A rhetorical analysis, unlike a summary, is an analysis of the strategies an author uses to convey their message. Some of these strategies can include forms of language and reasoning behind why the author decided to include specific details. In a way, the analysis serves to cover the method in which a writer wrote something, rather than the literal meaning behind what they wrote. Throughout my semester in creative writing, I explored various texts like Iggy Peck by Andrea Beaty and blog posts from Apartment therapy, through these readings we were able to analyze the methods in which specific writers chose their titles, and how it connected to their writing. Through analyzation, we also understood the meaning behind including specific series of events. We were able to surround the analyzation with the assistance of the three components of rhetorical analysis’, those being the author, message, and audience.

Iggy Peck 

In the book Iggy Peck, Architect the writer Andrea Beaty discusses the life of a young child named Iggy Peck who has a passion for architecture and building structures. Throughout the story, Iggy is constantly building different towers and buildings out of random objects such as diapers and pancakes etc. As he is devoted to his dream of being an architect, he is repeatedly discouraged by his parents and his teacher. That is until one day, Iggy’s skill set is put to test when his class is stranded on an island and it’s up to him alongside the rest of his class to come up with a solution. In the end, his teacher is overtaken by his ability and finally acknowledges the positive aspects of architecture and the necessity of having it around.

While writing the book, the writer’s main objectives were to teach a younger audience about the importance of following their passion, while also perhaps encouraging an architecture career. Beaty manages to convey her message through exaggeration and emotional language. Exaggeration can be found in the circumstances she presents in the story. Iggy is an out of the ordinary toddler that has known his passion from such a young age, in his case 2 years old. This is not something you would see in most if not all everyday lives, therefore the attention of a younger audience would quickly be acquired. As for emotional language, towards the end of the book it says “there are worse things to do when in grade two than to spend your time building a dream”, the purpose of including this wording was to lay out the lesson being taught within the storyline.

House Tour: Plant-based Loft

In Apartment Therapy’s house tour on the “sunny, plant-filled manhattan loft”, both the renters Jean and Jeff as well as the writer, Minette Hard really work on making space come across as universal, spontaneous, and exotic. This is all depicted in the way they word their titles, descriptions, and especially in what they choose to include in the post. It is no doubt that the site’s goal is to promote a certain kind of living while advertising and promoting. For starters, the title itself, “Two world travelers and a sunny, plant-filled Manhattan loft” was intended to grab the attention of the audience while also pointing out the credibility of Jean and Jeff. People would automatically assume “these people know what they’re talking about, they’ve been to places.” The title ties up to a lot of the furniture and artifacts being presented within the “tour” images.

An example of this would be the “pink blanket” and “milk creamer” from Chile, located in the resource section towards the bottom of the article. Since the renters are constant travelers and clearly have incorporated some of their intake from travel, it may be that people are overtaken by the “exoticness” of the artifacts. This could potentially inspire other viewers to take a similar toll when decorating their homes, spaces etc. As for the descriptions, wording like “an almost unheard of amount of sunlight”, and “masterfully inviting living room” are meant to put an emphasis on the apartment style, as well as the technique the travelers used for decorating and designing their loft. While creating the post, Hard included links to where the artifacts came from and promoted some of Jean and Jeff’s friends while doing so.

In the end, the main objective was to learn to cover the three main components of a rhetorical analysis. Being able to identify the author, message, and the audience developed not only a better understanding of writing techniques and style but it also allowed one to avoid summarization which in many cases can be confused for a rhetorical analysis. In Iggy Peck, Beaty framed her work to send a message to the younger audience, and Apartment Therapy bases itself in the advertisement of lifestyles while also promoting.