AN INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC:

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC: USING THE “AVAILABLE MEANS”

2. Rhetoric = Persuasion of an Audience • Used effectively, rhetoric can: • Resolve conflicts without confrontation • Persuade readers or listeners to support your position • Move others to take action

3. “Forrest Gump” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQZJHfWf9U “Forrest Gump” When Bubba goes home, 3 mins. What words make you want to cry/feel sad? How would you describe Bubba’s attitude towards his own death? How would you describe Forrest’s attitude towards Bubba’s dying?

4. “Spaceballs” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5drjr9PmTMA “Spaceballs”, When will then be now/ 2 mins. What words make you laugh/smile?

5. “The Newsroom” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGAvwSp86hY “The Newsroom”, tea party, 6 mins. What words make you angry? How does the speaker feel about his subject? What does he want his audience to feel?

6. “Hotel Rwanda” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qx7JMpOI “Hotel Rwanda” cut down the tall trees 3 mins. What is said that makes you feel afraid? How does the speaker feel about the “tall trees”? What is he really saying?

7. “Shawshank Redemption” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718RlaIYBlo “Shawshank Redemption” opera for all, 4 mins. What made you feel inspired? So what else besides words can make you feel something? Music? Character’s actions? Facial expressions? Gestures? Characters interacting? How does character convey his defiance and euphoria?

8. “Poltergeist” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdUkPu_rXo0 “Poltergeist” clown, 4 mins. What words, actions, music, lighting, other, causes your fear? Cause the boy’s terror?

9. “To Kill A Mockingbird”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRmIef02Ajk “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Hey, Boo, 2 mins. What words, music, actions, lighting, etc. cause you to feel wistful, compassionate, thankful, and/or reflective? How do you think Scout’s feelings are portrayed here? How would you describe Atticus’s feelings?

10. “The Dead” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6FGIaWaQxA “The Dead” all over Ireland, 5 mins. What emotions does this scene evoke in you, and what emotions does the speaker feel? What words, actions, lighting and/or music help convey the speaker’s feelings and evoke your feelings?

11. Key Elements of Rhetoric: • Read Lou Gehrig’s speech in your handout (pp1-2) and listen to it now: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsLyJKK6MGk&feature=topics

12. What makes Gehrig’s speech so good? • Context, purpose, thesis, subject, speaker and audience: • First, Gehrig understood the context (the occasion, time and place: Appreciation Day in his honor, at Yankee Stadium after he’s received his diagnosis.) • Gehrig delivers his speech between games of a double header. (Context)

13. What else? • Gehrig also had a goal or purpose to achieve with his speech. • He knows everyone is celebrating his career, and he doesn’t want them to pity him. He only refers to his illness once, because his focus is on acknowledging his success and getting back in the game! (Purpose)

14. And finally: • Gehrig has a clear main idea (thesis, claim, or assertion): He is “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” • Gehrig knows his subject (baseball w/ the Yankees) • Although he is a gifted ball player, as a speaker, Gehrig presents himself as a common man, modest and thankful for his opportunities. • He knows his audience is his fans and fellow athletes.

15. Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle:

16. When you write, consider first your persona: • What is your identity (persona) as the writer? • Poet? • Comedian? • Scholar? • Expert? • Critic? • Concerned Citizen?

17. Who is your audience? • English class? • Employer? • College admissions counselors? • Your whole community?

18. Appeals to Ethos, Logos, Pathos: • Ethos: speakers appeal to ethos (character), to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy. • Appeals to ethos can emphasize shared values between the speaker and the audience. • A speaker’s reputation can establish ethos. • The speaker’s ethos (expertise and knowledge, experience, training, sincerity or a combination of these) gives the audience a reason for listening.

19. Appeals to Logos: • Writers and speakers appeal to logos (reason) by offering clear, rational ideas. • Appealing to logos means having a clear main idea (thesis) backed up by specific details, examples, facts, statistical data or expert testimony. • A counterargument is another appeal to logos. By acknowledging opposing views, making concessions and then refuting the opposing view’s validity, you demonstrate your persuasive strength.

20. Appeals to Pathos: • Appeals to pathos are appeals to emotion. • Appeals to pathos engage your audience’s feelings. • Appeals to pathos can be made by using words with strong connotations. • Personal anecdotes and figurative language, achieve pathos. • Arguments that appeal only to pathos (emotions) are usually propagandist in purpose and more polemical than persuasive. • The visual can carry strong emotional appeal.

21. Analyzing Elements of Rhetoric in an Argument: • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051201817_pf.html

22. Analyzing Jody Heyman’s Elements of Rhetoric: Ethos: • By referring to “our government”, Heyman establishes ethos in her opening paragraph, indicating that even though she is being critical, she is doing so on behalf of the audience. • To further cement her ethos, in the very next paragraph, Heyman provides information that establishes her as a credible expert: she has collected data for Harvard and McGill universities.

