Rhetorical Strategies Chapter 3

1. Rhetorical StrategiesChapter 3

2. What is Rhetorical Strategy? • Rhetoric is the method a writer or speaker uses to communicate their ideas to an audience. • A strategy is the plan or a course of action taken to reach a goal. • A rhetorical strategy is the specific approach a writer uses to achieve a purpose.

3. There’s that purpose thing again… • Remember that purpose is the reason why a person chooses to communicate with an audience – the goal, the intended effect.

4. Purposes usually include: • To inform • To entertain • To question • To argue • To elicit an emotional response

5. So where does Rhetoric come in? • HOW the author accomplishes their purpose is called rhetorical strategy.

6. Types of Rhetoric: • Cause/Effect • Classification/Division • Contrast/Comparison • Definition • Description • Exemplification • Narration • Process/Analysis

7. So how do you choose what to use? • It never matters how long or short the piece of writing is, an author uses one or more rhetorical strategies in order to achieve their purpose. • First step is to know who your audience is and to always write to that group.

8. Exemplification (Example) • Most frequently used rhetorical strategy. • The fundamental ways a writer can illustrate, support and clarify ideas include referring to a: • Sample • Detail • Person • Typical event

9. Example of Exemplification in Action • The new bread-and-circuses approach to mall building was ventured in 1985 by the four Ghermezian brothers…builders of Canada’s $750 million West Edmonton Mall, which included a water slide, an artificial lake, a miniature golf course, a hockey rink, and forty-seven rides in an amusement park known as Fantasyland. -David Guterson, “Enclosed, Encyclopedic, Endured. The Mall of America,” Harper’s Magazine

10. How to use Exemplification • Choose your subject. • Choose your purpose. • Identify your audience. • Choose possible examples. • Look at list of possible examples. Limit your choices to the best two or three. Then decide how to present your examples to your audience.

11. Choosing an organizational pattern: • Spatial (where it fits in a physical area) • Chronological (time sequence) • Most important to least important • The one that needs greatest emphasis (either goes first or last) • Least important to most important

12. Now what? • Write your thesis statement. • Thesis statements should tell the reader the subject and purpose of the paper without giving away the entire discussion.

13. Contrast/Comparison • Second most widely used rhetorical strategy. • Contrast is interested in differences. • Comparison is interested in similarities, but is used alone when referred to both types of analysis.

14. Hang on… isn’t analysis a type of rhetorical strategy too? • Yes, but comparison is also a form of analysis because you are taking something apart.

15. Example of Contrast/Comparison • As different as [Grant and Lee] were – in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration – these two great soldiers had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous fighters. Furthermore, their fighting qualities were really very much alike. -Bruce Catton, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts,” The American Story

16. Forming a clear comparison: • Dependent on choosing two things that can be compared, being aware of your purpose and audience, and using a balanced organization strategy. • Three primary forms of organizing a Compare and Contrast paper: • Subject-by-subject • Point-by-point • The combination approach

17. Subject-by-Subject • Presents the details about the first item and then the details about the second. • So… all points of the first item being compared are presented and then all points about the second.

18. Point-by-Point Organization • The writer discusses one point at a time, going back and forth between the two items. • In longer texts, a writer may choose to employ a combination of these two approaches. This is rare in shorter pieces of writing because it becomes too confusing to the reader.

19. Cause and Effect • At the risk of sounding like math class - as a result of A, B occurs. • The linkage of topic a and b occur along a timeline. • When considering causes, consider: • Primary causes • Contributing causes • Immediate causes • Remote causes

20. Examples of Causes • If someone asks why you are applying to college: • Primary Cause: I want to have a successful career in ______________. • Contributing Cause: I like the sound of “college graduate”. • Immediate Cause: My parents want me to apply. • Remote Cause: My grandmother went to college.

21. Effects • There are also primary, contributing, immediate and remote effects as well. For example: • Primary Effect: I will be the head of a new ________. • Contributing Effect: People will respect me. • Immediate Effect: My parents will be happy. • Remote Effect: My kids will go to college.

22. Example of Cause and Effect • Some of this shift away from words – toward images – can be attributed to our ever-growing multilingual population. But for many people, reading is passe or impractical or, like, so totally unnecessary in this day and age. -Linton Weeks, “The No-Book Report: Skim It and Weep,” The Washington Post, May 14, 2001

23. Classification and Division • The true “work horses” of rhetoric. • Could use these for almost any purpose and subject. • Classification is the process of grouping items together that share important characteristics. Moves from specific to general. • Division goes form the whole (general) to the parts (specific).

