AP LANGUAGE ESSAYS

AP LANGUAGE ESSAYS RHETORIC ANALYSIS --------------- Analyze the way a piece of writing is written ARGUMENT ANALYSIS ---------------- Analyze whether or not you agree with a concept or belief. SYNTHESIS ANALYSIS --------------- Analyze several sources about a topic and choose a position and argue it.

What is rhetoric?Rhetoric is the art of language • The art of analyzing all the language choices that writer, speaker, reader, or listener might make in a given situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective. • The specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a given situation.

RW Activity #1 8/15/11 • What comes to your mind about the excerpt as it relates to rhetoric “An eight-year-old boy had a younger sister who was dying of leukemia, and he was told that without a blood transfusion she would die. His parents explained to him that his blood was probably compatible with hers, and if so, he could be the blood donor. They asked if he would give his sister a pint of blood, that it could be her only chance of living. He said he would have to think about it overnight. The next day he went to his parents and said he was willing to donate the blood. So they took him to the hospital where he was put on the gurney beside his six-year-old sister. Both of them were hooked up to IV’s. A nurse withdrew a pint of blood from the boy, which was then put in the girl’s IV. The boy lay on his gurney in silence while the blood dripped into his sister, until the doctor came over to see how he was doing. Then the boy opened his eyes and asked, “How soon until I start to die?”

To“TAG” “TAG” it! When referencing a reading of any kind in your writing, please “TAG” it. Title Author Genre – The memoir, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

“CEL” it! CLAIM (STATEMENT) or (say) • The claim is the position you are taking in your writing. EVIDENCE (Quote) or (mean) • Evidence is the proof that supports your claim LINK (Commentary) or (matter) • The link explains how or why the evidence supports the claim. Most important

CEL paragraph practice for the Rhetoric essay • What is meaningful or purposeful about they way the excerpt is written? (CLAIM) • EVIDENCE (Quote) • LINK (how or why does the evidence supports the claim.)

RHETORICAL FORMULA • Author + adjective + rhetorical device + verbto describe device + purpose or effect. (CLAIM)

Rhetorical Formula + CEL P • CLAIM (TOPIC SENTENCE): Rhetorical formula: author + adjective + device + verb to describe device + purpose/effect. • EVIDENCE: a quote from the essay which shows the use of this device. • LINK/COMMENTARY: how or why does the evidence supports the claim. Specifically, what is the purpose and effect.

AGENDA 8- 8 -12 TODAY’S MATERIALS: A pen/pencil and highlighter • Introduction to Rhetorical Devices • Flashcards: Rhetorical devices • Book distribution DO NOW: Please hand in your 3 CEL paragraphs of Bird by Bird, And write down your homework Objective: Understand a number of rhetorical devices and practice identifying them Homework: Create Flashcards for Rhetorical Devices: Front side: Device Back Side: definition, memory technique, example(s)

Aristotle’s elements of persuasion • ETHOS • LOGOS • PATHOS

Logos Reason- logos – the logic of the argument An argument that appeals to mostly reason and intellect. Argument deals with issues that are debatable with opposing views. EX: percentages, facts, research states, evidence which proves claim

Logos examples -Inductive reasoning -Allude to history, religious texts, great literature or mythology -Use deductive reasoning -Cite commonly held beliefs -Provide testimony -Draw analogies -Order chronologically -Provide evidence -Cite authorities -Quote research -Use facts -Theorize about cause and effect Create syllogism -Cite traditional culture

Ethos Ethics- ethos- credibility Cultivate a sincere, honest tone that will establish your reputation as a reliable, qualified, experience, well-informed, and knowledgeable person whose arguments are ethically sound. EX: The more believable we are as human beings or experienced, the better chance we will have of convincing readers.

Ethos examples -Make the audience believe the audience that the writer is trustworthy. -Demonstrate that the writer put in research time -Support reasons with appropriate, logical evidence -Convince the audience that the writer is reliable and knowledgeable -Present a carefully crafted and edited argument -Demonstrate that the writer knows the audience and respects them -Show concern about communicating with the audience

Pathos Emotion- pathos- the emotion of an argument Attempt to arouse reader’s feelings, instincts, senses and biases. EX: engages the emotion of the audience– use figurative language.

Pathos examples • Use language that involves the senses • Include a bias or prejudice • Include an anecdote • Include connotative language -Explore euphemisms -Use description -Develop tone -Experiment with informal language

Litotes • What are litotes? (lie – tuh– tease) Similar to an understatement – uses a word that is the opposite to the condition, often (but not always) by using a “double negative” – the construction of the sentence is where the litotes effect takes place. PURPOSE: (When are Litotes used?) Litotes are used for emphasis, usually along side an understatement. Litotes are also used to weaken a claim For example: “a cup of coffee would not be unwelcome.”

