A Brief Manual For Composing A Rhetorical Analysis Essay On A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay that was written by Jonathan Swift in 1729. It mocks the callous treatment of poor people by suggesting that they should sell their children to rich people as food. This paper is an excellent topic for your own rhetorical analysis essay. However, if you’ve never written this type of paper before, it can be a bit challenging. Luckily, this brief manual can teach you everything you need to know about the process.

This type of paper is a formal work in which the author separates another work into sections, and then describes how these sections work together to create a specific effect.

The following are the steps that you need to follow in order to write your paper:

• Step 1: Identify the SOAPS

SOAPS stands for the speaker, occasion, audience, purpose and subject; each of which you need to identify. The speaker is the author, the occasion is the context of the work, the audience is the people the work was written for, the purpose is the aim of the work, and the subject is what the work is about.

• Step 2: Study the appeals

Appeals are the first rhetorical strategy, and include ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos are ethical appeals, logos are logical appeals and pathos are pathetic appeals. You should categorise all the appeals according to these types.

• Step 3: Study the style details

Style details are the second rhetorical strategy. They include addressing the opposition, analogies, imagery, figurative language, diction, repetition of a specific point, and tone. You need to make note of all of these details.

• Step 4: Create your analysis

Now you need to create your analysis based on the SOAPS, appeals and style details that you identified.

• Step 5: Write your paper

The last step is to compose your paper according to the following layout:

• Introduction: this should include your aim, the name of the text you’re going to examine, the SOAPS and your main thesis.
• Main body: this should be arranged according to the appeals and needs to have lots of evidence to support your examination.
• Conclusion: this should include a restatement of your thesis, a restatement of your main ideas, and any more research that needs to be done.