Rhetorical Analysis Worksheet

Basic Information

  1. Title of report and name of author (author organization, team, or board).
  2. When was the report published or released?
  3. What purposes or points of view are expressed in the report title?

 

Audience Identification and Analysis

  1. Who is the primary audience? How do you know? Is it a technical, executive, or lay audience?
  2. Who is the secondary audience? How do you know? Is it a technical, executive, or lay audience?
  3. Is there a tertiary audience? If so, who is it and how do you know? Is it a technical, executive, or lay audience?

 

Document Context

  1. Explain the circumstances that led to the report. Why was this report needed? Was the report commissioned?

Note: To answer these questions, read the front matter of the report. Also consider visiting the organization’s Web site for more information about the context that led to the report’s research and production.

 

Perspective and Purposes of the Author Organization and Individual Authors

  1. Research the author organization for the report. Look in the report and look at the organization’s Web site. What is the organization? Describe its mission, and briefly note its history. Which individuals seem to have actually written the report? How can you tell? What are their qualifications and likely points of view? Evaluate their level of expertise. Do they seem qualified to serve as credible authors? Do they seem likely to be biased in their views of the issues discussed in the report?

 

Rhetorical Features of the Report Document

  1. Can you see the mission of the organization reflected in the report’s text? Look carefully at the front matter, executive summary (or its equivalent or substitute), and conclusions (or findings).
  2. Study the report’s organization and design. What do they suggest about the overall purpose of the report (informative, instructive, persuasive) and the point of view of the authors and author organization?
  3. Consider the use of visual information (photographs, graphs, tables, maps, etc.). What approach do the authors take towards the use of visual information in trying to appeal to the primary and secondary audiences? What is the effect of the use of visual information?
  4. Do the report’s authors have to cope with any constraints in writing and producing this report? These constraints are discussed in our textbook on pages 42-46.
  5. Speculate on how the author, audiences, purposes, and context constrain the content of the report.
    1. What are the authors able to say or do; conversely what are they unable (or unwilling) to say or do?
    2. How can the authors appeal to the target audiences? Can they meet the needs of all of them simultaneously?
    3. What purposes are available and unavailable for this report? Which purposes do the report’s audiences expect the author to fulfill?

 

Report’s Reception in the National Press

  1. Using newspaper databases (available through the KSU Library), look up national newspaper coverage of the release of the report. Did any national newspapers cover the report’s release and comment on it? What did news articles say about its importance? What did they say about the interests of the authors and the context of the report?
  2. Also look at the Web site for the author organization and search for any fact sheets or press releases that accompanied the release of the report. These may suggest the key findings of the report more concisely than the report’s executive summary. Also, these press materials may indicate point of view and bias on the author organization’s part. What do you learn from reviewing these documents?

 

Final comment

  1. What is your informed view of the quality, completeness, fairness, and objectivity of the report?