Hypophora • What is Hypophora? A technique in which you ask a question and then proceed to answer it. PURPOSE: Reasons why it is used? • Guide your readers • Anticipate questions • Introduce information For example: “How do we know this to be true? We have observed it in the lab”

Procatalepsis • What is a Procatalepsis? An objection – think counter argument. How can it be used? Counter the initial objection Create the objections to set yourself up for argument? Create an objector and objection – but make it believable. PURPOSE: powerful argumentative writing technique. For Example: “There are some who say…well they are wrong…”

Eponym What is an eponym? • Similar to an allusion it references someone (usually historical) – however it is usually someone real, someone famous and your linking their attributes to someone else’s. For example: “A modern day Shakespeare, he wooed the ladies with his poetry.”

Sententia • What is a sententia? A quotation, a wise saying, an idiom – which usually doesn’t quote a single source. • To be successful, a sententia must be familiar and witty. For example: “We would do well to remember, that ‘all if fair in love and war.’” Possible synonyms: Aphorism or maxim

Parallelism/Chiasmus What is parallelism? • Uses the same general structure in writing for balance and cohesion. • Matching syntax • Matching tone & feeling of clauses For example: He smiled happily and laughed joyfully. What is Chiasmus? • Form of parallelism that FLIPS the original form around For example: He smiled happily and joyfully laughed.

Anadiplosis/Conduplicatio #14/15 • What are Anadiplosis’ and Conduplicatio’s? Two forms of repetition that can help add structure to your essays – the repeated word takes on power and force, if used well. • What are the purposes? What are the effects? When done well this form can create a beautiful sound and can be used as an effective focus on a word. • The difference between Anadiplosis and Conduplicatio is… Anadiplosis takes the last word of a sentence and repeats it near the beginning of the next sentence or phrase. For example: “In education we find the measure of our own ignorance; in ignorance we find the beginning of wisdom.” Conduplicatiotakes an important word from anywhere in one sentence or phrase and repeats it at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase. For example: “This law destroys the fruits of thirty years of struggle, bringing us back to a less enlightened time. Law should be evolutionary…”

Parenthesis • Parenthesis is a device that is used to insert an aside or additional information into the main flow of your writing. It comes in various forms: actual (parenthesis) commas, or even – dashes- EXAMPLE: “The governor - the fool that he is- vetoed the bill…” “On Christmas Day, 1492, the ship,70 feet long, ran aground on the coast of Haiti.” {in this form they are often called appositives as well.}

Apostrophe • Apostrophe is a rhetorical device in which the writer breaks out of the flow of the writing to directly address a person or personified object. Purpose: a forceful emotional device which evokes that the writer has become so caught up in what he or she is writing that it is no longer possible to respect the bounds of the narrative. EXAMPLE: “So the sun set over Paris- Paris, my first love sultry and secretive, beguiling and shy, how I wanted to hold you forever as the sun went down that summer day.”

Asyndeton • Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases or clauses. "He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac." (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957)

Polysyndeton The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions. EX: The runner passed the ten-mile mark and the fifteen and twenty, and the finish line loomed in front of him

Epistrophe/Symploce EPISTROPHE: (similar to anaphora) A device in which the same word or phrase is repeated at the end of multiple clauses or sentences. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” SYMPLOCE: combines BOTH epistrophe & symploce. “We enjoy life when we know ourselves to be free of temptation and sin, but we enjoy life also when we give ourselves completely to temptation and sin.” Parallelism

Synecdoche/Metonymy • VERY similar devices and think if them as different versions of the same form. Synecdoche is the use of part of something to represent a whole (as opposed to a single feature). “When a beautician opened her own shop, she took twenty heads with her from the shop where she used to work.” Metonymy uses a single feature, as an object, representing the whole. “The Throne has issued an order that the troops wil be paid by Thursday.”

AGENDA 8- 9 -12 TODAY’S MATERIALS: A pen/pencil, highlighter, Flashcards • Rhetorical devices activity • Rhetorical Devices cont’d • Analyze rhetoric used in advertisements DO NOW: Please place your FLASHCARDS on your desk and write down your homework. Objective: Understand a number of rhetorical devices and practice identifying them and analyzing them Homework: 1. Write a 5 paragraph essay analyzing The Dodge Durango Ad. 2. Bring lyrics to your favorite song.

DO NOW: Identify the following rhetorical devices. • I have journeyed in the lands of the spirit, drunk from the fountains of wisdom, rested beneath the trees of eternity, and, to the land of my birth, I have returned. • “Do we then submit to our oppressor? No. No. A thousand times, no.” • “It’s not the smartest idea I’ve ever heard.” *If you feel one of these to be a helpful example add it to your FLASHCARD.

