Rhetoric - the Art of Using Language
Effectively or Persuasively
RHETORICAL
TRINITY:
Context
Writer
Audience
The Rhetorical Situation
 Writer
 Purpose
 Audience
 Topic
 Context
WRITER
FACTORS WHICH CAN AFFECT YOUR WRITING INCLUDE:
 Your age
 Your experience
 Your gender
 Your location
 Your political beliefs
 Your parents and peers
 Your education
PURPOSE
Purpose – the effect you wish to have on your intended
audience. Major purposes for writing include:
Expressing your feelings
Investigating a subject and reporting your findings
Explaining an idea or concept
Evaluating some object, performance, or image
Proposing solution to a problem
Arguing for your position and responding to
alternative or opposing positions
Entertaining the audience
AUDIENCE
Audience: To Whom are you Writing?
Many of the same factors which affect the writer also
affect the audience
Age
Social class
Education
Past experience
Culture/subculture
Expectations
CONTEXT
The “situation” which generates the need for writing affected
by the
Cultural
significance
Current
events
Time
period or
timing
Location
VOICE & TONE
Voice represents the personality and/or
style of the writer
Tone is the writer’s attitude toward the topic
(Passionate, serious, humorous … )
VOICE & TONE
Voice and Tone reflect YOUR attitude about your
subject and your audience.
VOICE is WHO the audience hear talking in your
paper, and TONE is the way in which you’re doing the
writing:
Serious
Informative
Formal/Informal
Humorous
DICTION & STYLE
Style is a term for the effect a writer can create through
attitude, language, and the mechanics of writing. A
consistent choice of patterns and word choices will result
in a coherent and harmonious style supporting the content
Diction is a choice of words and informality or
formality of a style based on word and pattern choices
DICTION (Continued)
 Don’t “pad” your writing - avoid terms with nearly
identical denotations:
Talented and gifted; to persecute and oppress
 Avoid informalities, be aware of the differences
between “standard written English” (used in most
scholarly and professional communication) and
writing that permits the use of slang, colloquialism, or
deliberately irregular grammatical constructions – as
in fiction, poetry, drama, etc.
DICTION (Continued)
 Avoid the use of “I feel,” “I think,” I believe,” “to me,”
etc. – it’s usually unnecessary. It also makes a
statement sound more like an unfounded "opinion"
than a well-considered and supported argumentative
position. Do without such superfluous phrasing
wherever you can, especially when it undermines the
strength of an argument.
 Avoid using contractions (he's, she's, it's, let's, we're,
you're, they're, isn't, aren't, weren't, he'll, she'll, they'll,
don't, shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't, I'm, I'll, I've,
you've, we've, etc.) as they are too casual.
UNITY & COHERENCE
Unity is the development of a single controlling idea
usually presented in a thesis statement. Each sentence
should develop this central idea and should not get off
the main topic of discussion.
Coherence is a connection between thoughts and the
order of the content within a piece of writing. In Latin,
coherence basically means “to stick together.”
COHERENCE (Continued)
To make your essay coherent you may use the following
tips:
 Repeat key words. Using synonyms may help as words are
markers
Use pronouns for important nouns
Use demonstratives: “This policy …,” “that event,” etc.
Use transitional words to link the thoughts and signal the
type of relationship between the thoughts : therefore,
moreover, however
Establish logical order to the paragraphs and sentences
within paragraphs such as cause to effect, or general to
particular
Rhetorical Analysis
 When you are asked to do a "rhetorical analysis" of a
text, you are being asked to apply your critical reading
skills to break down the "whole" of the text into the
sum of its "parts." You try to determine what the writer
is trying to achieve, and what writing strategies he/she
is using to try to achieve it. Reading critically also
means analyzing and understanding how the work has
achieved its effect.
Rhetorical Analysis - Continued
 While the three cornerstones around the text are the
writer, audience, and context, we can also apply Stasis
Theory (Did something happen? What is its nature?
What is its quality? What actions should be taken?)
and Enthymemes (unspoken beliefs, values, and
assumptions) to analyze rhetorical strategies.
Rhetorical Analysis - Continued
 rhetorical analysis purpose is not to describe
techniques and strategies; instead, show how the key
devices in an argument actually make it succeed or fail.
