AP English Language and Composition

AP English Language and Composition 9/10/2012 – 9/14/2012

Housekeeping • Turn in your Journal Plus exercises! • Reading should have began last night! • “Time for a Real Hero” Essay (2nd quarter) • Socratic Seminar # 1 will be on September 17th and 18th. (Check board for other important deadlines. • Be sure to come to class prepared with two open-ended questions derived from the text.

Journal Entry #2 • Peggy Noonan’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You” • In your journal, draft an analysis of her article. Your thesis should focus on the author’s purpose.

National Commercial Ad Project • National Commercial Ad Project • Exceptional commercials: • Dow “The Human Element” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbpuSPL-FNU&feature=related

National Commercial Ad Project • LBJ Daisy Ad 1964 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active • Macintosh 1984 Wellian World Commercial • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8 • Let’s analyze a commercial. • United Airlines • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDZAgBDf3Qo&feature=related

“The Interview” • What do we learn about the character in the opening scene? • Who is the target audience? How do we know? • What do we see after he exits the taxi? What is the significance? • What do we see after he receives the phone call? What does that signify? • How does the end tie into the beginning? • What does the slogan signify? Why was it created?

National Commercial Ad Project • A Rhetorical Analysis is one of the three required essays you will write for the AP exam. • When you are asked to do a "rhetorical analysis" of a text (or video), you are being asked to apply your critical reading (or viewing) skills to break down the "whole" of the text (or video) 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.

National Commercial Ad Project • For this assignment, you will craft a rhetorical analysis essay based on a national commercial ad (as opposed to a literary work). • We will write a rhetorical analysis to other texts in the future. • Always keep a “Rhetorical Analysis Questions” sheet handy!

National Commercial Ad Project • In a nutshell: • Identify a CONTROVERSIAL commercial. (Try not to use ads that attempt to sell you a product.) • RESEARCH the history and purpose of the commercial. • Apply the questions for rhetorical analysis. • Write a cohesive essay that explains the purpose of the commercial and how its creator(s) use various strategies to achieve that purpose.

The Rhetorical Triangle and the 3 Rhetoical Appeals • Review components of the Rhetorical Triangle on the board.

What is Rhetoric? • More than 2,300 years ago, Aristotle saw how truth often went unrecognized when overwhelmed by forces of artful persuasion - rhetoric. • Believing that good rhetoric was based on objective truth, that is “what happens usually,” Aristotle set out to define rhetoric. Basing his work on earlier philosophers, including his old teacher, Plato, Aristotle attacked the problem by describing, categorizing, and organizing the anatomy of argument and persuasive techniques in his work Rhetoric. • Of course, later philosophers and writers refined his ideas, but Aristotle’s work is still the cornerstone of the rules that govern the presentation of evidence and persuasive techniques in today’s courtrooms.

Western Jurisprudence demands that judges of fact and / or law base their findings almost exclusively on objective evidence and reasoned argument presented in the courtroom. To this end, the judge and jury may only hear relevant evidence that is more probative than prejudicial. • To ensure fairness in the decision making process, evidence even if is relevant to the issue at hand should not be permitted to unduly arouse passions in the finder of fact or law. Stated yet another way, the basic principle behind the rules of evidence is this -- justice demands that, even if evidence is relevant, it must be excluded if its probative value is overwhelmed by any unreasonable prejudicial effect such as prejudice, pity, anger, or similar emotions.

It causes the judge and / or jury to make its decision, not on reasoned, considered, objective essential facts, but on persuasive outside influences that may have nothing to do with the issue under consideration.

What is rhetoric? • Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering all the available means of persuasion in any given situation.” In its legal application, however, rhetoric is the discipline of spoken or written language used in the persuasion of the finder of fact or law. • The field of rhetoric is usually described as consisting of three different types of communication: epideictic (ceremonial or laudatory), deliberative, and judicial. In the practice of law, we primarily focus on the latter two forms.

What is epideictic rhetoric? • a mode of persuasion focusing on the present and having praise or blame of an individual (or group) as its primary topic; also called "demonstrative" rhetoric • Simply, speech or writing that praises or blames. • "And I'm here today to say a final thank you, Sister Rosa, for being a great woman who used your life to serve, to serve us all. That day that you refused to give up your seat on the bus, you, Sister Rosa, changed the trajectory of my life and the lives of so many other people in the world. I would not be standing here today nor standing where I stand every day had she not chosen to sit down. . . . Had she not chosen to say we shall not--we shall not be moved.“ (Oraph Winfrey, Eulogy for Rosa Parks, Oct. 31, 2005)

What is deliberative rhetoric? • When we think of speeches, we usually think of deliberative rhetoric. It is speech that exhorts or dissuades its audience and, if successful, will persuade the audience to adopt the speaker’s point of view. • Contemporary audiences are most familiar with deliberative rhetoric in the form of political speeches or sermons in church.

What is judicial rhetoric? • Judicial rhetoric is forensic speech. This form of rhetoric accuses or defends an individual of an act or omission. According to Aristotle, rhetoric in this form urges the audience to do justice for past actions or crimes. • considers the justice or injustice of a certain charge or accusation • "Although the evidence at this trial shows that Charles Manson was the leader of the conspiracy to commit these murders, there is no evidence that he actually personally killed any of the seven victims in this case."(Vincent Bugliosi)

What forms of persuasion does classical rhetoric include? • Aristotle saw how persuasion could be broken down into two types of “persuasives”. • The first of these persuasives is what the layman thinks of as “hard” evidence or “scientific” proof. The classical rhetorician labels this type of persuasive as “inartistic” proof, or “inartificial” proof. • Evidence of this type is generally regarded as the most reliable proof in the courtroom. Commonly referred to as direct or demonstrative evidence, it includes sworn testimony, documents, or an expert’s scientific analysis of factual data.

The second form of evidence Aristotle referred to as “artistic” or “artificial” proof. The unreliability and malleability of this type of proof leads to most prohibitions found in the rules of evidence. • Artificial proofs rely on three distinct components: ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos • Ethos is a term denoting the good character and credibility of the speaker. • A lawyer speaking to a jury or introducing an expert witness attempts to establish an ethos to persuade a jury that the advocate or the witness is knowledgeable and trustworthy. • When introducing a witness, the lawyer will ask preliminary questions to establish the witness’s bona fide (sincere) or “authoritative” background to reveal the witness’ qualifications to testify, e.g. education, publications, or experience. This line of questioning constructs an ethos - a credible persona, for the witness so the jury will trust what the witness says.

Ethos • The reverse process of constructing an ethos is the process of impeachment. In impeachment, the attorney attempts to construct a negative ethos so that the jury will disbelieve or discount the witness’s testimony.

Pathos • Stated in the most simplistic terms, pathos is the appeal to emotion. • The most suspect of the artistic proofs, pathos is the process of putting the audience in a receptive mood to allow the persuader to play on the audience’s emotions. • Pathos is so easily abused…

Logos • This term is by far the most complicated of the three words under discussion and has multiple meanings depending up the context in which it is used. • In religion, logos is used to denote the “Word of God” – as in “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” • In philosophy, it denotes the rationale or underlying set of principles of a thing or a process. In rhetorical studies and for our purpose, logos will mean the appeal to rational thought or reason. • Logos is the preferable mode of persuasion and takes the form of a “rational” argument to prove, or seem to prove the speaker’s point of view. Persuasive appeals to reason are adaptations of the logical forms – the syllogism and induction. Lawyers building on circumstantial evidence (indirect proof) use appeals to reason or logic to argue their theory of the case. (E.g. Cain was found standing over Abel’s dead body. Abel’s blood was found on Cain’s hands. Therefore, Cain must have killed Able.)

Rhetorical Strategies & Techniques: “Matters of Style: Diction” • Concreteness • Of or relating to an actual, specific thing or instance; particular • Writing is concrete when it makes an observation or impression perceptible to the senses. • “The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” • A boring movie may show everything in what seems like an endless stream of detail; a boring paragraph or essay does the same thing. • To develop an idea or impression effectively, we must select the detail. • Good writing is economical.

Euphemism and Jargon • Euphemism • A euphemism is an inoffensive word or phrase used for one that may be offensive or come up as coarse to readers. • A writer may think that the word hooker may be offensive and so substituted it with the word prostitute, a euphemism for the more direct term. • Examples: Intoxicated-drunkIndisposed-sickLove child-illegitimate child

Euphemism and Jargon • Jargon • Every profession has a special language—technical words and sometimes coded expressions—making communication efficient and precise. • LOL, BRB, LMAO is a form of jargon.

Homework! • Continue reading Blink! • Begin to research national commercial ads. • Begin viewing presidential speeches! • Socratic Seminar 9/17 and 9/18. Be prepared with two open-ended, high level questions!

AP English Language and Composition