The Rhetorical Triangle - SOAPS

1. The Rhetorical Triangle - SOAPS SPEAKER/WRITER GENRE essay, letter, speech, etc OCCASION Context (time, place, etc.) PURPOSE AUDIENCE SUBJECT

2. Randall Leigh’s Dilemma Revisited Reread the scenario and then, in a group, discuss the following questions: • What kind of persona (personality) did Randal try to present to each of his three audiences – Brandon, Kim, and Nate? • What assumptions do you think Randal made about each of the three audiences – Bandon, Kim, and Nate – that led him to make decisions about how to present his case? • What kinds of pleas, evidence, or proof did Randall employ with each of the audiences to try to persuade Brandon, Kim, and Nate to lend him the bus fare? • What do you think Brandon, Kim, and Nate knew about Randall – his personality, his job, and so on – that led them to react the way they did?

3. Speaker or Writer • A rhetor who understands persona is able to do two things: first, speak or write so that the audience members perceive a distinct character, usually one who is educated, considerate, trustworthy, and well intentioned; second, make inferences and judgments about the character and personality of another writer or speaker.

4. Listen to this voice from a editorial by Frank Deford in the Sports Illustrated of August 5, 2002: Subject’s we are tired of hearing about, because nothing-is-ever-going-to change-anyhow: • Does the Second Amendment mean just the militia? • Does Shakespeare really write Shakespeare? • Yes, but what about the Grassy Knoll? • Is Oprah going to marry Stedman? • Should Pete Rose go into the Hall of Fame? (questions) Still.

5. The next paragraph suggests reasons that Rose belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame. It is Hall of Fame induction time again (Ozzie Smith went in on Sunday), so we ought to at least mention the lunacy of baseball’s freezing Charlie Hustle out of Casa Immortality. First of all, it is irrational to deny the man who made the most hits in history a place in Ye O;de Shrine. Second, it is stupid. Third, it is not working: the only person the ban benefits is Pete himself. (analysis)

6. Deford develops his case with anecdotes about baseball fans, with the history of baseball commissioner’s unfair exclusion of other figures like Shoeless Joe Jackson in the early twentieth century, and finally with this admission:

7. Of course Pete Rose is guilty of betting on baseball. He’s as guilty as, well, Paul Hornung, who bet on NFL games while playing in the NFL but is properly plaqued in Canton. He’s as guilty as all sorts of putative baseball immortals who stoke up on steroids. But Rose was guilty only when he was a manager. Even if he bet on baseball, even if he disobeyed the infield fly rule or shot Cock Robin, there is not a scintilla of evidence that he did anything untoward when he was playing the game. Even if you fervently believe that Manager Rose soiled the National Pastime, how unfair, how unAmerican, is it that the glories of his youth should be censored by the sins of male menopause? That’s just not right. (analysis)

8. Writer/speaker persona or voice The word persona today is used to show the artfulness of the writer/speaker’s creation of voice, how deliberately the speaker selects words, tells stories (anecdotes), repeats phrases in order to help readers/listeners hear the voice the writer/speaker has decided will be most effective. (journal writings – three distinct personas)

9. Audience • A key to developing skill is rhetoric is an understanding of: • how a text appeals to an audience • the needs and the knowledge and the experience of the audience • In order to persuade the audience to a course of action based on a common search for truth.

10. Audience Appeals • A rhetor: • Employs logos (logic) by offering a clear, reasoned central idea (thesis) and developing it with appropriate evidence to appeal to an audience’s sense of logic. • Appeals to ethos (personal credibility) by offering evidence that he or she is credible – knows important and relevant information about the topic at hand and is a good, believable person who has the reader’s best interest in mind. • Appeals to pathos (emotion) by drawing on the emotions and interests of the audience so that they may be sympathetically inclined to accept and buy into the central ideas and arguments. (tie into Deford’s piece) (journal entry – employ three appeals)

11. Subject • It is vital for a successful rhetor to comprehend that what one decides to include in a text is intimately connected to why one is writing, whom one is writing to, and whatkind of text one is composing. • A text can never be effective rhetorically if it covers subject matter about which everybody agrees.

12. Good vs Bad Thesis • Shakespeare was a famous sixteenth and early seventeenth century English playwright. • VERSUS • Shakespeare was a famous late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century playwright whose plays demonstrate remarkable insights in European history and politics, even though Shakespeare himself never traveled or studied in Europe.

13. Arouse Curiosity • A successful rhetorician generates effective material by • capitalizing on what audience members already know • making them curious to know more about the topic • satisfying their curiosity by providing facts, ideas, and interpretations that build on what they already know.

14. Sky’s the limit • You can say anything you want IF you have the evidence and reasoning to back it up. • CLAIM + SUPPORT • Small group work: Read the editorial (page 14-15) answer the questions.

15. Occasion (context) • Every text arises from an occasion (context): • The convergence of the immediate situation calling forth the text • Any pertinent historical background information about the topic • The persona and identity of the rhetor, • and the knoeledge and beliefs of the audience.

16. Occasion - continued • Let’s say it is April 2007, and a writer is analyzing the cult of celebrity in American society in the wake of the death of celebrity icon Anna Nicole Smith in January 2007. • The writer would be remiss not to acknowledge: • Smith’s death and the media frenzy surrounding it • The details of Smith’s rise to fame • Her mysterious death • The writer should address all of these factors aspart of the occasion or context, whatever the writer’s position.

17. Occasion - continued • Occasion/context, then can be immediate or distant, bound by current events or historical patterns. • You might stop and consider how you would work with occasion if you were writing about celebrity culture. Is there an event that has happened in y our school of community that would proved evidence and help persuade or interest readers if you used it? • STANLEY CUP visits Madison area (legacy behind the traveling cup)

18. Purpose (intention) • A writer;s purpose is what he or she wants to happen as a result of the text, what he or she wants the audience to believe of do after reading the text. • Public transportation: • Advantages and disadvantages • People should use public transportation • Madison does not need high speed rail….

19. Genre • Every rhetor chooses to produce a certain type of text – genre appropriate for the intention and in the particular occasion/context. • Essay, speech, letter…….. • All must contain an intro, body, conclusion.

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