The capability of root in increasing the shear strength of soil mass has been investigated and verified in the previous studies. The slope stability was enhanced due to the root system permeated through the shear zone and deeply anchored into the potential slip plane. Based on the soil/root mechanical model of Waldron (1981), a cable-shaped deformation model is proposed to evaluating the increment of shear strength of soil/root system resulted from the reinforcement of roots. The proposed analytical model is eventually verified by comparing the analytical prediction with the experimental measurement from Waldron. From the computation results, it was observed the analytical predictions are reasonably coincident with those from the experimental measurement. For the case of shear zone with thin thickness, both straight-line and cable-shaped models exhibit minor influence on the reinforcement of shear strength. For the root system of herbaceous plant, the proposed model is capable of capturing the realistic deformation mode of soil/root system as the shear displacement is continuously proceeds to a value of high level.