[MUSIC PLAYING] TONY: Hi. This is Tony from the UNR Writing and Speaking Center. When you're assigned a rhetorical analysis, it's easy to only focus on ethos, pathos, and logos. These are important elements of how an argument is constructed, but they're far from the whole story. 

One of the easiest ways to approach an analysis is to consider what an author chooses to emphasize or include in their argument, and what they exclude and therefore de-emphasize. Let's look at how Bernie Sanders responds to a question on The Late Show during the 2016 presidential primaries. 

- But there are people who were trying to choose between you and Trump. Why would that be? You don't seem like two sides of the same coin. 

- Well, I think a lot of Donald Trump supporters are angry. They're, in many cases, people who are working longer hours for low wages. They are people who are really worried about what's going to happen to their kids. My view is that, yes, people have a right to be angry. You have a right to be angry when we are the only major country on Earth that doesn't provide paid family and medical leave. 

When we have more people living in poverty today than almost any time in the history of this country, people have a right to be angry. But what we need to be is rational in figuring out how we address the problems and not simply scapegoating minorities. 

- Well-- 

TONY: Look at how much Sanders packed into that answer, wage stagnation, children's futures, paid family and medical leave, growing poverty. And he finishes by framing his policies as rational, contrasted by Trump, who he says is scapegoating minorities. In doing so, he emphasizes the shared concerns of his and Trump's supporters and de-emphasizes things that might make him less appealing, like the tax increases his policies would require. 

That's straightforward rhetoric that almost anyone can recognize. But let's take a closer look at Sanders word choice, specifically his use of pronouns. When referring to Trump supporters, he uses the pronoun they, which places them in a group. He's not a part of. But he quickly softens this distancing by sympathizing with their anger. He then directly engages you, making sure the audience understands he's really talking to them, not Colbert. And from there, he begins discussing problems and solutions using we. 

By starting off at they, sanders acknowledges the divisions in the US, but by shifting to the word we, he de-emphasizes divisions and instead emphasizes the shared nature of our problems. His argument is, we need to find rational solutions to our problems together. And by accusing Trump of scapegoating, he takes a not so subtle jab at his opponent, alleging Trump has no effective solutions for America's problems and framing Trump as divisive while Sanders is unifying. 

Another useful approach is to consider the elements of the rhetorical situation, author, subject, audience, context, genre, and medium. The genre here is a late night talk show. All kinds of people watch late night shows, so the audience is big and diverse. Sanders knows that, and his answer fits the situation perfectly. By emphasizing shared concerns across party lines and sympathizing with the anger of his opponent's supporters-- 

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--he presents himself as someone who cares about addressing problems, not partisanship. That's a pretty standard move made by politicians. 

- We must work together. 

- Cooperation-- 

- We can come together. 

TONY: --but it's particularly effective in the context of the 2016 election, which was even more hostile and divisive than past elections. 

- Basket of deplorables. 

- Like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you. 

TONY: Keep in mind that a rhetorical analysis is not about making an argument about the subject of the text. I'm not picking a side here between Sanders and Trump. What I'm doing is analyzing how Sanders constructs his argument and showing why it's effective. 

There's a lot of different ways you can do this in your own assignments. If you want to know more, you can check out the Writing and Speaking Center's resources on the dramatistic pentad, terministic screens, and the rhetorical situation. 

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