Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion

1. Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion English 10/10h

2. Review: Persuasion Techniques • Logos: Usinglogic and facts to persuade • Mom, I get $5 a week for an allowance. That is enough to buy the dog food for a puppy. • Pathos: Using emotion ( passion) to persuade • Mom, our lives are so empty. A puppy would make us happy. • Ethos: Using morals ( ethics)or credibility to persuade. It’s the right thing to do • Mom, psychologist say it is important for a child to have a pet.

3. Argument vs. Persuasion • Argumentation: Using facts ( logos) to prove your point. Think Lawyer in a court room. • Persuasion: This is using emotion ( pathos) and appeal to ethics ( ethos) to motivate the person to take your side or action. • Argument is what you’re saying, persuasion is how you are saying it. • Combining the two is how you win.

4. Rhetorical Devices: How you say it • Using language to influence the audience

5. Repetition

6. Lists of 3 • Definition • Three nouns, adjectives or verbs will be used in a list within a sentence • Effects • The ‘magic 3’ fixes itself in the reader’s mind • Highlights important ideas • Example • School uniform, is uncomfortable, unattractive and unfashionable

7. Repetition • Definition • The technique of repeating the same word and phrase • Effects • Highlights key messages • Reinforces important points • Links different parts of the text • Example • Boring, boring, boring.

8. Anaphora • Repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive phrases. • Effect: • Connect ideas • Reinforce ideas • Fix the point in the readers mind • Examples: • Slowly they advanced, not knowing what lay ahead, not knowing what they would find at the top of the hill, not knowing that they were so near to Disneyland. • In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth.

9. Antithesis • Opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction. • Effect: • Showing the opposite stresses the importance of the point being made. • Example: • "Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more". (Brutus in:  " Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare)

10. Alliteration • Definition: Within a sentence, a series of words will begin with the same sound • Effects • Draws attention to the key words • Can be used to reinforce ideas / concepts • May be used for humorous effect • Example • Politics is probably pointless

11. Motif • Reoccurring device/element in the text • Effect: helps to prove the main idea/theme of the text. • Example: • Suicide in Antigone • Sight/Seeing in Antigone

12. Parallel structure • Repetition of the grammatical structure of the sentence • Effect: • to add balance, rhythm and clarity to the sentence. • Fix the idea in the audience’s mind • Example: • This wealthy car collector owns three pastel Cadillacs, two gold Rolls Royces, and ten assorted Mercedes. • (adjective, adjective, noun) • I have always sought but seldom obtained a parking space near the door. • (adverb verb)

13. Comparisons

14. Metaphor • Comparing two things by saying one thing is another. • Effects • Makes the writing more interesting and imaginative for the read • Explain the meaning or purpose of the items • Example: • The fountain of knowledge will dry up unless it is continuously replenished by streams of new learning. • Comparing a fountain to knowledge and water to new information • I wonder when motor mouth is going to run out of gas. • Comparing someone who talks a lot to a motor.

15. Analogy • Comparing two idea that are similar in several ways • Effect: for the purpose of using one idea to clarify the other idea. • Examples: • For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it. –Aristotle • ( if you don’t know there is a knot, you can’t untie it. If you don’t know there is a problem, you can’t fix it. ) • Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself. --Samuel Johnson • ( fire needs help getting started, but then will grow on its own, knowledge will do the same thing).

16. Euphemism • substitution of an agreeable or at least non-offensive expression for one whose plainer meaning might be harsh or unpleasant. • Effect: • Not to offend an audience • Examples:   Euphemisms for " stupid" A few fries short of a Happy Meal. Not the sharpest pencil in the box One Fruit Loop shy of a full bowl. • “Doing it” to replace graphic terms for sexual activity • “Passed on” to say someone died

17. Hyperbole • Extreme exaggeration. • Effects • Shows the writer’s strong feelings • Can be used in humorous or ironic way • Must be used sparingly, of the effect is lost. • There are a thousand reasons why more research is needed on solar energy. • ( 1000 is A LOT!) • This stuff is used motor oil compared to the coffee you make. • ( that’s really bad coffee if it looks and tastes like motor oil)

18. Understatement • Expression of less strength than what would be expected • Effect: often used for humor. • Vegas is a bit warm in the summer time. • ( It’s a 115 in the summer, so to call it a bit warm is an understatement) • Monty Python and the Holy Grail: the knight gets his arm cut off and says, “It’s only a flesh wound”.

19. Metonymy • thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept • Effect: To show intimacy/ closeness, inside connection. • “Hollywood” is used to describe the American Movie industry because many movies are made in Hollywood CA. • Washington is trying to fix the economy. ( the government)

20. Allusion • Reference to something historical, biblical or literary (also pop culture), • Effect: that helps to clarify the point being made. Shows higher level of intellect. • Plan ahead: it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. • No matter how hard my mom tries, she’s no June Cleaver. • He draws well, but he’s no Leonard Di Vinci.