23. Heyman’sAudience: • Heyman’s article was an opinion piece appearing in The Washington Post, a well-respected liberal-leaning publication, thus Heyman may assume her audience will be more receptive to her position. • It is always important to know where any article was first published, because this can give you a better understanding of the audience the writer was targeting.

24. Heyman’sLogos: • Heyman frames her view not as a women’s rights issue but as an economic one. • She develops her argument for several paragraphs with facts and figures, from data she has collected. • She cites policies in other countries, contrasting their policies with those of the US. • She appeals to reason by analyzing cause and effect. When she compares situations of low- and middle-income mothers, she emphasizes the effect on each group of not having paid sick leave or “work flexibility.”

25. Heyman’sLogos, con’d: • Heyman notes the disparity between men’s and women’s working conditions in order to emphasize the burdens carried by women, who are less likely to have the means to shoulder them. • Heyman continues her appeals to logos by refuting “myths” in three counterarguments. She refutes the myth that decent work conditions will lead to high unemployment by citing Iceland’s low unemployment, paid annual leave and sick leave.

26. Heyman’sPathos: • By using the occasion of Mother’s Day and the warm feelings surrounding it to appeal to the audience’s emotions, Heyman uses pathos. • “If politicians…in the US really valued mothers and families on Mother’s Day,” she suggests, they would enact policies she advocates. • By writing, “Happy Mother’s Day” in her final sentence, Heyman uses the emotional power of Mother’s Day to compel readers to consider her argument.

27. Einstein’s letter to Phyllis Wright: • http://servantoftheservant-ananda.blogspot.com/2011/05/in-1936-albert-einstein-wrote-following.html

28. Analyzing Einstein’s letter: • How rhetorically effective do you find Einstein’s response? • Explain your answer in terms of subject, speaker, audience; context and purpose; and appeals to logos, ethos and pathos.

29. Visual Rhetoric:

30. Tom Toles’ cartoon on Rose Parks:subject, speaker and audience: • Political cartoons are often satiric, but not always. • The subject: the death of Rose Parks, a well-known person loved by many. • The speaker: Tom Toles, respected, award-winning political cartoonist. • The audience: readers of The Washington Post and other newspapers, a very broad audience, whom Toles can assume share his respect and grief.

31. Toles’ context and purpose: • The context: a memorial for a well-loved civil rights activist. • Toles’ purpose: to remember Parks as an ordinary citizen whose courage and determination brought extraordinary results.

32. Toles’ use of ethos, pathos and logos: • Ethos: established through readers’ familiarity with Toles, along with his respect for his subject. • Pathos: established by showing Parks, a devout Christian entering heaven, wearing a simple coat and carrying her pocketbook, as she did on the bus, being greeted by St. Peter probably. • Both pathos and logos are appealed to through the caption. Its emotional appeal is its acknowledgement that of course, heaven would wait for this good woman, but the mention of “the front row” appeals to logic, because Parks made her mark in history by refusing to sit in the back of the bus.

33. Arrangement in The Classical Model • The Introduction: • The introduction (exordium) introduces the reader to the subject under discussion. In Latin, exordium means “beginning a web,” which is an apt description for an introduction. • Whether a single paragraph or several, the introduction draws the readers into the text by piquing their interest, challenging them, or otherwise getting their attention.

34. Arrangement in the Classical Model: • The Narration: • The narration (narratio) provides factual information and background material on the subject at hand, thus beginning the developmental paragraphs, or establishes why the subject is a problem that needs addressing. • The level of detail a writer uses in this section depends largely on the audience’s knowledge of the subject. • Although classical rhetoric describes narration as appealing to logos, in actuality it often appeals to pathos because the writer attempts to evoke an emotional response about the importance of the issue being discussed.

35. Arrangement in the Classical Model: • The Confirmation: • The confirmation (confirmatio) usually the major part of the text, includes the development or the proof needed to make the writer’s case—the nuts and bolts of the essay, containing the most specific and concrete detail in the text. • The confirmation generally makes the strongest appeal to logos.

36. Arrangement in the Classical Model: • The Refutation: • The refutation (refutatio) which addresses the counterargument, is in many ways a bridge between the writer’s proof and conclusions. Although classical rhetoricians recommended placing this section at the end of the text to anticipate objections to proofs from the confirmation, this is not a hard-and-fast rule. • The counterargument’s appeal is largely to logos.

