English III
Terms for Persuasion Unit
Monday (2 January 2012)
• Welcome back! Please get out a couple of
pieces of paper for notes and copy down the
following:
• Rhetorical Devices: a technique that an author
or speaker uses to influence or persuade an
audience.
• Rhetorical Purpose: the author’s primary aim
in a piece of writing (to narrate, argue, review,
explain, examine, etc.)
Rhetorical Device
• Repetition: the act of repeating for emphasis
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of
Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of
former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
(excerpt from MLK Jr.’s speech I Have a Dream)
Rhetorical Device
• Parallel Structures: a rhetorical device in
which the same grammatical structure is used
within a sentence or paragraph to show that
two or more ideas have equal importance
My sister walks or rides her bike to work.
(parallel verbs)
Having fun is as important as working hard.
(parallel phrases)
Rhetorical Device
• Understatement: the rhetorical technique in
which something is represented as less than it
actually is (a form of irony or humor)
"I have to have this operation. It isn't very
serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the
brain."
(Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger)
Rhetorical Device
• Overstatement: a rhetorical device in which an
exaggerated statement is made; also called
hyperbole
I would give my right arm for a piece of pizza
right now.
Understatement or Overstatement?
• I wish lunch was early; I’m starving to death!
• The children in Ethiopia really don’t have that
many problems; they’re provided at least one
meal a week by charity organizations.
Writing Elements
• Style: the way something is written, in
contrast to its content (e.g., Hemingway’s
writing style is terse, blunt, and
conversational)
• Tone: the author’s particular attitude, either
stated or implied in the writing (e.g., serious,
humorous, logical)
Writing Elements, cont.
• Diction: the choice of words in speaking or
writing for clear and effective expression
• Perspective: stance/viewpoint (a viewpoint is
a position from which something is observed
or considered)
Logical Fallacies
• Bandwagon: idea that if A is popular, then A is correct.
Everyone is selfish; everyone is doing what he believes
will make himself happier. The recognition of that can
take most of the sting out of accusations that you're
being "selfish." Why should you feel guilty for seeking
your own happiness when that's what everyone else is
doing, too?
(Source: Harry Browne, from How I Found Freedom in
an Unfree World (1973).)
Logical Fallacies
• Incorrect factual claims: occurs when the
claims (opinions stated as facts) are inaccurate
– presented as factual, but actually false).
You should not go sailing across the Pacific
because you may sail right off of the edge of
the Earth.
Logical Fallacies
• False Authority: Authority A believes that P is true.
Therefore, P is true.
OR
Celebrity C endorses Brand X Therefore, Brand X is
good.
As my English professor, Dr. Doyle, once said, to cure a
cold you should eat a teaspoon of sugar each day.
OR
Michael Jordan wears Nike shoes, so those must be the
best basketball shoe to wear.
Logical Fallacies
• Loaded Terms: A word or phrase is "loaded"
when it has a secondary, evaluative meaning
in addition to its primary, descriptive meaning.
Unloaded
Plant
Animal
Loaded
Weed
Beast
Loaded Words (fallacy)
• Loaded language is not inherently fallacious,
otherwise most poetry would commit this fallacy.
However, it is often a logical boobytrap, which
may cause one to leap to an unwarranted
evaluative conclusion. The fallacy is committed
either when an arguer attempts to use loaded
words in place of an argument, or when an
arguee makes an evaluation based on the colorful
language in which an argument is clothed, rather
than on the merits of the argument itself.
Logical Fallacies
• Caricatures: Argument in which a speaker
misrepresents another speaker’s argument so
that only a weak shell of the original argument
remains; also called the straw man fallacy
Straw Man explained
• Straw Man arguments often attack a political party or
movement at its extremes, where it is weakest.
• For example, it is a straw man to portray the antiabortion position as the claim that all abortions, with
no exceptions, are wrong. It is also a straw man to
attack abortion rights as the position that no abortions
should ever be restricted, bar none. Such straw men
are often part of the process of "demonization", and
we might well call the subfallacy of the straw man
which attacks an extreme position instead of the more
moderate position held by the opponent
Logical Fallacies
• Begging the Question: Assuming the thing to
be true that you are trying to prove. It is
circular.
Student: I am a good student because Frank says
so.
Teacher: How can we trust Frank?
Student: Simple. I will vouch for him.
Logical Fallacies
• False Assumptions: Making broad generalizations
based on one person/situation that may not be
true for the whole.
I ate lasagna for dinner the night before my test,
and I earned an ‘A’! Therefore, I should eat
lasagna every night for dinner before any test in
order to score well.
**This example would also serve for faulty
cause/effect
Logical Fallacies
• Incorrect Premises: One of the two premises
in a syllogism is incorrect.
– Syllogism: a form of deductive reasoning in which
the conclusion is supported by a major and minor
premise. The concluding sentence of a syllogism
takes its predicate from the major premise and its
subject from the minor premise.
Syllogism
• Major premise: All warm-blooded animals are
mammals (predicate).
• Minor premise: All horses (subject) are warmblooded.
• Conclusion: All horses are mammals.
Incorrect Premises Example
• All mammals are warm-blooded.
• All snakes are mammals.
• All snakes are warm-blooded.
FALSE!
Organization Structures
• Classification: advantages/disadvantages +
writer’s position
• Hierarchical: order of importance + writer’s
position
• Strongest argument to weakest to strongest:
(self-explanatory)
• Enumeration: reasons why or why not + writer’s
position
• Compare/contrast + writer’s position
• Problem/solution
Research Terms
• Primary source: Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or
direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are
created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or
conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at
the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary
sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral
histories recorded later. (may include letters, speeches, diaries,
surveys, field work, or personal interviews)
• Secondary source: A secondary source interprets and analyzes
primary sources. These sources are one or more steps removed
from the event. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or
graphics of primary sources in them.
Secondary or Primary?
• 1. A magazine article that reviews the life of
President Obama (written by a reporter that
has gained knowledge of President Obama
through other released publications).
• 2. A blog written about the War in Iraq by a
journalist who traveled with American troops
throughout their time there.
Objective and Subjective
• Objective: Factual (or at least as close to the
truth as we can get); something able to be
observed; unbiased
• Subjective: Opinionated; contains a belief,
assumption, or generalization