Introduction to Rhetoric
and the AP Test
AP English Language and Composition
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Lasts 3 hours and 15 minutes
Two sections:
◦ One hour to answer approximately 55 multiplechoice questions.
 The multiple-choice questions test how well
students are able to analyze the rhetoric of prose
passages.
◦ In Section II, following a fifteen-minute reading
period, students must answer three freeresponse questions within two hours.
 Through the free-response questions students
demonstrate their composition skills by writing
three essays in response to a variety of tasks that
call for rhetorical analysis, synthesis of
information sources, and argument.
The AP Test
Greek terms for the three basic parts of
the rhetorical situation.
 Depend upon the following factors:
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◦ Audience (mostly Pathos / Ethos)
◦ Speaker (Ethos)
◦ Message (Logos)
Logos / Ethos / Pathos: The Three
Musketeers of Argument
Appeal to reason through clear, rational
ideas (Greek for “embodied thoughts”)
 Interaction among thesis, assumption
(underlying belief), and support
 Counterarguments are another way to
appeal to logic (conceding a point, then
refuting)
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Logos
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Refers to both…
◦ Speaker’s credibility / persona
◦ Values of the audience
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If the speaker’s ethos is in conflict with
the community’s ethos, the speaker has
to work to create his or her credibility
with the audience (EX: Mitt Romney
speaking before the NAACP)
Ethos
An appeal to emotion (remember—
empathy, sympathy)
 Writing that relies exclusively on
emotional appeal is rarely effective in the
long term, but one shouldn’t stray away
from using any emotional appeal
 Diction / connotation, figurative language,
and vivid, concrete description can affect
this
 Photographs also have emotional effects
on audiences
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Pathos
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Invention—Looking for something to say
(Latin, invenire, “to find”); what is said
Arrangement—How one orders speech or
writing (patterns of development)
Style—Artful expression of ideas; how
something is said.
Memory—Being well-versed in speaking
and the kairos, or sensitivity to the
context
Delivery—studied attention to vocal
training and to the use of gestures
The Five Canons of Oratory
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In analyzing rhetorically, consider
arrangement according to purpose…
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Narration
Description
Process Analysis
Exemplification
Comparison and Contrast
Classification and Division
Definition
Cause and Effect
Patterns of Development
Why is it important to recognize
patterns of development?
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Talking about writing
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Recognizing strategies
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How and Why…often connected…
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Utilize in your own writing
Telling a story or recounting a series of events.
 Can be based on personal experience or
knowledge gained from reading / observation.
 Chronology usually governs narration.
 Narration is not simply crafting an appealing
story; it is crafting a story that supports your
thesis.
 Used well as a way to enter into a topic
 For an example, read the first two paragraphs of
the following article from The Atlantic, “Why
Women Still Can’t Have It All”
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2
012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-itall/309020/
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Narration
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Closely allied with narration.
Unlike narration, description emphasizes
the senses by painting a picture.
Usually used to establish a mood or
atmosphere.
Rarely is an entire essay descriptive.
Bryson uses description at the start of
Chapter 10 (165) to describe an Asher
Brown Durand painting, which leads into
his discussion of the forest.
Description
“We fell into a simple routine. Each morning
we rose at first light, shivering and rubbing
arms, made coffee, broke down camp, ate a
couple of fistfuls of raises, and set off into the
silent woods. We would walk from about half
past seven to four. We seldom walked
together—our paces didn’t match—but every
couple of hours I would sit on a log…and wait
for Katz to catch up, to make sure everything
was OK. Sometimes other hikers would come
along and tell me where Katz was and how he
was progressing, which was nearly always
slowly but gamely” (Bryson 70).
What effect does describing the events of
each day have on Bryson’s narrative?
Process Analysis
Typically induction is used here—a series of specific
examples leads to a general conclusion. After giving a
number of examples of species loss Bryson exemplifies
his main point with Bryce Canyon National Park:
“The National Park Service has something of a tradition
of making things extinct. Bryce Canyon National Park
is perhaps the most interesting—certainly the most
striking—example. It was founded in 1923 and in less
than half a century under the Park Service’s
stewardship lost seven species of mammal—the whitetailed jackrabbit, prairie dog, pronghorn antelope, flying
squirrel, beaver, red fox, and spotted skunk. Quite an
achievement when you consider that these animals had
survived in Bryce Canyon for tens of millions of years
before the Park Service took an interest in them.
Altogether, forty-two species of mammal have
disappeared from America’s national parks this century”
(Bryson 131).
Exemplification
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Juxtaposing two things to highlight their
similarities and differences.
Used to analyze information carefully,
revealing insights into the nature of the
information being analyzed.
Bryson utilizes comparison and contrast on
157-158 to show the differences between his
experience on the AT and that of Earl V.
Schaffer, the first person to hike the whole
AT; he also makes a comparison between
Gatlinburg and the AT on 148-9. What
effect do these each have in presenting
some kind of message at these points in
the text?
Comparison / Contrast
Separating material or ideas into major
categories.
 Francis Bacon said, “Some books are
meant to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed
and digested.”
 Bryson makes a distinction between two
types of hikers on the AT: “those who do
it in a single season, known as ’thruhikers,’ and those who do it in chunks,
known as ‘section hikers’” (160).
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Classification / Division
To ensure that writers and their audiences
are speaking the same language,
definition may lay the foundation to
establish common ground or identifying
areas of conflict.
 On page 97 of Ishmael, the title character
starts to aid the narrator in establishing
the definition of a law. How does this
contribute to his narrative / argument?
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Definition
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Analyzing the causes that lead to a certain
effect or, conversely, the effects that result
from a cause is a powerful foundation for an
argument.
Causal analysis depends upon crystal clear
logic, so it’s important to carefully trace a
chain of cause and effect and to recognized
possible contributing causes.
Bryson shows a cause and effect relationship
related to the American chestnut blight on
172-173. Why does Bryson present this
relationship in the text? Is this a strong
cause / effect relationship? Why or why
not?
Cause and Effect
Like any written text, an image can
convey a message/argument
 Pay close attention to
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Image
Text
Color
Overall Design
Visual Rhetoric
The same elements of rhetoric are at play
 Political Cartoons are typically satiric
 An acronym for analyzing visual rhetoric:
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Overview
Parts
Title
Interrelationships
Conclusion
Visual Rhetoric
Visual Rhetoric