Writing Assignment 1: A Rhetorical Analysis of Professional Writing and Its Persuasive Strategies

Assignment 1 – Rhetorical Analysis (a Demonstrative Research Paper) 900-1000 words

Locate, analyse, and evaluate a piece of professional writing for its rhetoric. Referencing using :APA 7^th

You can only cite sources listed in the Reading List or Modules pages (as well as the primary text you are analysing). Engagements with any other sources will be disregarded by markers. You must create a Demonstrative Research Paper (DRP), which includes a list of screenshots at the end, clearly SHOWING all the information you are citing. See the exemplars as a guide on how to format the DRP.

To understand the rhetorical features of a professional writing text based on the rhetorical principles you have learned by Week 4. Eg., how are the appeals (logos, pathos, and ethos) working in the chosen text to make it effective? or not effective? What rhetorical branch/es (forensic, deliberative, or epideictic) frame the communication? Who is the target audience, or the secondary audience, and what is the main purpose of the text? Does the text achieve its purpose or could it be improved?

While you may not be asked to conduct a “rhetorical analysis”Links to an external site. in the workplace, specifically, chances are you will be asked to analyse a target market or the needs of a particular client demographic, or simply to “read the room” and figure out what motivates an audience or what strategies might best grab an audience’s attention and sustain their attention; or make a message more memorable; or persuade an audience to perform some action like clicking a link, or buying a product, or subscribing to a service, or preparing a meeting, or getting involved. Learning how to conduct a rhetorical analysis can help you do these things better, and understanding rhetoric gives you the vocabulary to help justify why you think a particular text should be presented or crafted in a particular way, to best serve its purpose.

Ideas on selecting a text to analyse for rhetoric

Petelin (2021) provides a detailed list of professional texts to help give you some ideas (177):

Roslyn Petelin. (2021). How Writing Works : A Field Guide to Effective Writing. Routledge.

Reading list

Peters, J., Bates, J., Martin-Elston, E., Johann, S., Maples, R., Regan, A., & White, M. (2022). Writing arguments in STEM. California Polytechnic State University. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/oercoursematerials/1  (Please read pages 29-37)Links to an external site.

Links to an external site.Purdue OWL. (n.d.). Purdue guide for workplace writers. Purdue University Online Writing Lab. Retrieved July 22, 2025, from:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/workplace_writers.html Links to an external site.

Surma, A. (2005). Public and professional writing: Ethics, imagination and rhetoric (Chapter 2). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230513891Links to an external site.

Bizzell, P., & Herzberg, B. (2001). Introduction. In P. Bizzell & B. Herzberg (Eds.), The rhetorical tradition: Readings from classical times to the present (2nd ed., pp. 1–15). Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Burton, G. O. (n.d.). Silva rhetoricae: The forest of rhetoric. Brigham Young University. Retrieved July 22, 2025, from https://rhetoric.byu.edu.Links to an external site.     (Key summaries: Forest of Rhetoric.docx)Download Forest of Rhetoric.docx)

Purdue OWL. (n.d.). Understanding rhetoric: Rhetorical situations. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/rhetorical_situation/elements_of_rhetorical_situations.htmlLinks to an external site.

Surma, A. (2005). Public and professional writing: Ethics, imagination and rhetoric. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230513891Links to an external site.

. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/oercoursematerials/1  (Please read pages 29-37)Links to an external site.

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