Hyperbole • What is hyperbole? • An exaggeration of part of your sentence in order to give emphasis or focus. Purpose of hyperbole: • To make a point strongly. • To snap your reader to attention • To make a comparison For example: “At these words, the students became so silent you could hear a beating heart from across the room”

Understatement What is an understatement? • Almost the opposite of a hyperbole, an understatement describes something through a statement that is less than what is expected. PURPOSE: (How are three ways you can use an understatement?) • To demonstrates the power of an event – prompting the readers to think how much more could be said. • To lull a reader into a sense of calm – before revealing the true extent. • To be humorous, by contrasting with reality you may be discussing the absurdity of the comparison. For example: “The Middle East is currently having some squabbles”

Antithesis • What is an antithesis? Makes a contrast in language How are the three ways antithesis’s be built? • Keep structure - use opposing words. • Change entire clauses to contrast with one another • Whole sentences opposing one another, by just changing one word. PURPOSE: emphasizing something through contrast For example: “Life can be kind and cruel, full of hope and heartache.”

Rhetorical Question • What is a rhetorical question? A question whose answer is implied, so no answer is needed. PURPOSE: To get the audience to think reflect about the message For example: “How can we expect a man to give more than we ourselves are willing to give?”

Allusion • What is an allusion? • Reference to a well-known place, person, event. Ex: novels, authors, characters in novels or movies, etc.. • It is a comparison – a shortcut – to explain something to your reader For example: “As…

Analogy, Metaphor, Simile • What is an analogy? What is the difference between analogies and similes‘ and metaphors? • An analogy makes a comparison using a simpler concept to explain a more complex concept. It may also be used to further elaborate on a point. • Similes and metaphors are used to compare things for stylistic reasons, analogies are used to compare for more pragmatic (realistic) reasons. • Similes compare things using the words like or as or soto things that are somewhat related. • Metaphors are used to state one thing that is actually another thing by using a form of the verb. Metaphors speak of things as though it is already the other.

Identify each example as either a metaphor, simile or analogy • “Depression is a bottomless cup that can hold no liquid.” • The night is gentle and quiet; so, too, is my love for her.” • “The desire for wealth, when unchecked, can lead only to great evil. For though a man may begin with but a sip of wine, without restraint, the urge will grow until one day he is drunkard, blinded to all but his need, taking whatever steps are needed to find his fix.”

Zeugma • A device in which unexpected items in a sentence are linked together by a shared word (subjects linked together by verbs, pronouns, by nouns, direct objects by verbs, adjectival phrases by verbs.) • MOST COMMON: eliminating the common verb. For example: CHANGE “The runner lost the race. The school then cancelled his scholarship.” TO “The runner lost the race and his scholarship.” OR “The man ran a hundred mile, but out of time.” OR “The teenage sweethearts, the elderly couple, and the flickering candles all danced late into the night.”

Anaphora • The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck…; a time to kill, and a time to heal…”

SATIRE ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something but actually argues against it. (it’s usually more subtle than parody.) EG: The Daily Show, SNL Satire is usually used to elicit some kind of social change by illuminating the flaws in the argument

SATIRE

Antecedent • The noun to which a late pronoun refers. EX: "A good essay must have this permanent quality about it; it must draw its curtain round us, but it must be a curtain that shuts us in not out."

Antimetabole • The repetition of words in an inverted order to sharpen a contrast. EX: "I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better." (A. J. Liebling) EX: "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us." (Malcolm X)

Aphorism • A short, astute statement of a general truth, EX: • "If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” • "The first rule of Fight Club is--you do not talk about Fight Club." (Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Fight Club)

Appositive • A word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun. • Mrs. Prinn, the AP Language teacher, encourages us to use the rhetorical formula.

Colloquialism • An informal or conversational use of language. Slang. EX: She was recently dumped by her fiance.

Cumulative sentence An independent clause followed by subordinate (dependent) clauses or phrases that supply additional detail. EX: I write this at a wide desk in a pine shed as I always do these recent years, in this life I pray will last, while the summer sun closes the sky to Orion and to all the other winter stars over my roof.

Periodic Sentence Periodic Sentence: A sentence in which the main clause or its predicate (main verb) is withheld until the end. EX: Despite heavy winds and nearly impenetrable ground fog, the planelanded safely

OUTLINE for Dodge Durango Analysis Intro: TAG it and summarize the message of the advertisement (thesis) and identify the (3) devices used. • CEL P #1 w/ rhetorical formula - Device #1 (Don’t forget to prove purpose and effect in your LINK!) • CEL P #2 w/ rhetorical formula - Device #2 (Don’t forget to prove purpose and effect in your LINK!) • CEL P #3 w/ rhetorical formula - Device #3 (Don’t forget to prove purpose and effect in your LINK!) Conclusion: Restate thesis.

AP LANGUAGE ESSAYS