Show readers where and why an argument makes
sense and where it falls apart by quoting from the text,
explaining your reasoning, and providing evidence
from other texts. The hardest part of rhetorical
analysis is keep your distance as it doesn’t matter
whether you agree or disagree with an argument and
focus only on how well/poorly the argument works.
Rhetorical Analysis - Continued
Thus, your claim should address the
rhetorical effectiveness of the argument
itself, NOT the opinion or position it takes
and should indicate important relationships
between various rhetorical components,
NOT just list them. Hence, you’re not simply
announcing the evidence, but analyze its
significance and appropriatness.
Rhetorical Analysis - Continued
To perform rhetorical analysis, we evaluate writing by
examining all rhetorical devices the writer uses to
make his argument convincing and support valid:
Rhetorical devices may include different modes of
development, such as comparison/contrast,
cause/effect, process/analysis. It may also include
diction and tone analysis, organization, context,
purpose, audience, appeals, and many other rhetorical
strategies the writer employs to evaluate effectiveness
of writing.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
 TROPES AND SCHEMES
Figures have traditionally been
classified into two main types:
TROPES, which involve a change in the
ordinary signification or meaning of a
word or phrase; and SCHEMES, which
involve a special arrangement of words.
TROPES
Metaphor
Simile
Analogy
Personification
Metaphor
 A metaphor makes an implicit comparison between
dissimilar ideas or things without using like or as:
 You are a hog. War is hell.
 She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the
dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in
her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of
a pendulum in a grandfather clock.
-Eudora Weltry
To take full advantage of the richness of a particular
comparison, writers sometimes use several sentences
or even a whole paragraph to develop a metaphor.
Simile
 A simile is an explicit comparison between two
essentially different ideas or things that uses the word
like or as to link them.
 You eat like a hog. Life is like a box of chocolates.
 I walked toward her and hailed her as a visitor to the
moon might salute a survivor of a previous expedition.
- John Updike
Analogy
Analogies usually involve explaining one idea or concept by comparing
it to something else. An analogy is typically a complex or extended
comparison.
Admittedly capital punishment is not a pleasant topic. However, one
does not have to like the death penalty in order to support it any more than one
must like radical surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy in order to find necessary
these attempts at curing cancer. Ultimately we may learn how to cure cancer
with a simple pill. Unfortunately, that day has not yet arrived. Today we are
faced with the choice of letting the cancer spread or trying to cure it with the
methods available, methods that one day will almost certainly be considered
barbaric and would certainly delay the discovery of an eventual cure. The
analogy between cancer and murder is imperfect, because murder is not the
"disease" we are trying to cure. The disease is injustice. We may not like the
death penalty, but it must be available to punish crimes of cold-blooded
murder, cases in which any other form of punishment would be inadequate
and, therefore, unjust. If we create a society in which injustice is not tolerated,
incidents of murder—the most flagrant form of injustice—will diminish.
Personification
 In Personification, the writer attributes human
qualities to ideas or objects.
The moon bathed the valley in a soft, golden light.
-Corey Davis
Indeed, haste can be the assassin of elegance.
- T.H.White
Blond October comes striding over the hills wearing a
crimson shirt and faded green trousers.
- Hal Borland
OTHER TROPES
SIGNIFYING
HYPERBOLE
UNDERSTATEMENT
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
ANTONOMASIA
SIGNIFYING
Mostly used in African American English, in which a speaker
cleverly and often humorously needles the listener. P. 383. In
simple words it is to brag for no practical purpose.
Here’s the origin:
The Signifying Monkey takes its title from what Gates argues is the central
metaphor, "the trope of tropes," in Afro-American literature. There is,
according to Gates, an entire series of oral narrative poems about the
"signifying monkey" in the black tradition. In its general outlines, the
monkey’s story goes like this. Although the lion claims to be king of the
jungle, everyone knows who the real king is: it is the elephant. The
monkey, fed up with the lion’s roaring, decides to do something about it.
He insults the lion publicly and at length—his "mama" and his
"grandmama, too"—and when the lion grows angry, the monkey shrugs
that he is merely repeating what the elephant has been saying. Furious,
the lion heads out to challenge the elephant, who impassively trounces
him. The monkey either gets away with his deception or does not (there
are differing versions), but in any event he is a success at "signifying."
