What is Rhetoric?

1. What is Rhetoric?

2. The following quotes have been used to define rhetoric throughout history: • Plato: “Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” • Aristotle:Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion.” • George Campbell: [Rhetoric] is that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to itsend. The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will. • Andrea Lunsford: "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication." • Kenneth Burke: The most characteristic concern of rhetoric [is] the manipulation of men's beliefs for political ends....the basic function of rhetoric [is] the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to induce actions in other human agents.

3. So what does that mean? • Rhetoric is… • the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. • Language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience • A tool that enhances composition; its aim is to persuade, to inform, to express a personal thought, or simply to entertain • PURPOSEFUL – there is thought behind each word or phrase

4. Rhetorical Devices • Repetition • Allusion • Imagery • Antithesis • Metaphor • Parallelism • Hyperbole • Using words or phrases that appeal to emotion

5. Repetition Repetition: a word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” Alliteration: repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence “Let us go forth to lead the land we love…” “Pay any price, bear any burden…” Anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines. “To those old allies… To those new states... To those people…” “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”—Winston Churchill Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words “…the steady spread of the deadly atom.” Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds within words or ending words “whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall…” President Obama's Use of Repetition

6. Allusion A reference to some fairly well-known event, place, or person. Allusion: “It was like Romeo and Juliet, only it ended in tragedy” Source: The Simpsons Effect: Comic because Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy Significance: Romeo and Juliet is a classic, tragic love story, and Milhouse is implying that his first love was like that. Allusions in Family Guy

7. Imagery Language that evokes one or all of the five senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. "In our kitchen, he would bolt his orange juice (squeezed on one of those ribbed glass sombreros and then poured off through a strainer) and grab a bite of toast (the toaster a simple tin box, a kind of little hut with slit and slanted sides, that rested over a gas burner and browned one side of the bread, in stripes, at a time), and then he would dash, so hurriedly that his necktie flew back over his shoulder, down through our yard, past the grapevines hung with buzzing Japanese-beetle traps, to the yellow brick building, with its tall smokestack and wide playing fields, where he taught."

8. Antithesis contrast of ideas or words in a parallel structure “Ask not what you country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” “Many are called, but few are chosen.” “Money is the root of all evils: poverty is the fruit of all goodness.”

9. Metaphor implied comparison through a figurative, not literal, use of words “The mind is a blank canvas, the writer an artist, and words his paint brush.” “The world is an oyster, and education the tool with which to open it” "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and their entrances.” "Language is a road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going."

10. Parallelism Using the same general structure for multiple parts of a sentence, or for multiple sentences, in order to link them all. “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries” – Winston Churchill Two forms of parallel structure are: Anaphora: : repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or lines. “we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground” – Abraham Lincoln Antimetabole: a verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the words in reverse grammatical order (A-B-C, C-B-A) "Women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget.” -Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937

11. Hyperbole Exaggerating some part of your statement in order to give it emphasis or focus. “At these words, the people became so silent that you could hear a beating heart from across the room.” “Compared to the world during the last Ice Age, a Minnesota winter feels like spring in Hawaii.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUzScx6_lWg

12. Ethos, Pathos, Logos Ethos (Credibility) We measure the ethos of a speaker by four related characteristics: • Trustworthiness (as perceived by the audience) • Similarity (to the audience) • Authority (relative to the audience) • Reputation or Expertise (relative to the topic) Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. In other words, make your audience angry, and direct that anger at your opponent. If your audience is angry at your opponent, they will be more receptive to hear your ideas. Just as having high ethos makes your audience more likely to be persuaded, pathos can also make your audience more susceptible to being persuaded. By making an emotional connection with your audience Your audience will be more likely to understand your perspective (via the shared emotion or experience). Logos(Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. Giving reasons is the heart of argument writing. The speaker/writer relies on inductive and deductive reasoning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpTb2RjbMn4

13. The Rhetorical Triangle

14. Your Project Create an advertisement – for a magazine or for television that utilizes all three of these devices. Requirements: • Advertisement • Explanation of rhetorical devices • Group analysis/reflection sheet • Presentation Grading: 60% advertisement 10% Group analysis 20% Explanation 10% Presentation You will have class time on Thursday and Friday to work on your project. Please come prepared with any materials that you will need. I will have the mobile lab reserved for you. Presentations begin next Monday.

15. Samples for discussion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsSnugqGRKU&list=PLB759AD429C749932 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0&list=PLB759AD429C749932 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTIl3te91SI&list=PL19280887E9B189D2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYr0GA22vGE&list=PL19280887E9B189D2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vkVHijdQk&list=PL19280887E9B189D2