37. Arrangement in the Classical Model: • The Conclusion: • The conclusion (peroratio)—whether it is one paragreaph or several, brings the essay to a satisfying close. • Here the writer usually appeals to pathos and reminds the reader of the ethos established earlier. • Rather than simply repeating what has gone before, the conclusion brings all the writer’s ideas together and answers the question, So what? • Writers should remember the classical rhetoricians’ advice that the last words and ideas of a text are those the audience is most likely to remember.

38. Not By Math Alone: The Classical Model: • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032401621.html

39. Analysis of Example of Classical Model: • Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer follow the classical model closely. • The last sentence is their two-part claim/thesis: • “Most young people today simply do not have an adequate understanding of how our government and political system work, and they are thus not well prepared to participate as citizens.”

40. Analysis of Example of Classical Model: • O’Connor’s position as a Supreme Court justice establishes her ethos as a reasonable person, an advocate for justice and a concerned citizen. Romer’s bio note at the end of the article suggests similar qualities. • The authors use the pronoun “we” to refer not only to themselves but to all of “us” who are concerned about American society. (ethos) • The opening phrase “Fierce global competition” connotes a sense of urgency, and the warning that we are not adequately preparing our young to participate as citizens evokes an emotional concern/alarm. (pathos)

41. Analysis of Example of Classical Model: • In paragraphs 3-6—the narration—the authors provide background info, including facts that add urgency to their point. They cite statistics, quote from research reports, even call on John Dewey, famous education expert. • They also include a definition of “civic learning,” a key term in their argument. • Their facts and figures appeal is largely to logos, though the language of “a healthy democracy” certainly engages the emotions. (pathos)

42. Another type of Arrangement: Patterns of Development • Another way to consider arrangement is according to purpose. • Is the writer’s purpose to compare and contrast, to narrate an event, to define a term? • Each of these purposes suggests a method of organization, or arrangement. • These patterns of development include a range of logical ways to organize an entire text or, individual paragraphs or sections.

43. Using Narration to develop your idea: • Narration refers to telling a story or recounting a series of events. • It can be based on personal experience or knowledge gained from reading or observation. • Chronology usually governs Narration, which includes concrete detail, a point of view and sometimes dialogue. • Narration is about an appealing story, but more than that it is about crafting a story that supports your thesis. • Writers often use Narration as a way to enter into their topics.

44. Rebecca Walker using Narration: • http://www.amazon.com/What-Makes-Man-Writers-Imagine/dp/1594480680#reader_1594480680

45. What Walker is doing: • Walker brings her audience into her experience with her son by narrating step-by-step what happened and what she noticed when he returned from school. • It’s not only a personal story but also one that she will show has wider significance in the culture. • Narration has the advantage of drawing readers in because everyone loves a good story.

46. Using Description to develop your idea: • Description, like Narration, includes many specific details. • Unlike Narration, Description emphasizes the sense by painting a picture of how something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels. • Description is often used to establish a mood or atmosphere. • Description is persuasive because it invites empathy with you, your subject and/or your argument.

47. Barbara Ehrenreich uses Description: • I make friends, over time, with the other "girls" who work my shift: Nita, the tattooed twenty-something who taunts us by going around saying brightly, "Have we started making money yet?" Ellen, whose teenage son cooks on the graveyard shift and who once managed a restaurant in Massachusetts but won't try out for management here because she prefers being a "common worker" and not "ordering people around."Easygoing fiftyish Lucy, with the raucous laugh, who limps toward the end of the shift because of something that has gone wrong with her leg, the exact nature of which cannot be determined without health insurance. We talk about the usual girl things - men, children, and the sinister allure of Jerry's chocolate peanut-butter cream pie… • http://www.scribd.com/doc/39269767/Barbara-Ehrenreich-Nickel-and-Dimed

48. What Ehrenreich is doing: • Ehrenreich’s primary purpose here is to humanize her coworkers and make her readers understand their struggle to survive on the minimum wage. • To achieve this, she makes them specific living-and-breathing human beings who are “tattooed” or have a “raucous laugh”.

49. Narration and Description working together: • George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” essay: • http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/

50. Orwell’s text excerpt: • When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick – one never does when a shot goes home – but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd. In that instant, in too short a time, one would have thought, even for the bullet to get there, a mysterious, terrible change had come over the elephant. He neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered. He looked suddenly stricken, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralysed him without knocking him down. At last, after what seemed a long time – it might have been five seconds, I dare say – he sagged flabbily to his knees. His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him. One could have imagined him thousands of years old. I fired again into the same spot. At the second shot he did not collapse but climbed with desperate slowness to his feet and stood weakly upright, with legs sagging and head drooping. I fired a third time. That was the shot that did for him. You could see the agony of it jolt his whole body and knock the last remnant of strength from his legs. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, for as his hind legs collapsed beneath him he seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, his belly towards me, with a crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay.