Today’s Objective
• I can define and identify the following
persuasive devices:
– Emotional, logical, ethical appeal
– Rhetorical questions
– Allusion
– parallelism
Persuasive Rhetoric
 Rhetoric is the art of communicating ideas.
 Persuasive Rhetoric consists of reasoned
arguments in favor of or against a particular
action.
To be effectively persuasive, a work generally
has to engage both the mind and the emotions
of its audience, making them think that the
problem the work deals with is important enough
for them to care how it is resolved.
Purpose and Context
• After you read or hear a persuasive piece of
literature, you need to understand the purpose of
that writing. What is the speaker/writer trying to
persuade you to believe?
• The context of the piece of literature is anything
beyond the specific words of a literary work that
may be relevant to understanding the meaning.
– What is the situation or problem the literature
addresses?
– Contexts may be economic, social, cultural, historical,
literary, biographical, etc
Audience
• Primary audiences are those who receive the
communication directly.
– The primary audience is the decision-maker and/or
decision-making body
• Secondary audiences include anyone who may
indirectly receive a copy of the communication.
These include anyone who will receive a copy,
need to approve, will hear about, or be affected by
the message.
– The secondary audience is the group(s) of people that
you identify, educate and activate to influence the
primary audience
Persuasive Rhetoric Techniques
• Rhetorical questions: Think of these as questions
that do not require answers. Writers use this
technique to show that their arguments make the
answers obvious.
• Repetition: Repeating the point tells the audience
that it is especially important; repeating a form of
expression tells the audience that the ideas express
in the same way are related.
– Parallelism is a form of repetition. There are parallel
clauses at the beginning of sentences.
– For example: “We have warned them…We have reminded them
of the circumstances…We have appealed to them…We have
conjured them.” Patrick Henry’s Speech in the Virginia Convention
Persuasive Rhetoric Techniques
• Allusion: an indirect reference to a person, place,
event, or literary work with which the author believes
the reader will be familiar.
• Example 1: "Christy didn't like to spend money. She was
no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything except
the bare necessities".
Did you spot the allusion to Scrooge? That name should
bring to mind an image of someone who 'pinches
pennies' and hoards money with a passion. But the
allusion only works if the reader is familiar with Charles
Dickens' story 'A Christmas Carol'.
More Examples of Allusions
• Example 2: "Like the prodigal son, he returned to his
home town and was welcomed by all who knew him".
In order to fully appreciate the allusion to the prodigal
son, the reader must be familiar with that story in Luke
15: 11-32.
• Example 3: “Steven is a Benedict Arnold. I can’t believe
he switched teams just so he would have a better
chance of winning. Where is the loyalty?”
Benedict Arnold was an American traitor.
ETHOS
• Ethos refers to the character and credibility of the
speaker/writer. Is this speaker/writer an authority of
the subject?
• Convincing the reader by the character of the author:
-Conveyed through tone and style of writer
-Can be based on the writer’s reputation, experience, or
expertise
-Can be based on the writer’s integrity and honesty
-Can be revealed through the writer’s respectability and
likeability
-Can appeal to patriotic or religious values
LOGOS
• Logos literally means “word” also understood as
“topic.”
• These types of arguments are based on logical appeals
that provide rational arguments to support the writer’s
claims.
• What are the facts?
-Data
-Expert testimony
-Statistics
-Eye Witness Accounts
-Testimonials
-Evidence
-Logical Reasoning: Induction and Deduction
PATHOS
• Pathos literally means “suffering” or emotion.
• Emotional Appeals: Appeals to the emotions and
are often based on specific examples of suffering or
potential threats.
• Affects the reader’s emotional response to the text:
-Attempts to play on our needs, desires, fears, and
insecurities
-Appeals to our “imagination and sympathies”
-Created through use of vivid examples and emotionally
charged diction (word choice)
-Uses narrative and personal anecdote
Persuasive Rhetoric in Action…
• We will now watch a speech given by a young man named
Dalton Sherman. As you watch, keep track of the devices you
see him use in his speech. Track the examples in chart form in
your notes. You should have at least 5 examples by the time
he ends his speech
Example From
Speech
Persuasive Device
Effect—Why Does it Work?
Dalton Sherman
Example From Speech
“Can you believe that I can
stand up here, fearless, and
talk to over 20,000 of you?
Persuasive Device
Rhetorical Question
Effect—Why Does it Work?
Dalton wants his audience
to lie him; by winning them
over early, they are willing
to listen to him.
Practice with Persuasion
• Consider this scenario:
– Mrs. Murphy is so excited to begin reading the
foundational documents of our country! She has
decided that it would be appropriate to assign the
reading of Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia
Delegation” for homework over the weekend. In
addition to reading it, Mrs. Murphy wants a 5
paragraph essay written that outlines how the
persuasive devices. This will be worth 500 points, so
not doing it will certainly mean failing for the
semester.
Practice with Persuasion
• Write a short persuasive speech to convince
Mrs. Murphy that this will not be a good idea.
Incorporate at least 2 of the devices we went
over today. Remember to think about your
audience— “You shouldn’t give this
assignment because we don’t like school and
we hate to read” will not work or her…