C-E-R & Argument
Rhetoric & Situation
Rhetorical vs. Literary
Question Laddering
Style & Literary Devices
Who is that?
100
Your main point or the core position you are trying to convince your audience to accept.
Answer: What is a claim?
100
The art of persuasive speaking or writing, focusing on how communication moves or informs an audience.
Answer: What is rhetoric?
100
- This type of analysis focuses on HOW a text persuades, moves, or informs an audience in a real-world context.
Answer: What is rhetorical analysis?
100
A "simple question" whose answer is directly stated in the text or based on literal facts.
Answer: What is a surface question?
100
A comparison of two unlike things using the connector words "like" or "as".
Answer: What is a simile?
100
Who is this and what is/was their profession?
Maya Angelou
Writer
200
Information that supports your claim, including facts, statistics, historical quotes, or textual examples.
Answer: What is evidence?
200
The specific group or individuals for whom a message or speech is intended.
Answer: Who is the audience?
200
This type of analysis examines a creative work (like a poem, play, or novel) to discover its deeper themes, character developments, and symbolic meanings.
Answer: What is literary analysis?
200
A question that examines authorial choices, craft, structure, or device selection (e.g., "Why did the creator choose to...").
Answer: What is a form question?
200
Giving human characteristics, emotions, or actions to non-human objects, animals, or abstract concepts.
Answer: What is personification?
200
Who is this and what is his role/profession currently?
Mayor Justin Elicker
Mayor of New Haven
300
The logical connection you explain between your evidence and your claim.
Answer: What is reasoning?
300
What a speaker or author aims to accomplish through their text, such as to persuade, inform, or call to action.
Answer: What is the purpose?
300
Examining how Martin Luther King Jr. used emotional appeals and metaphors in a speech to influence civil rights supporters is an example of this analysis type.
Answer: What is rhetorical analysis?
300
A "whole world question" that connects the text to broader human experiences, real-world problems, or general truths.
Answer: What is a big idea question?
300
A subtle reference in a text to a well-known historical figure, myth, literary work, or pop culture event.
Answer: What is an allusion?
300
Who are they (name both) and what what are both of their professions currently?
Dr. Negron ( NHPS Superintendent)
Dr. A. Billy ( Hillhouse High School Principal)
400
An argument that presents the opposing side's viewpoint against your original claim.
Answer: What is a counterclaim (or counterargument)?
400
The urgent issue, problem, or immediate trigger that causes a speaker or writer to create a text right now.
Answer: What is exigence?
400
Analyzing Tupac Shakur's poem "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" to explain how the rose serves as a central symbol of resilience is an example of this analysis type.
Answer: What is literary analysis?
400
"How many people were in the room when Dan left the village?" is an example of this level of question.
Answer: What is a surface question?
400
Repeating the exact same word or phrase at the beginning of consecutive sentences for dramatic, rhythmic emphasis.
Answer: What is anaphora?
400
Who is this and what was his profession?
Langston Hughes
Writer
500
A response to an opposing argument that proves why that opposing side is flawed, incomplete, or weaker than your claim.
Answer: What is a rebuttal?
500
The combination of speaker, audience, purpose, context, and exigence that shapes a message.
Answer: What is the rhetorical situation?
500
While literary analysis often asks "WHAT does this story mean?", rhetorical analysis asks "HOW does this communicator achieve their..." this.
Answer: What is purpose (or persuasive goal)?
500
"How does environmental destruction in this story reflect human greed in our modern world?" is an example of this level of question.
- Answer: What is a big idea question?
500
Deliberately structuring sentence elements in a matching, balanced grammatical pattern (e.g., "We came, we saw, we conquered").
Answer: What is parallelism (or parallel structure)?
500
How many dogs does Mrs. Breland have and what are their names?
Justice, Sage, Peace - 3 dogs