24. Example of Classification and Divison • I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language – the way it can evoke emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all – all the Englishes I grew up with. -Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”, Threepenny Review, 1990

25. Groups for Classification/Division • All groups must be: • Uniform – This is the principle on which the groups were created. All categories should fit under one topic. • Consistent – All categories fit into the principle you’ve created. • Exclusive – No category overlaps another. • Complete – All of the examples included are grouped into appropriate categories based on purpose.

26. Process Analysis • Process Analysis is the method of describing how to perform a task or explaining how something works by breaking it down into the chronologically ordered steps that lead to the goal.

27. Two forms of Process Analysis: • Directive: provides step-by-step instructions. • Informative: explains how something works. • No matter if it is directive or informative, the process analysis should be in sequential, chronological order.

28. Example of Process Analysis: • In personal situations, complaints may come the way of vague statements… While there may be more serious relationship issues at hand, there is a specific way to help the situation. What you want to do is to have him get as specific as possible about what is bothering him. -David Lieberman, Get Anyone to Do Anything: Never Feel Powerless Again – With Psychological Secrets to Control and Influence Every Situation

29. Definition • A definition is the meaning of a word. • Authors can be: • Denotative/objective: acting like a dictionary • Connotative/subjective: giving you her personal meaning and relationship with the word.

30. Example of Connotative • Being a hippie is not about putting a flower in your hair and dancing around in your bare feet. Being a hippie means approaching life’s obstacles in a way that promotes freedom, peace, love and respect for our earth and all of mankind. -Katherine Marie DiFillippo, “Love or Haight”, Making Sense, A New Rhtorical Reader

31. Example of Denotative: • …in a very real sense, crime is a legal concept: what makes some conduct criminal, and other conduct not, is the fact that some, but not others, are “against the law”. Crimes, then, are forbidden acts. But they are forbidden in a special way. -Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History

32. Descriptive • A writer uses description to recreate a person, place, thing, or idea in ways that appeal to the senses. • Description can be either informative or impressionistic/evocative.

33. Two Types of Description • Informative description is the one that is factual, practical and to the point. • The impressionistic/ evocative description appeals to the reader’s senses, intellect and emotions.

34. Organizational Pattern for Descriptive Rhetoric • Chronological (time sequence) • Spatial (positions from a particular point of view) • Most noticeable feature (details in relation to this feature) • Importance (details used to reinforce the most important feature)

35. Descriptive Tools • A description can use both objective and subjective language. If subjective language is used, this can include figurative language. • Figurative language includes: • Metaphor (direct comparison) • Simile (indirect comparison) • Concrete words • Imagery • Onomatopoeia

36. Narration • In narration, a writer tells or retells a sequence of events within a particular time frame for a specific purpose. • A narrative can be of any length when used as a rhetorical strategy. This ranges from a simple anecdote to the complete presentation.

37. Organization in Narrative • No matter what the purpose, time frame, or sequence, a narration needs a point of view. Choices include: • First person (I, we, us) • Stream-of-consciousness, an off-shoot of first person, allows the reader to enter the mind of the narrator and be privy to the workings of his mind. • Third person (he, she, they, them) • With third person objective, the narrator acts as a reporter; • With third person omniscient, the narrator knows all.

38. Example of Narration • My guardian angel was a light sleeper. He saved me from speeding cars, playground fights, and mercury splashing on my face. That was in fifth grade when we stole balls of mercury from the science teacher to shine coins and belt buckles. Finished, we closed one eye and flung the mercury at each other and giggled all the way to lunch. -Gary Soto, “The Guardian Angel”, A Summer Life

39. Narrative Prewriting • Narratives demand their own special prewriting routines. Before composing, you should consider the following: • The point to be made (theme) • The point of view • The temporal basis for the story (setting) • The time • The place, major plot • Major sequence of events • Characters • Conflict • Major details for the story

40. Argument/Persuasion • ALL writing is argument because all writers attempt to have their readers believe and accept the point being made by their presentations. • Argument: employs logical reasoning • Persuasion: a combination of logic and emotion.

41. Example of Argument • Institutions stop teaching and set aside entire weeks for [comprehensive final] tests. Some even give students extra days without classes before exam week to prepare. Legends of all-nighters…abound. Clearly, many alumni have fond memories of these academic hell weeks – of having survived and proved themselves. Yet maybe this great tradition is dysfunctional. -Karl L. Schilling and Karen Maitland Schilling, “Final Exams Discourage True Learning,” Chronical of Higher Learning, February 2, 1994

42. Organization in the Argumentative Essay • See pages 69-70 to avoid logical fallacies.

43. Sample Statements • For further comprehension, look at the sample statements found on page 72. These are samples of each form of Rhetoric we just discussed.