SIGNIFYING - CONTINUED
 To signify, according to the jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow, is
to "hint, to put on an act, boast, make a gesture." The
novelist Zora Neale Hurston defines signifying as "a contest
in hyperbole carried on for no other reason." In these
conceptions, signifying sounds not too different from the
traditional category of rhetoric known as "epideictic," a
term used for a display piece, a speech the sole purpose of
which is to put the orator’s gifts on display (epideixis), and
not with any practical intention. Yet to assimilate black
signifying to the "Eurocentric" tradition of classical
rhetoric is to lose "what we might think of as the discrete
black difference."
HYPERBOLE
The use of overstatement for special effect.
Hyperbole is a figure of speech which is an
exaggeration. Persons often use expressions
such as "I nearly died laughing," "I was
hopping mad," and "I tried a thousand times."
Such statements are not literally true, but
people make them to sound impressive or to
emphasize something, such as a feeling,
effort, or reaction.
UNDERSTATEMENT
To represent as less than is the case
To state or present with restraint especially for effect
Examples:
"It's just a flesh wound."
(Black Knight, after having both arms cut off, inMonty Python and the Holy Grail)
"The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace."
(Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
"I am just going outside and may be some time."
(Captain Lawrence Oates, Antarctic explorer, before walking out into a blizzard to
face certain death, 1912)
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
A question asked merely for effect with no answer
expected.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" says the
persona of Shakespeare's 18th sonnet.
Why are you so stupid?
ANTONOMASIA
Shorthand substitution of a descriptive word or phrase
for a proper name can pack arguments into just one phrase:
"the little corporal" for Napoleon.
 Calling a lover Casanova, an office worker Dilbert, Elvis Presley the King, Bill
Clinton the Comeback Kid, or Horace Rumpole's wife She Who Must Be Obeyed
 "What we have here? A bunch of fig-eaters wearing towels on their heads, trying
to find reverse in a Soviet tank. This is not a worthy adversary."
(Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski, 1998)
 "When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name
was Always."
(Rita Rudner)
 "If the waiter has a mortal enemy, it is the Primper. I hate the Primper. HATE
THE PRIMPER! If there's a horrifying sound a waiter never wants to hear, it's
the THUMP of a purse on the counter. Then the digging sound of the Primper's
claws trying to find makeup, hairbrushes, and perfume."
IRONY
 Irony is an implied discrepancy between what is said
and what is meant.
Three kinds of irony:
1. Verbal irony is when an author says one thing and
means something else.
2. Dramatic irony is when an audience perceives
something that a character in the literature does not
know.
3. Irony of situation is a discrepency between the
expected result and actual results.
VERBAL IRONY EXAMPLES
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
When Mr. Bennett refers to Wickham as
perhaps his "favorite" son-in-law
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
"Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man". (Mark
Antony really means that Brutus is
dishonourable)
DRAMATIC IRONY EXAMPLES
Romeo and Juliet by William
Shakespeare. When Romeo finds
Juliet in a drugged sleep, he
assumes her to be dead and kills
himself. Upon awakening to find
her dead lover beside her, Juliet
then kills herself.
IRONY OF SITUATION
 Macbeth by William Shakespeare: The witches predict
one thing, which happens to come true but Macbeth
often misinterprets their words
 Situational example: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Coleridge:
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink
 In this example it is ironic that water is everywhere but
none of it can be drunk
SCHEMES
Schemes are figures that depend on word order:
Parallelism: The laws of our land are said to be “by the
people, of the people, and for the people.”
Antithesis – the use of parallel structures to mark
contrast or opposition: “That’s one step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind.” (Neil Armstrong)
“Marriage has no pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”
(Samuel Johnson)
SCHEMES - CONTINUED
Inverted word order when parts of the
sentence are not in the usual subjectverb-object order: “Hard to see, the dark
side is.” (Yoda)
Back and forth rocked the boat.
Out of the volcano billowed smoke.
Overhead shone the sun.
ANAPHORA
Anaphora, or effective repetition:
For everything there is a season . . . a time to be born,
and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up
what is planted.–Bible, Ecclesiastes.
To die, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream.–
Shakespeare, Hamlet. One of the most famous examples
of anaphora in Shakespeare occurs in Act II, Scene I,
Lines 40-68.
REVERSED STRUCTURES
 “Ask not what your country can do for
you, ask what you can do for the
country.” J.F.K. (inaugural address,
1961)
 “Your manuscript is both good and
original. But the part that is good is not
original, and the part that is original is
not good.” (Samuel Johnson)