Mastering Rhetoric & Writing: Skills for Effective Communication

1. Introduction AP English

2. Today’s Objectives • Be able to define rhetoric • Know the skills involved in writing • Be able to define the qualities of good writing • Be able to define and determine rhetorical stance

3. I. Why We Write • We write to preserve our thoughts and communicate them to others • Communicate • Preserve • To get it right • To create

4. Rhetoric • The art of using language to its best possible effect • Teach • Delight • Move

5. Modern Rhetorician • Dedicated to the effective and forceful use of language • Shuns verbal trickery, sophistry, and all forms of sensationalism • Searches out truth • Makes appeals to reason

6. II. Becoming a more effective Writer A. Writing requires several composite skills

7. Mental: the ability to think clearly and to organize ideas • Psychological: you must feel free and relaxed

8. Rhetorical: you must know the fundamentals of the craft • Critical: once you have written something, you must be able to judge it, to know whether it is good or bad, and if it is bad, how to fix it

9. There is NO writing; only rewriting • Make the finished version seem effortless

10. Thinking Planning Assembly Classifying Organizing This is important for clear presentation. Writing Involves:

11. III. Qualities of Good Writing • Economy • Inflict no unnecessary words on your reader • Economical writing is efficient and aesthetically satisfying • E.B. White quote on xxxiii

12. B. Simplicity 1. avoid embellishment and embroidery • it does not mean that all of your sentences need to sound like a 2nd grade reading book • Examine quote on xxxiii

13. C. Clarity • Render ideas in clear, orderly, readable, understandable prose • Expository writing should be readable, informative, and whenever possible, engaging

14. D. Rhetorical Stance • Who you readers are (audience) • What is your purpose for writing a. Why are you addressing your audience and on what occasion • IMPORTANT: REMEMBER IT

15. Don’t Forget Aristotle • Ethos- appeal to the credibility of the author • Pathos- appeal on the emotions of the audience • Logos- Logical reasoning Good writing should contain ALL three.

16. IV. A Pleasing Style • A writer should draw upon personal and aesthetic effects that enhance writing without distorting it • Rhetorical Devices to know • Balanced antithesis (598) • Periodic sentence (601) • Rhetorical question (600) • Parallelism (596 – 598)