In the age of the internet, information is constantly and readily available. Most people have a computer more powerful than the one that sent men to the moon in their pocket every day. With a quick search, any answer is seemingly available, ready for your use.

But while the internet has made information more accessible than ever, it has also made misinformation and heavily biased information readily accessible. In a world where algorithms determine much of the information we see, it is more important than ever to be aware of the resources and texts we are using.

Experienced academic writers know that not all sources and voices are equal. As they search for information to support their claims, they must determine whether the source is authoritative, relevant, or appropriate for the specific situation they are writing for. Because academic writing is well sourced, strong academic writers will select the most authoritative, relevant, and appropriate sources.

Student writers who might be used to finding any source that mentions their topic or argument will need to adjust their reading strategies and research skills for this new writing situation. Because your professors are experts in their field, they will likely have broad and deep knowledge about the topics you are assigned to write about. To prove your expertise and meet the needs and goals of an academic essay, you will need to make sure that you are selecting only the best sources.

How can you know which sources are the most authoritative, relevant, and appropriate? The answer is by reading rhetorically.

Reading Rhetorically

When we read rhetorically, we are moving beyond simply trying to comprehend what an author is saying at a basic level. Instead, one who reads rhetorically seeks to understand how meaning in a text is shaped. Reading rhetorically means looking both at the content of the text and also the context.

Imagine that you’re back in the discussion about the greatest musical artist of all time. One person speaks up loudly and urgently, making an argument about why one artist must be considered the best ever. Does it matter if that person is related to the artist? Does it matter if that person is the artist’s manager or producer? What if you realize that the person making the argument has something to gain by having the group agree with them? What if you realize that the person speaking has biases against women or people of color–can you weigh their arguments the same once you know that?

Maybe you believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That might be true in general, but in the specific context of academic writing opinions only matter when they become arguments. In other words, opinions only hold weight when they are constrained by specific reasons and supported by clear, reputable evidence.

Rhetorically focusing on the content of the text might include observing the following:

• what the author says
• how the author arranges information
• what type of information that the author includes.

Rhetorically focusing on the context might include observing and researching the following:

• the publication or resource where the text appears
• author’s identity, values and biases
• the audience’s interests and needs
• the medium in which the author composes
• the purpose for creating the text

Reading rhetorically means that you do not take every text at face value. Instead, by reading rhetorically, you can start to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the argument and to understand how the author’s audience, context, and purpose shaped the meaning of the text.

Reading rhetorically means that students recognize that the texts they are using or drawing information from are already part of larger conversations. Analyzing a source or text for its rhetorical situation can help you better understand those larger conversations and better prepare you to enter them.

Reading rhetorically is also a powerful mode of critical reading. It can help students discover the strengths and weaknesses of a text’s argument.

Reading for Author, Context, Purpose

As you develop your skill at reading rhetorically, it is important to understand that this form of reading requires conscious, active engagement with the text. It does not require previous knowledge. Your professors will not expect that you already know about the reputation of an author or a publication. They will expect that you do the work necessary to learn about this information.

Analyze the Author

When we talk about analyzing the author, we are referring to the person, persons, or entities that created the text. An author can be a single person or group of people. Or, a text can be authored by an organization without a named author.

Analyzing the author entails asking the following questions:

• Who is the author? What is the author’s occupation? Is the author a journalist, professor, business person, or entertainer? Is the author an expert on the topic he or she is writing about?
  • Is the author a highly educated expert on that topic who is choosing to publish an article for a popular, mainstream audience?
  • Is the author a journalist who specializes in the topic? A journalist whose specialty is unclear? A citizen who is weighing in?
  • Is the author writing from personal experience, or are they synthesizing and offering commentary on others’ experiences?
• What biases might the author bring to the argument? Does the author support a particular political or religious view that could be affecting his or her objectivity in the piece? Is the author supported by any special-interest groups?

