Gather information
Research.
Some essays require more research than others, but almost every essay will require you to find sources that you can reference as you give your reader background and context on your topic. There are lots of resources for you to use as you're gathering what you need for any essay you're writing. Be sure to utilize the library and librarians available to help you.
The UT San Antonio library has many resources to help you research! Not only is there access to hundreds of databases, but the librarians themselves are also a fantastic research resource.
- All UT San Antonio Library Databases by subject or alphabetically.
- Subject-specific Research Guides created by specialists.
- You can email the librarian who is a Subject Specialist on your field.
- External annotated list of databases.
Choose a topic.
After doing some research, enough to familiarize yourself with the subject, choose a topic that interests you—one that you'll enjoy as you dig into it. Gather information about that topic and begin to organize it to answer your prompt. Once you have a general sense of the topic, you can begin brainstorming specific ideas that'll go into your paper.
In my case, research will have to do with finding an image or text that I feel like I'll be able to do a rhetorical analysis of. My preference is to analyze an image, so let's start brainstorming what kinds of images are worth analyzing.
I definitely need something that was created with a specific audience and purpose in mind, or else there won't be anything much to analyze. For this essay, I know that choosing my subject for analysis will be the hardest part. My research will mostly involve considering different images and choosing the one that's right for the assignment.
I'm thinking an advertisement will probably be the way to go. But let's get a little more specific and narrow my focus. The types of ads that are distributed to students on college campuses, inviting them to events occurring on campus, just might be the way to go. I know that they have a specific audience in mind—young college students—and a purpose—getting them to attend the event. My analysis from there will be pretty straightforward: I'll be looking at how the ad's designer tries to achieve that purpose in the image.
The image I choose is one that advertises a show held on a college campus:
Source: University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. (2017). Magic Redefined. "Illusionist: The Maze" advertisement.
But, doing more research into the background of the show, I find that it's actually a religious show that is marketed as a magic show, with no indication of the religious aspect in the advertising. In fact, that's a source I'll save to use later:
https://www.tcu360.com/story/maze-event-s-purpose-misleading-12434226/
All right, I think this is going to be my subject. Now it's time to brainstorm the specific ideas that'll go into the body of my essay.