Rhetorical Terms Chapter 1 Flashcards
(21 cards)
Audience
Listener , viewer or reader of a text. Most texts have multiple audiences
Concession
An acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable.
Connotation
Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation.
Context
The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.
Counterargument
An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward.
Ethos
Greek for “character” speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trust worthy to speak on a given topic.
Logos
Greek for “embodied thought”. Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.
Occasion
The time and place a speech is given or a piece is written.
Pathos
Greek for “suffering” or “experience”, speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audiences values , desires, and hope, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.
Persona
Greek for “mask”. The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.
Polemic
Greek for “hostile”. An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others.
Propaganda
The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, propaganda is the use of rumors and lies.
Purpose
The goal the speaker wants to achieve
Refutation
A denial of the validity of an opposing argument
Rhetoric
As Aristotle defined the term, “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”
Rhetorical appeals
Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. (Ethos, logos, pathos)
Rhetorical triangle
A diagram that illustrates the interrelationships among the speaker audience and subject
SOAPS
A mnemonic device that stands for subject, occasion, audience, purpose and speaker. Handy way to remember the various elements that make up rhetorical situation.
Speaker
The person or group that creates a text
Subject
The topic of text, what the text is about
Text
This term generally means written word, or any cultural product that can be read
