RHETORICAL ANALYSIS GUIDE  

Rhetorical Analysis Resources 

Examples of Rhetorical Analysis

Historical / Background Research

The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture Suggested Readings

Rhetorical Analysis Resources

OCLS Resources

You will need to log in with your IWU username and password

• Rohland, L. (2023). Rhetorical analysis. Salem Press Encyclopedia.

• Kock, C., & Villadsen, L. (2014). Contemporary rhetorical citizenship. Leiden University Press. 

• Sellnow, D. D. (2019). Try it, you might like it: On teaching rhetorical theory and criticism. Journal of Communication Pedagogy, 2, 48–52. https://doi.org/10.31446/JCP.2019.11 

• Jonassen, D., & Kim, B. (2010). Arguing to learn and learning to argue: Design justifications and guidelines. Educational Technology Research & Development, 58(4), 439–457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9143-8 

Non-OCLS Resources

• Rhetorical Analysis from Texas A&M University Writing Center

• Rhetorical Terms from Texas A&M University Writing Center

• Rhetorical Analysis from Miami University

• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis from Purdue University Fort Wayne

• Rhetorical Analysis: An Overview from James Madison University

Examples of Rhetorical Analysis

OCLS Resources

You will need to log in with your IWU username and password

• Civil War and Confederate Monuments: Carr, M. K. (2021). “Lost cause” memories and cultural amnesias: Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s tragicomic speech on Confederate monument removals. Social Science Quarterly, 102(3), 1032–1043. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12964

• Social Media and Whistleblowing: Riddick, S. (2022). Students’ social media disclosures: Reconsidering the rhetorics of whistleblowing. Rhetoric Review, 41(4), 281–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2022.2109400 

• Theater Play: Ramsby, F. H. (2014). The drama as rhetorical critique: Language, bodies, and power in Angels in America. Rhetoric Review, 33(4), 403–420.https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2014.947231 

• Sport Controversies: Beckelhimer, L. (2014). Teaming up: Teaching analysis and research through sports controversies. English Journal, 104(1), 25–30. 

Historical / Background Research

OCLS Resources

You will need to log in with your IWU username and password

• CredoReference
  • Credo Reference provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.

• Gale eBooks
  • A database of electronic encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. The ebooks are trusted, authoritative, and fully searchable online.

• History Reference Center (EBSCO)
  • Designed for secondary schools, public libraries, junior/community colleges, and undergraduate research, this database features full text for thousands of primary source documents and informational texts.

• OCLS News Databases
  • OCLS has access to over 20 news and newspaper databases. 

• American Decades
  • Cross-disciplinary reference source to document and analyze periods of contemporary American social history, including topics of the arts, business and economy, education, fashion, government and politics, law and justice, lifestyles and social trends, media, medicine and health, religion, science and technology, and sports.

Non-OCLS Resources

• History.com 

• Britannica.com

• U.S. Census Bureau Data

The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture Suggested Readings

The following readings are OCLS Resources. You will need to log in with your IWU username and password.

Chapter 1: What is Popular Culture and Why Study It?

• Kuypers, J. A. (Ed.). (2014). Purpose, practice, and pedagogy in rhetorical criticism. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Chapter 2: Expanding the Rhetorical Tradition

• Carcasson, M., & Aune, J. A. (2003). Klansman on the court: Justice Hugo Black’s 1937 radio address to the nation. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 89(2), 154–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630308177

• Hanan, J. S., Ghosh, I., & Brooks, K. W. (2014). Banking on the present: The ontological rhetoric of neo-classical economics and its relation to the 2008 financial crisis. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 100(2), 139–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2014.961529

Chapter 3: A Narrative Perspective

• Chess, S. (2016). The queer case of video games: Orgasms, heteronormativity, and video game narrative. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 33(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1129066

• Rowland, R. C. (1989). On limiting the narrative paradigm: Three case studies. Communication Monographs, 56(1), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637758909390248

• Stroud, S. R. (2001). Technology and mythic narrative: The Matrix as technological hero-quest. Western Journal of Communication, 65(4), 416–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310109374719

• Von Burg, R. (2012). Decades away or The Day After Tomorrow?: Rhetoric, film and the global warming debate. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 29(1), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2011.637221

Chapter 4: A Dramatistic Perspective

• Bourgonjon, J., Rutton, K., Soetaert, R., & Valcke, M. (2011). From Counter-Strike to counter-statement: Using Burke’s pentad as a tool for analysing video games. Digital Creativity, 22(2), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2011.578577

• Duffy, M. E., & Page, J. T. (2013). Does political humor matter? You betcha! Comedy TV’s performance of the 2008 vice presidential debate. The Journal of Popular Culture, 46(3), 545–565. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12038

