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What is Rhetoric?

What is Rhetoric?. Rhetoric (n) - the art of speaking or writing effectively (Webster's Definition). According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion." He described three main forms of rhetoric: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos .

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What is Rhetoric?

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  1. What is Rhetoric? • Rhetoric (n) - the art of speaking or writing effectively (Webster's Definition). • According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion." He described three main forms of rhetoric: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. • In order to be a more effective writer, you must understand these three terms. You will better understand their meanings which will make your writing more persuasive.

  2. Three Forms of Rhetoric… • Ethos • Logos • Pathos

  3. Ethos (Credibility) • Ethos: the source's credibility, the speaker's/author's authority • We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

  4. Ethos Example: • Product: George Foreman and his Grilling Machine • Repertoire: Boxing Champ and a Preacher • Why is George Foreman credible?

  5. Logos (Logical) • Logos: the logic used to support a claim (induction and deduction); can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument. • Persuading by the use of reasoning. • An effective and persuasive reason that supports your ideas.

  6. Logos Example: • Idea: Students should be allowed to use cell phones during school hours. List three supporting facts and/or statistics that will support the aforementioned idea.

  7. Logos Example continued… Few of our children breath fresh air in their schools, which are being sprayed, inside and out, with millions of pounds of deadly, nervous system destroying pesticides. What are the details provided in this claim?

  8. Pathos (Emotional) • Pathos: persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. Emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument. • How? Anecdotal writing or narratives within persuasive writing

  9. Pathos Example: • How does this advertisement appeal to emotion? Why?

  10. TYPES OF Rhetorical Devices • Figures of Speech • Alliteration • Hyperbole • Irony • Personification

  11. ANTITHESIS • A figure of speech in which sharply contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in a balanced or parallel phrase or grammatical structure • “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” Act III Scene 2

  12. Antistrophe • Repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses. • "In 1931, ten years ago, Japan invaded Manchukuo -- without warning. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia -- without warning. In 1938, Hitler occupied Austria -- without warning. In 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia -- without warning. Later in 1939, Hitler invaded Poland -- without warning. And now Japan has attacked Malaya and Thailand -- and the United States --without warning." (President Franklin D. Roosevelt )

  13. APORIA • Expression of doubt (often feigned) by which a speaker appears uncertain as to what he should think, say, or do. • "Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do?"   (Bible: Luke 16)

  14. APOSTROPHE • A turn from the general audience to address a specific group or person or personified abstraction absent or present. • "For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him". (Mark Antony in Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare)

  15. conduplicatio • Repetition of a key word over successive phrases or clauses • “We have had difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future.”-Robert Kennedy’s Eulogy for Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)

  16. euphemism • Euphemism: substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant.

  17. paradox • An assertion seemingly opposed to common sense, but that may yet have some truth in it. • “What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." (George Bernard Shaw)

  18. synecdoche • A part of quality of something which is used in substitution of something larger, whole, or vice versa • Ex. The hospital worked hours to revive him. (referring to the doctors and the nurses inside the hospital) • Ex. She took us outside to look at her new set of wheels. (referring to her new car)

  19. Rhetorical question • A question that is posed for emphasis, not requiring an answer • “Art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth?” (Henry IV, Part 1)

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