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Persuasive and Rhetorical Terms

Persuasive and Rhetorical Terms . Allusion – Reference to something outside the discussion

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Persuasive and Rhetorical Terms

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  1. Persuasive and Rhetorical Terms

  2. Allusion – Reference to something outside the discussion • Example: “I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth.“ (Senator Barack Obama, speech at a fundraiser for Catholic charities, 10/16/08)

  3. Analogy – comparison of two things that have the same relationship • Example: Pupils are more like oysters than sausages. The job of teaching is not to stuff them and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence. (Sydney J. Harris, “What True Education Should Do”, 1964)

  4. Anecdote – A brief story (about a paragraph) that supports a writer’s point • Example: “I knew a Junior once who got so overwhelmed with all the testing that he actually quit school with two weeks left in the year. Quit just like that. After about a month he realized his mistake and re-enrolled. He graduated six months late, but at least he graduated.

  5. Call to action – suggesting that the audience perform a specific act in support of your claim • Example: “Let your congressmen and women know that we do not want to gamble with our energy future. Tell them, demand of them, that we instead focus our efforts on the development of safe, clean energy.”

  6. Cause and effect – looking at how one thing makes another thing happen • Example: “In recent decades, cities have grown so large that now about 50% of the Earth's population lives in urban areas. There are several reasons for this occurrence. First, the increasing industrialization of the nineteenth century resulted in the creation of many factory jobs, which tended to be located in cities. These jobs, with their promise of a better material life, attracted many people from rural areas…”

  7. Claim – State your position in your argument • Example: “Proposition 182 will hurt our economy and is unfair to people who have recently moved into the state."

  8. Classification – dividing the whole into parts, or sorting related items into categories • Example: "Americans can be divided into three groups--smokers, nonsmokers and that expanding pack of us who have quit. Those who have never smoked don't know what they're missing, but former smokers, ex-smokers, reformed smokers can never forget…”

  9. Comparison – discussing the similarities between two things • Example: “…Soccer is played by 11 players with a round ball. Football, also played by 11 players in somewhat different positions on the field, uses an elongated round ball…”

  10. Contrast – discussing the differences between two things • Example: “…Soccer has little body contact between players, and therefore requires no special protective equipment. Football, in which players make maximum use of body contact to block a running ball carrier and his teammates, requires special headgear and padding. In soccer, the ball is advanced toward the goal by kicking it or by butting it with the head. In football, on the other hand, the ball is passed from hand to hand across the opponent's goal…”

  11. Definition – providing the meaning of the terms you use, sometimes in detail • Example: Comic books are sequential and narrative publications consisting of illustrations, captions, dialogue balloons, and often focus on super-powered heroes.

  12. Description – reporting sensory details of a person, place, or thing • Example: “…it may be said, I am, in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes--no other marks or brands recollected.“ (Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Jesse W. Fell, 1859)

  13. Ethos – appeal to the character or reliability of the speaker or writer (ethical appeal or ethical argument) • Example: “We must also consider whether or not it is right for us to burden future generations with even an even greater nuclear threat than we face now.”

  14. Exemplification – the use of examples or cases in point to support your position • Example: “Many superstitions are so widespread and so old that they must have risen from a depth of the human mind that is indifferent to race or creed. Orthodox Jews place a charm on their door-posts; so do (or did) the Chinese. Some peoples of Middle Europe believe that when a man sneezes, his soul, for that moment, is absent from his body, and they hasten to bless him, lest the soul should be seized by the Devil…”

  15. Expert Opinion – a statement by a recognized or acceptable source of expertise on the issue in question • Example: “The tragic events now unfolding in Japan could very easily occur in the United States.” Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the House Committee overseeing nuclear power.”

  16. Kairos – appealing to one’s sense of opportunity – “The time is now” • Example: “It may by only a matter of time before we are faced with the same overwhelming problems we are watching unfold in Japan right now.”

  17. Logos – appeal to rational thinking, including the use of evidence (facts, statistics, information) • Example: “…These plants were constructed to withstand a quake with a magnitude of 7.5. However, Japan’s earthquake registered 8.9, which is over a hundred times more powerful than a 7.5…”

  18. Narration – recounting an event, as in a story • Example: “It was a hot sunny day, when I finally took my kids to the Disney Land. My son Matthew and my daughter Audra endlessly asked me to show them the dream land of many children with Mickey Mouse and Snow White walking by and arousing a huge portion of emotions. Somehow these fairy tale creatures can make children happy without such “small” presents as $100 Lego or a Barbie house in 6 rooms and garden furniture. Therefore, I thought that Disney Land was a good invention for loving parents.”

  19. Parallel structure – using similar patterns of words and/or sentences • Example: “To succeed you have to practice. Practice until you can’t practice anymore. Practice until you can do it without thinking, without doubting, without failing…”

  20. Pathos – appeal to emotion • Example: “"A brilliant young woman I know was asked once to support her argument in favor of social welfare. She named the most powerful source imaginable: the look in a mother's face when she cannot feed her children. Can you look that hungry child in the eyes? See the blood on his feet from working barefoot in the cotton fields. Or do you ask his baby sister with her belly swollen from hunger if she cares about her daddy's work ethics?“ (Nate Parker as Henry Lowe in The Great Debaters, 2007

  21. Process analysis – explaining how to do something, or how something happens • Example: “Writing the persuasive essay is a specific, learnable skill. You don’t have to be a magnificent writer to create a good piece of persuasive writing. First, you make sure your reader knows your position on an issue by giving your “position statement” early in the essay. Then, you acknowledge the opposing point of view…”

  22. Rhetorical questions – asking a question meant to make the reader think, or meant to guide their attention, rather than asking a question to which you actually expect an answer • Example: "The means are at hand to fulfill the age-old dream: poverty can be abolished. How long shall we ignore this under-developed nation in our midst? How long shall we look the other way while our fellow human beings suffer? How long“ (Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States, 1962

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