Most reputable websites and news sources will list or cite an author, even though you might have to dig into the site deeper than just the section you’re interested in to find it. Most pages will have a home page or “About Us”/”About This Site” link where an author will be credited

Often, understanding the author’s bias or authority will require some research that goes well beyond any blurb that might be included with the actual article. Google the author, or consider looking at his or her LinkedIn profile. Look at several different sources instead of relying on just one website to understand who the author is.

Not all authors will be obvious experts in their field or about the topic they are writing. Students, for example, probably have very little expertise when writing for a college course. But lack of expertise does not immediately disqualify an author’s authority. Authors can build authority by citing the work of other experts and by demonstrating that they have done the research and work required to write with authority about a topic.

Student writers will need to build their own authority through the sources they have read and cite in their essays.

Analyze the Context

When we talk about analyzing the context, we are referring to the specific situation for which the source or text was published. The context can include the publication information, the time period during which the text was published, or the discipline/audience for which the text was produced.

Certain newspapers or magazines are subject to corporate owners’ political ideologies or biases. Just as you can do some background research on an individual author, do some research on the publication that hosts the article you would like to use. Again, google research can help. Look at several different sources — do not rely on just one website.

If you are looking at a website, the sponsor of the site  (the person or organization who is footing the bill) will often be listed in the same place as the copyright date or author information. If you can’t find an explicit listing for a sponsor, double check the URL: .com indicates a commercial site, .edu an educational one, .org a nonprofit, .gov a government sponsor, .mil a military sponsor, or .net a network of sponsors. The end part of a URL may also tell you what country the website is coming from, such as .uk for the United Kingdom or .de for Germany.

A scholarly article published for experts in a scientific field might not be appropriate for a college-level essay–it might not even be readable for an audience of First Year Composition students. It would be essential for other scientific researchers addressing the same topic, however.

A blog post on a right or left-leaning political blog might be too biased to be used as neutral information to establish the facts of a topic. It could be used, however, as an example of one of the more extreme sides of the issue.

Analyzing the context of a text entails asking the following questions:

• Where was the piece originally published? Research the original publication. Does that publication have a perceived bias? Is the original publication highly regarded?
  • Does the publication have an ideological bias? (conservative? liberal?)
  • Is the publication religious? Secular?
  • Is the publication created for a very specific target audience?
  • If you are looking at a website, what is its purpose? Was the site created to sell things, or are the authors trying to persuade voters to take a side on a particular issue?
• When was the piece originally published? How long ago was the piece published? Is the information still relevant? What was happening in the social, cultural, or historical moment when it was published?

Not all texts are appropriate for all situations. An article about cell phones published in 2003 would likely not be relevant in an essay about the current effects of cell phones on students, since the cell phones have changed in monumental ways since then. However, it might be appropriate to give context for how cell phones have changed.

Understanding the context of a text can help students determine the biases, limitations, and strengths of the text they’re reading. A clear understanding of a text’s context can help students use the source more effectively in their own writing.

Analyzing the Audience

As you analyze the context of a text, it is important to remember that writing is communication and communication only works when it is directed to a specific audience. Whether you are reading a scholarly article or a social media post, the writer probably had an intended audience in mind. They had a specific set of readers they created the argument for, and the choices that they made as they wrote will reflect that intended audience.

The audience the text is intended for will have a large impact on the style of writing, the type of evidence presented, and the information provided. A scholarly article, for example, is intended for other scholars and researchers. The writer will not usually spend much time (if any) covering the basic concepts that most scholars in that field already know, which might make that particular article more difficult for a student in First Year Composition to understand. This isn’t a problem with the text. Rather, it’s a feature of the text. That audience would likely be bored or unimpressed with the basics. A scholarly article is actually addressing its audience’s needs by not providing that information.

When you run into a text that you find difficult or challenging, consider who the intended audience for the text was. Understanding that audience can help you better understand argument within the text.

