and give the video a thumbs up. That lets other teachers and students know that the video is beneficial. Also, if you're preparing for the AP Lang exam and you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments below. Who knows, your comment might inspire a future video. And until next time, happy writing.