The Recipe Analysis
Purpose
One of the best methods to understand any text is to perform a rhetorical analysis of its rhetorical situation. Arguably the most important part of the rhetorical situation is the context (or surroundings) that help shape the text itself. At its most basic, a rhetorical situation includes the text’s author (or creator), its audience, and the exigence (or purpose) for creating the text in that particular moment. Understanding a texts rhetorical situation helps us to understand its message, how effective it might be at achieving its desired effect, and how and why the creator made certain decisions when creating the text in the first place.
As we’ve discussed in class, food is a text. It tells us stories about the time period when that food was first made, as well as about the people who made it. To tell one of those stories, this assignment asks you to analyze the rhetorical situation of a recipe of your choosing. To do this, you may choose any recipe from a cookbook or source that was written, published, or otherwise handed down (including through oral history in your family) before the year 2000. You must have tasted the dish in order to complete the assignment. You will receive two bonus points if you make the dish and share a time-stamped selfie of you and the dish for the final assignment.
Skills
Conduct archival, or primary, research to find a recipe. Use a collection of cookbookswhether it be your own, your family’s, or the Internet Archive’sto find a recipe for a dish that you have had before.
Perform historical, or secondary research to understand a recipe’s rhetorical situation. Cite at least 1 source that can help answer 1 or more of the following questions: What were the circumstances of the recipe’s creation? What can the recipe tell us about the time period when it was written? This source need not be academic (i.e., peer-reviewed), but it should be credible (i.e., written by an expert).
Write a Rhetorical Analysis of a recipe’s author, audience, message, content, exigence, and context.
Final Product
To complete this project, your Rhetorical Analysis must contain the following components
An Introduction that describes the recipe you chose and why you chose it
In 1-2 paragraphs, introduce the recipe, the book in which it appears, and its author. Describe what drew you to the recipe and which aspects of ite.g., the fame of the dish, the contents of its ingredients, the author’s writing style, tone, or reputation, etc.led you to choose it for your analysis.
A Context section that provides historical background about the recipe you chose
In 1-2 paragraphs, provide your reader with historical information, gleaned from your secondary research, about the recipe. What were the circumstances of the recipe’s creation? What can the recipe tell us about the time period when it was written?
An Analysis section that interprets the recipe to explain its rhetorical situation.
In 1-2 paragraphs, analyze evidence from the recipe. Based on the organization of the book, what are the genre conventions for recipe writing at the time? Based on the way the recipe is written, who is the audience and what are their expectations for recipe writing at the time? Explain how the context, the author, their exigence, the audience, the content, and the message shape the recipe you chose. If you made the recipe, this is a great place to describe the experience of making and tasting the dish, as well as explaining what that experience can tell you about the tastes of the author and their audience.
A Conclusion section that explains why the recipe is important
In 1-2 paragraphs, evaluate what the recipe can tell its readers about the time period when it was written. Explain why that information is relevant to readers and eaters today. Finally, meditate on what your own readers should do with the information that your analysis has given them.
To Be Graded:
750 – 1000-word Rhetorical Analysis of a recipe published and / or handed down to you by oral tradition before the year 2000.
4 sections (Introduction, Context, Analysis, Conclusion)
4-8 paragraphs
Works Cited with a minimum of 2 sources (the recipe and an expert source)
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