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Learn about rhetoric, the art of persuasive language use, and the essential elements of the rhetorical triangle - speaker, audience, and message.
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This presentation will probably involve audience discussion, which will create action items. Use PowerPoint to keep track of these action items during your presentation • In Slide Show, click on the right mouse button • Select “Meeting Minder” • Select the “Action Items” tab • Type in action items as they come up • Click OK to dismiss this box • This will automatically create an Action Item slide at the end of your presentation with your points entered. The Rhetorical Triangle
What is rhetoric? • The art or study of using languageeffectively and persuasively. [American Heritage College Dictionary] • “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available meansof persuasion.” [Aristotle]
Aristotle believed that from the world around them, speakers could: • observe how communication happens and • use that to develop sound and convincing arguments.
What is Rhetoric? • What is said (message) • Who is saying it (speaker) • Who is listening (audience) • Where / when it is being said (context, appeals) • Why it is being said (purpose) • How it is being said (tone, style)
Aristotle said that when a rhetor (speaker) begins to consider how to compose a speech, he/she must take into account 3 elements: the message, the audience, and the speaker. Speaker Audience Message
What is the Rhetorical Triangle? • Shows the relationship between speaker, audience, message, style, purpose, tone • Understanding these rhetorical elements makes both writing and analysis much clearer
Speaker The writer/speaker uses: • who they are, • what they know and feel, and • what they’ve seen and done to find their attitudes toward a subject and their understanding of audience.
The Author / Speaker • Gender / racial / geographical/ socioeconomic/ political orientation of author • Author Bias / hidden agenda • Other important biographical information may affect text
Audience The writer/speaker: • speculates about audience expectations and knowledge of subject, and • uses own experience and observation to help decide on how to communicate with audience.
The Audience • Are they friend or foe? (hostile or sympathetic) • How will they receive the message? • How will they affect tone? style? • Who is the intentional audience? • Who is the unintentional audience? • Over time, does the message/effect of the message change as the audience changes?
Message The writer/speaker: • evaluates what he/she knows already and needs to know, • investigates perspectives (researches), and • determines kinds of evidence or proofs seem most useful (supports assertions with appropriate evidence).
The Message • What is the main point being made? In other words, what is the writer’s / speaker’s thesis? • Look at the message as an argument / position being sold to the audience. What is the author trying to convince the audience of?
The Message • Consider this when trying to identify the exact message: • What is the topic (1-2 words) about which the piece is written? • What is the most important aspect or perspective about that topic that the author wants you to understand? • What, exactly, does the author want the reader to think/do/feel/say? • What is the “no” on the other side of the author’s “yes?” (And vice versa)
Context and Purpose Context: the situation in which writing and reading occur Purpose: the emerging aim that underlies many of the writer’s decisions
The Tone • What is the author’s attitude about his / her subject / message? • What words in the message let you know the tone? • How does the selection of the tone affect the audience’s reception of the message? Is it appropriate for the occasion/subject matter?