Analyzing the intended audience of a text entails asking the following questions:

• Was the text published in a popular press publication or a scholarly publication? Is this text for a general audience or a specialized, academic audience?
• What discipline was the piece intended for? Is this a popular press publication or a scholarly publication? Is the author speaking specifically to a certain discipline? How might the audience have affected the way the text was written?
• What assumptions does the author make about his or her audience? What information is implied rather than stated? What information does the author seem to assume the reader already knows and understands? Would most people find these reasonable, acceptable, or accurate?

If you are unsure of the intended audience or are unable to find information about the audience, the tone and diction used in the text can provide clues about the intended audience and context of the article. Use of highly technical terms usually indicates that a writer is addressing a specific discipline or highly educated audience. Humor or informal language may indicate a more general audience or a less academic purpose.

• • Describe the tone in the piece: Is it friendly? Authoritative? Does it lecture? Is it biting or sarcastic? Comedic or dire?
  • Describe the diction in the piece: What word choices does the author make? Does the author use simple or technical language? Is it full of jargon? Does the language feel positive or negative? Formal or conversational?

Analyze the Purpose

When we talk about analyzing a text’s purpose, we are referring to the specific reasons why it was written and published. The purpose can be to inform, persuade, or entertain. Texts can be intended to provide neutral information for the greater good of a population or discipline, or they can be intended to sell a product for a company. The purpose of a text will often contribute to its authority, relevancy, or appropriateness for an academic writing situation.

Note that the author’s purposes is different that the text’s main idea. The text’s main idea (above) refers to the central claim or thesis embedded in the text. The author’s purpose, however, refers to what he or she hopes to accomplish. Is the author’s goal to persuade his or her readers to adopt a viewpoint or to act in some way? Does the author intend to provide information or to entertain?

Analyzing the purpose entails asking the following questions:

• Is the author trying to inform, persuade, or entertain? Do they take a debatable position and make a claim, or do they relay factual information that is widely agreed upon?
• What audience does the author intend to communicate to? Is this text aimed at readers like you? Is the author trying to reach a certain age group, ethnicity, gender, or educational background?
• What is at stake? If the author is making a persuasive argument, what might they gain by you agreeing with them? Are they trying to sell something (like a blog on a company website)? Are they trying to get readers to respond to a call to action?

Understanding the purpose of a text can help students determine whether a specific article or publication is appropriate for their specific academic writing task. By analyzing the purpose of a text, students can better decide how to use the source and its information in their own writing.

Analyzing the Message

With all this talk about audience, context, and purpose, you may be wondering what happened to our focus on the message itself. What about the argument the text might be making? How do we apply rhetorical reading to the claims, reasons, and evidence within the text?

Reading rhetorically means understanding that arguments do not happen in a vacuum. All arguments and all texts are created as responses to situations and as a way to communicate to readers.

As you consider the rhetorical situation, also consider the message itself. The way an author chooses to present their argument and their supporting information is usually related to the context and purpose for writing.

Analyzing the message entails asking the following questions:

• What is the author’s main idea? The main idea is the author’s central claim or thesis. Describe the author’s main idea in your own words. Does the author make his or her claim successfully? Is the claim held consistently throughout the text? Does the thesis appear in one sentence or in bits and pieces throughout the text?
• What reasons does the author provide to support their central claim?Making a list of each key point the author makes will help you analyze the overall text. Hint: each paragraph should address one key point, and all paragraphs should relate to the text’s central claim.
• What kind of supporting evidence does the author use to prove their claim and reasons are valid? Is the evidence based more on fact or opinion, and do you feel those choices are effective? Where does this evidence come from? Are the sources authoritative and credible?
• How is the piece organized? Where does the thesis appear? Toward the beginning or the end of the text and why? Are there sections with bolded subheadings, and if so, do these subheadings accurately reflect the content of the section.
• Does the piece include images or graphics? Are there illustrations, photographs, or graphs? Do these images add to or detract from the written text?

Readers can also look at the writing choices the author makes and consider how those choices affect the overall presentation of their argument.