Transcript Rhetorical Strategies

 The
art of persuasion
• It’s a science!
1.
2.
Rhetorical Appeals (big picture)
Rhetorical Devices (small picture)
 Rhetorical
Appeal: Three major elements
of persuasion (Aristotle):
• Ethos
• Pathos
• Logos
 Use
of all three makes the best argument
ETHOS
• Persuasion based on
the author’s credibility
• We tend to believe
those we trust
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Education
Expertise
Reputation
Good will
LOGOS

Persuasion based on
LOGIC
• Reasoning
• Facts
• Statistics
• Numbers/Data
PATHOS

Persuasion based on
emotion
• Stories
• Word Choice
• Strong images
• Audience’s values/needs
 Label: Rhetorical
 What
are the three rhetorical appeals?
 Define
 Give
Appeals Note Check
each appeal.
your own example for each appeal.
 Language
techniques used to emphasize
a message and persuade the audience
• Figures of Speech
• Repetition
• Syntax
• Sound
 Figures
of Speech
• Epic/Extended Simile
 Comparing two things with ‘like’ or ‘as’ for several
lines
 E.g. Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war.
• Metaphor
 A direct comparison of two unlike things
 E.g. “All the world’s a stage”—Shakespeare
 Figures of Speech (Last Slide)
• Allusion
 Reference to something (literature, location, myth, art,
etc) either directly or by implication
 E.g. “Don’t bite the apple, Eve, caught up in the
crowd…” –Jay Z, Empire State of Mind
• Imagery
 Visually descriptive language
 “He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck,
although he did have a very large mustache.”—
description of Vernon Dursley, Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone
 Syntax
(Sentence structure)
• Parallel Structure
 A balance of two or more similar words, phrases or
clauses.
 “With this faith we will be able to work together, to
pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing
that we will be free one day” –Martin Luther King Jr, “I
Have a Dream”
 Syntax
(Continued)
• Rhetorical Question
 A question posed for persuasive effect without the
expectation of a reply
 “How many roads must a man walk down before you
can call him a man?”—Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the
Wind”
 Repetition
• Anaphora
 Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of
successive clauses
 “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not
free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is
still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation
and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in
the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One
hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in
the corners of American society and finds himself an
exile in his own land.” –MLK, Jr “I Have a Dream”
 Repetition
• Polysyndeton
 Use of coordinating conjunctions in rapid succession
 “And every living substance was destroyed which
was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle,
and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven;
and they were destroyed from the earth:
and Noah only remained alive, and they that were
with him in the ark.” Genesis 7:22-24
• Restatement:
 Expressing the same idea in different words
 “Dear Darla, I hate your stinking guts. You make me vomit.
You're scum between my toes! Love, Alfalfa.”—The Little
Rascals
 Sound
• Homonyms
 Use of words that sound alike but have different
meanings.
 “Children need your presence more than your
presents.” --Jesse Jackson
• Alliteration
 The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the
beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
 Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Clark Kent, Scott Summers: all
names of famous superheroes’ alter egos
 This
is not an exhaustive list!
• Antimetabole (Ask not…)
• Litotes
• Antanaclasis (You’ll be fired…)
• Aposiopesis
• The list goes on…