• Rutten, K., Roets, G., Soetaert, R., & Roose, R. (2012). The rhetoric of disability: A dramatistic-narrative analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Critical Arts, 26(5), 631–647. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2012.744720

• Rutten, K., & Soetaert, R. (2013). Narrative and rhetorical approaches to problems of education. Jerome Bruner and Kenneth Burke revisited. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 32(4), 327–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-012-9324-

• Sullivan, R. (2014). Live-tweeting terror: A rhetorical analysis of @HSMPress_ Twitter updates during the 2013 Nairobi hostage crisis. Critical Studies on Terrorism, 7(3), 422–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2014.955300

Chapter 5: A Symbolic Convergence Perspective

• Guo, L., & Harlow, S. (2014). User-generated racism: An analysis of stereotypes of African Americans, Latinos, and Asians in YouTube videos. Howard Journal of Communications, 25(3), 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2014.925413

• Crocker, G. (2012). Jihad calling: A rhetorical fantasy theme analysis of Al Qaeda’s online magazine Inspire (Independent study thesis, College of Wooster).

• Michel, A. (2014). Beautiful disease: The story of Angelina Jolie’s mastectomy in the American media [Unpublished paper]. Marquette University. 

Chapter 6: A Neo-Marxist Perspective

• Fuchs, C., & Mosco, V. (2016). Introduction: Marx is back—The importance of Marxist theory and research for critical communication studies today. In C. Fuchs & V. Mosco (Eds.), Marx and the political economy of the media (pp. 1–22). Brill.

• Giroux, H. A. (2011). The crisis of public values in the age of the new media. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28(1), 8–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2011.544618

• Levine, S. L. (2006). The End of the Hamptons: Scenes from the class struggle in America’s paradise. Journal of Popular Culture, 39(6), 1103–1104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2006.00342.x

• Nordenstreng, K. (2013). How the new world order and imperialism challenge media studies. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 11(2), 348–358. https://doi.org/10.31269/vol11iss2pp348-358

Chapter 7: Feminist Perspectives

• Battles, K. & Hilton-Morrow, W. (2002). Gay characters in conventional spaces: Will and Grace and the situation comedy genre. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(1), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180216553

• Dow, B. (1990). Hegemony, feminist criticism and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7(3), 261–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039009360178

• Dow, B. J., & Wood, J. T. (2014). Repeating history and learning from it: What can SlutWalks teach us about feminism? Women’s Studies in Communication, 37(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2013.867918

• McKeown, J. K. L., & Parry, D. C. (2016). Women’s leisure as political practice: A feminist analysis of Orange Is the New Black. Leisure Sciences, 39(6), 492-505. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2016.1203848

Chapter 8: A Music Perspective: The Illusion of Life

• Gonzalez, A., & Makay, J. (1983). Rhetorical ascription and the gospel according to Dylan. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 69(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00335638309383630

• Sellnow, D., & Brown, A. (2004). A rhetorical analysis of oppositional youth music in the new millennium. North Dakota Journal of Speech and Theatre, 17, 19–36.

• Sellnow, D. D. (1999). Music as persuasion: Refuting hegemonic masculinity in “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her.” Women’s Studies in Communication, 22(1), 66–81

Chapter 9: Visual Perspectives

• Calafell, B. M., & Delgazdo, F. P. (2004). Reading Latina/o images: Interrogating Americanos. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/0739318042000184370

• Keisner. J. (2008). Do you want to watch? A study of the visual rhetoric of the postmodern horror film. Women’s Studies, 37(4), 411–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/00497870802050019

• Soukup, C. (2009). Techno-scopophilia: The semiotics of technological pleasure in film. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 26(1), 19–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295030802684026

Chapter 10: Media-Centered Perspectives

• Breuer, J., Vogelgesang, J., Quandt, T., & Festl, R. (2015). Violent video games and physical aggression: Evidence for a selection effect among adolescents. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4(4), 305–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000035

• Hartmann, T., Möller, I., & Krause, C. (2015). Factors underlying male and female use of violent video games. New Media & Society, 17(11), 1777–1794. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814533067

• Hendriks, A. (2002). Examining the effects of hegemonic depictions of female bodies on television: A call for theory and programmatic research. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(1), 106–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180216550

• Smith, D. (2008). Critiquing reality-based televisual black fatherhood: A critical analysis of Run’s House and Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 25(4), 393–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295030802328020

• Velez, J. A., Greitemeyer, T., Whitaker, J. L., Ewoldsen, D. R., & Bushman, B. J. (2016). Violent video games and reciprocity: The attenuating effects of cooperative game play on subsequent aggression. Communication Research, 43(4), 447–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650214552519