21. Opposites

22. Oxymoron • Figure of speech that has two normally contradictory terms • Effect: Draw attention to point being made and often to add humor. • Ground pilot • Living dead • Original copy • Dirty soap • Jumbo shrimp • Seriously funny

23. Paradox • A statement that appears to contradict itself. • Effect: To cause the audience to think deeply about the point being made. • “The more I learn the less I know.” –Socrates • Epimenides was a Cretan who made one immortal statement: "All Cretans are liars." • “What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." (George Bernard Shaw)

24. Verbal Irony • Verbal irony: You say one thing, but you mean something else; sarcasm. • Effects • Creates humour • Can over-exaggerate a situation • Engages the reader on a personal level • Example • “What a lovely day” when it is pouring with rain • Yelling “I’m not upset” • A teenager saying “ yeah, I can’t wait to spend 7 hrs in the car with grandma”.

25. TONE ( word choice and sentence structure)

26. Emotive language/ Connotation • Words that have an emotional charge to them. The purpose is to stir up emotion in the audience. • Effects • Can create strong feelings such as anger, guilt, joy, concern, empathy, hope etc • Involves the reader in the text • Hundreds of people were slaughter during the riot. • ( killed or died doesn’t stir up as much emotion as the word ‘slaughtered’) • Real Estate prices plummet throughout the country. • ( home prices dropped, but ‘plummet’ makes it sound like they dropped quickly, dangerously)

27. imagery • Using sensory words to create a picture in the audiences mind to help create the author’s argument. • Effects • Makes the writing more interesting and imaginative for the read • If you don’t donate money, 100s of poor hungry children, with bloated bellies and flies buzzing around their head, will die. • The smell of rotting bodies lingers in the air months after the hurricane. The clean up effort is far from over.

28. Assonance • Repetition of the vowel sound in in the words to give the line rhythm. • Effect: • Create Tone • And the moon rose over an open field “America” –Paul Simon • "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.“ (The Lord's Prayer)

29. Consonance • repetition of the same consonant two or more times in a phrase/line/sentence • Effect: • Create Tone • Pitter Patter of little feet. • “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” – “The Raven” -Poe

30. Syntax (H) • The way that words are combined in the sentence, using phrases, clauses, and grammatical rules. • Effect: add varitey, add description, add suspense, create a tone. • Compound sentences • Simple sentences • Active voice • Passive voice

31. Rhetorical question • Definition • The writer will not expect you to answer this question – they suggest the answer for you • Effects • Draws the reader into the text • Introduces ideas / topics • Makes the reader think • Example: The teacher asks the disobedient student, “Are you done?” • She doesn’t expect the student to answer, she says it to show she is unhappy with the student’s behavior?

32. Personal involvement / anecdote • Definition • The writer incorporates aspects of their personal experience into the text – look for ‘I’ • Effects • Appeals to the reader – makes the writer seem more human or involved • Can be used for humour / pathos • Example • I was shocked to find that many children don’t know the National Anthem!

33. Combining techniques • Remember that writers will often combine several rhetorical devices within a section of text • Each part adds to the over all affect of the passage.

34. Important advice • Use your reading time efficiently. If you know you have to write about the language in one of the texts, highlight key examples as you read it • You do not have to write about every device – it is better to evaluate three or four good examples than to simply ‘spot’ lots of them • Don’t forget to include these devices in your own writing in Section B!

35. A useful framework for Rhetorical analysis Question: How effective is the writer’s use of language in ______ ( what ever the point of the text)? Process: • What is the over all message and purpose of the text? • How does this device support that purpose? • Sentence stems: • He uses_________ ( device) when he says “____” ( the quote”. • The effect of this is… ( what is the author trying to say with this device) • This supports the writers purpose because… ( how does this 1 device support the overall purpose of the text.

36. Review

37. Anaphora • What does it mean? • What is the anaphora in this example? • Will he read the book? Will he learn what it has to teach him? Will he live according to what he has learned?

38. Alliteration • What does it mean? • What is the alliteration in the following example? • Can we call in the Calvary?

39. Parallel structure • What is it? • What is the parallel structure in the example below? • He liked to eat watermelon and to avoid grapefruit. • Grammatical structure?

40. Metaphor • What is it? • Explain this metaphor? • You are my sunshine.

41. Analogy • What is it? • How is the following an analogy? • An atom is like the solar system. The nucleus is the center of the atom and the electrons revolve around it, just as the center of the solar system is the sun and the planets revolve around it.

42. Hyperbola • What is it? • What is the hyperbola below? • I am so hot, it must be a million degrees in here. Would you please turn on the air conditioner?

43. Allusion • What is it? • What are the allusion in the following 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 fund-raiser for Catholic charities, October 16, 2008

44. Rhetorical question • What is it? • What is the Rhetorical question in the following example? • Is this the end to which we are reduced? Is the disaster film the highest form of art we can expect from our era? Perhaps we should examine the alternatives presented by independent film maker Joe Blow . .

45. Emotive language • What is it? • What language is emotive in the following example? • Legacy crushed Mojave in last nights football game.