RHETORIC AND TERMS IN WRITING

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RHETORIC AND TERMS IN WRITING
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Rhetoric - the Art of Using Language Effectively
or Persuasively
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The Rhetorical Situation

• Writer
• Purpose
• Audience
• Topic
• Context

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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

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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

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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

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CONTEXT
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VOICE TONE
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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 youre doing
  the writing
• Serious
• Informative
• Formal/Informal
• Humorous

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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

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DICTION (Continued)

• Dont 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.

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DICTION (Continued)

• Avoid the use of I feel, I think, I believe,
  to me, etc. its 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 doesnt matter whether you agree
  or disagree with an argument and focus only on
  how well/poorly the argument works.

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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,
  youre not simply announcing the evidence, but
  analyze its significance and appropriatness.

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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.

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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.

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TROPES

• Metaphor
• Simile
• Analogy
• Personification

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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.

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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

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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
  murderthe most flagrant form of injusticewill
  diminish.

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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

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OTHER TROPES

• SIGNIFYING
• HYPERBOLE
• UNDERSTATEMENT
• RHETORICAL QUESTIONS
• ANTONOMASIA

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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.
• Heres 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
  monkeys 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 lions roaring, decides
  to do something about it. He insults the lion
  publicly and at lengthhis "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."

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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
  orators 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."

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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.

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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)

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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?

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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."
•  

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IRONY

• Irony is an implied discrepancy between what is
  said and what is meant.Three kinds of
  irony1. 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.

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VERBAL IRONY EXAMPLES

• Pride Prejudice by Jane AustenWhen Mr. Bennett
  refers to Wickham as perhaps his "favorite"
  son-in-law
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare"Yet Brutus
  says he was ambitiousAnd Brutus is an
  honourable man". (Mark Antony really means that
  Brutus is dishonourable)

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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.

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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 ColeridgeWater, 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

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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 Thats one step for
  a man, one giant leap for mankind. (Neil
  Armstrong)
• Marriage has no pains, but celibacy has no
  pleasures. (Samuel Johnson)

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SCHEMES - CONTINUED

• Inverted word order when parts of the sentence
  are not in the usual subject-verb-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. 

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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.  

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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)