Notes on Rhetoric Flashcards
definition of RHETORIC (common and general)
- any available means of persuasion
- anything available that is used to get someone to think or act differently
definition of RHETORIC (class)
- the effectiveness of writing in achieving an agenda
- as in judging the tools and techniques used by the author to achieve their goal/target/agenda
steps in approaching this form of rhetoric:
1. Identify the author’s aim
2. Identify the tools and techniques to achieve this aim and if it does, what makes these tools and techniques successful in achieving the aim
What are the 3 important things you need before writing?
- SUBJECT: the starting point; the general topic you are writing about
- AUDIENCE: the demographic, specific part of the population, or who you are writing for
- AIM/PURPOSE: the goal, target, agenda or the very reason behind writing in the first place
What are the 5 rudimentary elements of a text?
- speaker
- context
- subject
- audience
- aim
What is the topmost, most important point of the rhetorical triangle? What Aristotelian appeal is associated with it. How and why?
- SPEAKER because they are the driving force behind the text as they dictate all of this
- ETHOS (ethics but really credibility)
- The speaker must establish their credibility for the audience to listen, trust, and believe in what they have to say. To establish credibility, the speaker must speak from experience (write what you know) or research on the topic (know what you write)
What is Context? What is context necessary for?
- The background or circumstances in which the author writes
- Context or background information is important for the SUBJECT because anything taken out of context will ruin the effectiveness
What is the subject? What is the Aristotelian appeal associated with it? What is the subject based/depended on?
- Subject is the general topic or what you are writing about
- LOGOS (reason and logic)
- The subject must appeal to logos, or it must be reasonable and logical to discuss with the audience in the context they are in
- considering audience and context
What is the audience? What Aristotelian appeal is associated with it? Why is this appeal associated with the audience? What other element depends on audience?
- the audience is the demographic or who you are writing for
- PATHOS (emotions)
- the text must appeal to pathos or evoke a certain emotion from its audience as emotions are the most immediate and can be easily used to mobilize the audience for the aim
- mood <—– tone <——diction
- aim depends on the audience; if there is a different audience, there is a different aim/purpose
What is aim? What drives towards aim?
Aim is the author’s goal, target, agenda, and the very reason why a piece of text is being written. All previous elements, especially audience, drives towards aim.
What are the 3 Aristotelian appeals? What are their definitions?
- LOGOS - reason and logic
- ETHOS - ethics or really credibility as in how an author makes the audience trust and believe in what they have to say
- PATHOS - emotions or the emotions being evoke from others
What are the 8 rhetorical modes? What does the 1 to 7 rhetorical modes focus on? What does the last rhetorical mode focus on?
- description – most basic
- narration – most innate
- division and classification
- causal analysis
- comparison and contrast
- process analysis
- definition
- argumentation/persuasion – fraternal twins of the modes
1-7 focuses on structure and forms of the essays or persuasive writings
8 focuses on the intent
what are rhetorical modes?
- Rhetorical modes are the types or forms of rhetoric, specifically persuasive writing
- rhetorical modes as forms of essays
What is argumentation/persuasion?
- considered to be the “fraternal twins of rhetorical modes”
- nuanced difference between argumentation and persuasion: the intent
- argumentation focuses on logic and REASON as in it uses, facts, statistics, and other concrete information
Ex: essays with two sides, one side is picked, argue for that one side with evidence - persuasion focuses on logic and PATHOS/EMOTIONS as it usually targets the most immediate of the audience, their emotions, in order to persuade them
Ex: can be essays but also narratives and short stories to get abstract emotions from the audience and persuade them
What is definition? How do you write an essay on definitions?
Focus on the 3 ways to define something:
1. lexical definition: taken from the dictionary or denotative meaning
2. etymology: the origins and roots of the word
3. contrast: when a person does not know the lexical definition of the word, say that it is the opposite of another particular word
–example: defining through examples
The definition provides structure to essays written about it:
- lexical definition of the word then provide examples
- the etymology of the word then provides examples
- both lexical definition and the etymology then provides examples
What is process analysis?
- analyzing how something is done or analyzing the different processes and methods on how something is done
- determining which process and method is the best
- one single outcome has different ways to get there
- determining which way is the best and most efficient to get to the outcome
in short, analyzing the processes in order to determine the best process
