Rhetoric:
◻ Dates back to the Greeks, particularly Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)
◻ Addresses the relationship among audience, purpose, and speaker/writer
Rhetorical Triangle
Interaction among subject, speaker, and audience determines the structure and language of the
argument.
What Rhetoric is NOT.
◻ Rhetoric gets a bad rap in modern usage/connotation.
◻ It is not necessarily something that blocks or hides an essential truth; it is not a politician
full of hot air.
What Rhetoric IS
1. The specific features of texts that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and
effective for readers or listeners
Consisting of:
1. diction
2. syntax
3. figurative language
4. organization, structure, and style
Diction
Word Choice
• formal v. informal
• abstract v. concrete
• archaic v. modern
• “innocent” v. “loaded”
• denotation v. connotation
**Basically, the words you use to communicate
Syntax
• Sentence Structure and Patterns
✓ long v. short sentences
✓ periodic v. loose sentences
✓ active v. passive voice
✓ patterns of balance and repetition
What Rhetoric is 2
. The art of finding and analyzing all the choice involving language that a writer, speaker,
reader, or listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful,
and effective for readers or listeners
Persona-
• The speaker/writer adopts a persona
• literally a “mask”
• not a negative term
• the character he or she wants the audience to perceive
• the role he or she deems most effective for purpose and audience.
• Are you speaking as a poet, comedian, or scholar?
• Are you speaking as an expert on ice skating, popular music, or a
software program?
• Are you speaking as a literary critic in your English class or as a concerned
citizen in your local community?
Context-
• Writers always write in response to a rhetorical situation (time, place, circumstances;
context) that affects their decisions about what they say and how they say it.
Invention-
◼ How writers generate their ideas so that they are most effective for the audience
◼ Aristotle, in fact, defines rhetoric primarily as invention, "discovering the best
available means of persuasion."
Arrangement
❧ organization that will lead to an effective text
❧ Arrangement of a Classical Oration
o Introduction
o Statement of Facts
o Division
o Proof
o Refutation
o Conclusion
MEMORY
● in earlier eras, literally committing the text to memory
● now, how a writer taps into the “cultural memory” of their audience
● also, what devices will the writer use to help his/her audience remember the text and
its message.
Delivery
◼ how to get the text to the audience (Internet, newspaper, graphics, etc)
◼ how something is said or written
Appeals- Logos, Pathos and Ethos
❖ The writer uses appeals to support his/her meaning:
• Logos
• Pathos
• Ethos
_____
▪ names the appeal to reason.
▪ Aristotle wished that all communication could be transacted only through this
appeal, but given the weaknesses of humanity, he laments, we must resort to
the use of the other two appeals.
_____
▪ names the appeal to emotion.
▪ Cicero encouraged the use of pathos at the conclusion of an oration, but
emotional appeals are of course more widely viable.
_____
• names the persuasive appeal of one's character, especially how this character is
established by means of the speech or discourse.
• Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy.
• Aristotle claimed that one needs to appear both knowledgeable about one's subject
and benevolent.
• Cicero said that in classical oratory the initial portion of a speech (its exordium or
introduction) was the place to establish one's credibility with the audience.
• First impressions are important!
• A person’s reputation or background might provide them ethos. The writing itself
might provide ethos by being balanced, reasonable, sincere, knowledgeable, etc.
. Understanding Persona
The writer writes so that the audience perceives him or her as a distinct character
(usually one who is educated, considerate, trustworthy, and well-intentioned)
The reader makes inferences and judgments about the character and personality of
the writer, analyzing how he or she appeals to the audience
includes elements of tone, diction, image, creation of voice
2. Understanding appeals to an audience
▪ logos, ethos, pathos
Understanding subjects
• treating the subject matter fairly, fully and effectively
• offering other paths of interpretation, analysis or argument
• claim plus support
4. understanding context
• understanding the time, place, people, events, and motivating forces behind a piece and
how they impact the piece
5. Understanding intention
• what is the writer’s aim or purpose
6. Understanding genre
* what type of writing is most appropriate for a situation (formal letter or casual email;
poetry or prose; scientific data or personal anecdote)
