24 Rhetorically Analyzing Academic Texts (Section Overview)
Sunayani Bhattacharya
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to
- Identify the key elements of an academic text
- Understand and express in writing how academic texts are structured
- Begin rhetorically analyzing academic texts
Revisit: What is Embodied Rhetorics? (Insert link to Embodied Rhetorics chapter)
Academic Texts as Genre
We are often asked to read academic texts such as scholarly essays, articles, and monographs. Whether we read these texts because they are assigned for a class, or we a researching a topic, or they speak to an interest, we almost always approach them as finished products. That is to say, we see them as the end result, as something highly developed and polished. At the same time, we also usually read them to understand their content, rarely paying attention to the form in which the content is delivered.
Academic texts, however, are also a genre. This means that they too have rules of construction, and that their form too must follow certain rhetorical conventions. While the specifics of these conventions are determined by the discipline(s) to which the academic texts belong, broadly speaking authors make the following moves:
- Present their research problems(s) as part of an ongoing conversation
- Provide context for the reader to understand the research problem(s)
- Discuss their methodology
- Present their findings, guided by the research questions, and supported by evidence
- Suggest future avenues of inquiry
Structurally Analyzing Academic Texts
Our task in this chapter is to approach academic texts not as finished products, but rather as models whose constituent parts we are going to isolate and study. For our purposes, then, we need to focus on the form rather than the content of these texts. Sometimes this will be hard to do as form and content are intertwined in well-structured texts, and that messiness is okay.
We are going to begin with the text’s title, move to the introductory sections, find the author’s argument, their use of evidence, and finally, the concluding paragraphs. It is a good idea to think in terms of sections rather than paragraphs, as often we will encounter texts that develop related ideas over several paragraphs.
Analyzing Titles
Having performed the above exercise, let us reflect on the process. What are some of the advantages of academic titles? What are some disadvantages? What were some of the strategies that worked well during this exercise? Keeping those in mind will prove handy when we work with full texts.
Key Questions for Rhetorically Analzying Academic Texts
The following questions may be used to rhetorically analyze the structure of academic texts:
- What does the title suggest about the article’s contents?
- What is the author’s “opening move,” and how does it work?
- How and where does the author incorporate what is being said by others in the field and why there? In other words, how and where does the author discuss other theorists working on the same or similar problems?
- What, in a nutshell, is the author’s argument?
- What is the writer’s new take on things?
- Where is his or her thesis?
- How has the writer structured the evidence for his or her point? What sort of evidence is the author using (textual? historical? theoretical? etc.)
- What are the moves being made in the conclusion, and how does it differ structurally from the introduction?
Invitations to Read, Reflect, and Write
In this introduction to the section “Rhetorically Analyzing Academic Texts,” we invite you to read some sample rhetorical analysis essays from other Saint Mary’s College students. We have also included some invitations to write, shared by writing professors at Saint Mary’s College.
Student Writing
We would like to include student writing in this section. If you are interested in publishing your work, please fill out this form and submit a piece of your writing from your writing class. We will work with you to get it published.
Here are some rhetorical genre analyses written by students and published at other universities. We think you’ll find these mentor texts useful:
Rhetorical analysis of discourse communities
- Health Literacy and Its Effects: A Genre Analysis of Patient Surveys [New Tab] by Mallory Goff (Writer’s Statement [New Tab])
- The Personal and Professional Process of Writing a Technical Instructions Manual [New Tab] by Savannah Dugger (Writer’s Statement [New Tab])
Discourse community analyses
- A Community in Crisis: r/premed by Lily Weber
- Underneath the Leather Jackets and Chrome Pipes: Research into a Community of Local Bikers by Alberta Negri
- The Role of Scientific Literacy in the Discourse Community of Developmental Neurobiologists by Juliana Madzia
- Raising a Researcher: The Role of Mentorship in Laboratory Environments by Lindsay Bischoff
Invitations to Write: Rhetorically Analyzing Assignment Prompts
After reading John Swales’ extended definition of a discourse community, choose a discourse community that you would like to study throughout the semester. Then write an essay that defines and describes the discourse community. Pay particular attention to the role that the body plays in this discourse community. This may focus on how the discourse community members portray the body and/or how outsiders interpret the body of the discourse community members. You should provide a concrete example by analyzing one textual artifact produced by your discourse community that represents or identifies the body (see chapter 25 for the concept of the discourse community).
Many of us have written rhetorical analyses in past writing classes. For this essay, you will hopefully transfer that knowledge to this essay while also building on that prior knowledge with a deeper understanding of rhetorical situation. First, choose an academic article that you would like to analyze. (It should be related to the topic you want to research in this class.) Second, write a rhetorical analysis of that text that identifies and describes its rhetorical elements, and assesses its effectiveness at creating change. The rhetorical elements addressed should be as follows: exigence, rhetor, audience, constraints, and other relevant aspects of the text. The essays should be between 2-3 pages in length. Your audience is your fellow colleagues at St. Mary’s College. You can assume that they do not know the rhetorical terms you will use, so you should define your terms and explain the context of the text you are analyzing.
Works Cited
Boyle, Margaret and Crystal Hall, “Teaching ‘Don Quixote’ in the Digital Age: Page and Screen, Visual and Tactile,” Hispania, Vol. 99, No. 4, 2016. 600-614.
Enoch, Jessica and Pamela VanHaitsma, “Archival Literacy: Reading the Rhetoric of Digital Archives in the Undergraduate Classroom,” College Composition and Communication, Vol. 67, No. 2, 2015. 216-242.
