The Rhetorical
Triangle
AP English Language & Composition
What is Rhetoric?
• What is said (message)
• Who is saying it (speaker)
• Who is listening (audience)
• Where / when it is being said (context, appeals)
• Why it is being said (purpose)
• How it is being said (tone, style)
What is the Rhetorical Triangle?
• Shows the relationship between
speaker, audience, message, style,
purpose, tone
• Understanding these rhetorical
elements makes both writing and
analysis much clearer
The Rhetorical Triangle
Message
Style
Tone
Speaker
Purpose
Audience
The Author / Speaker
• Gender / racial / geographical/
socioeconomic/ political orientation of
author
• Author Bias / hidden agenda
• Other important biographical information
may affect text
The Audience
• Are they friend or foe? (hostile or sympathetic)
• How will they receive the message?
• How will they affect tone? style?
• Who is the intentional audience?
• Who is the unintentional audience?
• Over time, does the message/effect of the
message change as the audience changes?
The Message
• What is the main point being made? In
other words, what is the writer’s /
speaker’s thesis?
• Look at the message as an argument /
position being sold to the audience. What
is the author trying to convince the
audience of?
The Message
• Consider this when trying to identify the exact
message:
• What is the topic (1-2 words) about which the piece is
written?
• What is the most important aspect or perspective
about that topic that the author wants you to
understand?
• What, exactly, does the author want the reader to
think/do/feel/say?
• What is the “no” on the other side of the author’s
“yes?” (And vice versa)
The Message
Read the excerpt from The Grapes of Wrath. What,
exactly, do you think best restates Steinbeck’s thesis?
Which quotes from the text best reveal that thesis, that
purpose?
“You gonna see in people’s face how they hate you. An’I’ll tell you somepin. They hate you ‘cause they’re scairt.
They know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got
to take it. They know that fallow lan’s a sin an’
somebody’ gonna take it. What the he**! You never
been called ‘Okie’ yet.”
“Well, Okie use’ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it
means you’re a dirty *****. Okie means you’re scum.
Don’t mean nothing itself, it’s the way they say it. But I
can’t tell you nothin’. You got to go there. I hear there’s
three hunderd thousan’ of our people there-an livin’ like
hogs,’cause ever’thing in California is owned. They ain’t
nothin’ left. An’ them people that owns it is gonna hang on
to it if they got ta kill every’body in the worl’ to do it. An’
they’re scairt, an’ that makes ‘em mad” (280).
The Tone
• What is the author’s attitude about his / her
subject / message?
• What words in the message let you know the
tone?
• How does the selection of the tone affect the
audience’s reception of the message? Is it
appropriate for the occasion/subject matter?
The Tone
Very often, tone words will vary in meaning
only in the degree of intensity, in the
“positiveness” or “negativeness.”Take a
look at the TONE words on the following
slide. Can you categorize these words into
groups (positive/ negative, specific degrees
of emotion)?
The Tone
Read the excerpt again. Which of the
words capture Steinbeck’s tone?
The Tone
“You gonna see in people’s face how they hate you. An’-I’ll
tell you somepin. They hate you ‘cause they’re scairt. They
know a hungry fella gonna get food even if he got to take it.
They know that fallow lan’s a sin an’ somebody’ gonna
take it. What the he**! You never been called ‘Okie’ yet.”
“Well, Okie use’ta mean you was from Oklahoma. Now it
means you’re a dirty *****. Okie means you’re scum.
Don’t mean nothing itself, it’s the way they say it. But I
can’t tell you nothin’. You got to go there. I hear there’s
three hunderd thousan’ of our people there-an livin’ like
hogs,’cause ever’thing in California is owned. They ain’t
nothin’ left. An’ them people that owns it is gonna hang on
to it if they got ta kill every’body in the worl’ to do it. An’
they’re scairt, an’ that makes ‘em mad” (280).
The Style
• What strategies does the author employ in
order to get his / her message across?
• These strategies may include:
organization; diction (word choice); syntax;
figurative language; grammatical
structure; selection of details; imagery,
etc.
The Rhetorical Purpose
• Under what circumstances is the author
addressing his/her audience?
• In other words, what is going on in the world at
the time this text was composed, and how do
those events affect the text?
The Rhetorical Purpose
There are four main “purposes” for
argumentation:
• To Assert
• To Inquire
• To Dominate
• To Negotiate/Reconcile
The Rhetorical Purpose
Arguments to Assert:
“Traditionally, argument has been understood
as a formal attempt to state a position on an
issue (your thesis), offer acceptable reasons for
that position, provide evidence in support of
those reasons, and anticipate objections. Indeed,
to write an effective argument of any kind
requires you make a clear assertion and support
it adequately…” (IA, pp. 11-12)
The Rhetorical Purpose
Arguments to Inquire:
• Inquiry is the nature of almost all academic writing
– i.e., “I’m interested in this…I will research the
available data on the subject and then write…”
• Inquiry is “arguing to learn and understand” (IA,
pg13)
• “These arguments, then, are exploratory in two
ways; (a) they encourage the writer to explore a
topic in order to arrive at a reasonable position; and
(b) they invite writers to engage in exploring that
topic as well” (IA, pg.16)
The Rhetorical Purpose
Arguments to Dominate (Aristotelian):
• Arguments that dominate are used in “win-lose”
situations and are particularly applicable in situations
involving the law.
• “Being able to recognize the complexity
of…situations will help you identify argument to
dominate is that you can make informed decisions
about them.” (IA, 17-18)
• “Examples provided in your text note that
sometimes truth is not what is emphasized as much
as what is morally or ethically relevant.
The Rhetorical Purpose
Arguments to Negotiate/Reconcile (Rogerian):
• These arguments negotiate differences and lead to
compromise.
• “Writer practicing Rogerian argument (from Carl
Rogers) negotiate differences by “restat[ing] what
others have said before offering their own views”
(IA,19).
• This style of argumentation “rests on the assumption
that language can be completely neutral—an idea that
has been seriously questioned by modern linguists and
philosophers” (IA,19).
Final Questions:
• Is language ever neutral?
• Is listening to the other side of an issue always
effective?
• How could the each purpose of argumentation be
useful to you?
Summary
• Remember – it is not one of these
elements of the rhetorical triangle that can
be used to analyze a text; it is the
relationships between these rhetorical
elements that composes the meaning we
get from a text!
• True analysis is not only the what, but also
the why and the how!