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Unit 1: Rhetoric: Language Impacting Communities. IB – English A American Literature ADV Tools of Rhetoric. Things You Need to Know about Unit 1:. Rhetoric elements will be a fundamental aspect of your success as a writer and speaker.
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Unit 1: Rhetoric: Language Impacting Communities IB – English A American Literature ADV Tools of Rhetoric
Things You Need to Know about Unit 1: • Rhetoric elements will be a fundamental aspect of your success as a writer and speaker. • You will be assessed repeatedly throughout Unit 1 on your ability to use rhetoric in a precise, organized, and non-hyperbolized manner. • What you learn in Unit 1 (rhetorical elements of language and organizational methods) will be a critical apparatus to your work in future units. • The writing strategies taught in this unit can be (and should be) used in other classes that hinge on writing as an assessed tool of understanding. • Speeches are essays, essays are speeches. They are one and the same.
IB Information • Area of Interaction: “Community and Service” • Unit Question: “How does ‘rhetoric’ and other factors of language devices impact communities, societies, and individuals?”
What is an “argument”? • Argument: An organized and well thought reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or opinion holds “validity”. • Purpose: Not to prove the opposing view to be incorrect, but that your opinion is equal to that of your opponent. You want your listener/reader to agree with you or to at least allow you to have your belief.
What is Rhetoric and Tools of Rhetoric? • Rhetoric: “Language designed to persuade an audience.” • Tools of Rhetoric: “Proper usage of language to engage the reader/listener by appealing to different emotional responses.”
Three Simplest Tools of Rhetoric • PATHOS – “Appealing to Emotion” • ETHOS – “Appealing to Character” • LOGOS – “Appealing to Logic”
First Appeal: PATHOS • Emotional Appeals (Pathos) are powerful tools for influencing how people think and what they believe, and therefore need to be used with caution. • A good argument will use more than just pathos – argues relying exclusively on pathos are weak arguments. • An argument that uses pathos correctly will leave the audience emotionally attached to the speaker/argument.
Example of Pathos in Students’ Writing… • “Oloudah Equiano’s drive was to rise above the chains of his slave boat past and to shed light on his struggles and redemption to freedom.” • “To become one with nature, to become one with God and fellow man, Transcendentalists believe that an individual should connect themselves to ‘the oversoul’.”
Three Reasons to Use Pathos: • Build bridges with an audience – connection • Keep an audience on edge emotionally • Create an emotional tug to pull audience into an argument (politicians sitting down with “regular” people)
Three Ways to Use Pathos: • Use “emotionally loaded” words • “freedom” • “liberty” • “love” • “caring” • Make it personal: tell stories, anecdotes, get them to know you or your topic • Use figurative language (imagery, metaphors, symbolism, etc.)
Why Use Pathos? • Pathos is centrally used when you want your listener to do something. • Buy something • Vote a certain way • Donate money
“Demagogue” • A person who only uses or overuses pathos in arguments.
Second Appeal: ETHOS • ETHOS: Appeal to Character, or the speaker’s ability to connect morally and ethically to the audience. To make the speaker identifiable to the audience. • Correct usage of ETHOS builds trust between the speaker and the audience making the speaker become “one of us”. • ETHOS builds authority in the speaker.
The Purpose of Ethos • Before someone listens to others, he or she must first respect their authority, admire their integrity and motives, or at least acknowledge what they stand for.
Three Reasons to Use ETHOS • ETHOS turns the speaker into an authority figure as well as an equal. • The audience wants to trust the speaker. • Audiences do not trust those and will not be convinced of an argument unless authority is expressed. This builds the speaker’s/writer’s “credibility”.
Credibility • The quality of being trusted and believed in. A credible source is one that the listener will have complete faith in.
Three Ways to Build Credibility • Admit what you don’t know. Showing your lack of knowledge builds trust in the things you do know. • “Coming clean” with your own biasness or subjective beliefs (“Yes, I have voted Republican in the past, but…” or “As a former-smoker, I…) • Avoid derogatory or generalized language about the opposition (“All Republicans are racists/ All Democrats are Socialists” or “Only ignorant parents smoke with kids in the car”)
Examples of Ethos from Students’ Writing… • “Although many valid arguments have been made that John Smith’s writings were incredible and hyperbolic, literary critics have ignored the importance of his works’ role in American culture.” • “Regardless of culture or socio-economic standing, all individuals crave the desire to feel ‘completed’ both spiritually and emotionally.”
Creating Credibility Through ETHOS • You must present an argument in a clear, learned fashion. The way the speaker presents him/herself reflects your authority of the topic. • Equate yourself to someone who is credible (“My good friend and colleague, Bill Gates, once told me a funny story…”). This connects you to that person. • Acknowledge the opposition and their opinion (“I understand exactly what you’re saying, however I disagree with…”
Third Appeal: LOGOS • When a speaker appeals to LOGIC, it is called LOGOS. • LOGOS is the presentation of facts, statistics, or undeniable truths – mathematics and/or scientific truths.
Why use LOGOS? • Usage of facts or universal truths renders the opposing opinion to your argument almost unarguable. • Using LOGOS makes the audience think the speaker is well-prepared and well-researched, assisting in credibility. • Audiences and readers quickly identify to LOGOS because it involves little thinking on their parts.
To Appeal to Logos use: • Literal and Historical Analogy • Definitions • Factual Data and Statistics • Quotations • Citations from Experts and Authorities
Examples of Logos • “In my years of research, I have discovered that 53% of high school grads who enter college will drop out within their first year.” • “If my parents buy me a car, they won’t need to let me borrow their car – allowing them to have more freedom.” • “According to Albert Einstein, ‘68% of all percentages are just made up on the spot.’”
Warnings About Logos • Be sure that the information presented as evidence is relative to your topic and/or argument. • Bring in factual information; unrelated or incorrect logic weakens your argument.
A Warning About Logic • Do not overuse LOGOS – it will make your argument be insanely boring • If a speaker incorrectly uses LOGOS, it will completely destroy any form of credibility he or she may have.
Undeniable Logical Truths If some animals have four legs. And dogs have four legs. Then logically all dogs are animals.
Deniable Logical Truths If some animals have four legs. And tables have four legs. Then logically tables are animals. I dontz
Undeniable Truths… maybe. I am nobody in the world. Nobody is perfect. I am perfect. Africa is hot. Elephants are in Africa. African elephants are hot. Brad Pitt is hot. Brad Pitt is an African Elephant. God is love. Love is blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Stevie Wonder is God. Nothing is better than a warm bath. A cold bath is better than nothing. A cold bath is better than a warm bath.
Review: • Pathos: to emotionally connect to your audience • Ethos: to connect to your audience as an equal and a credible authority figure. • Logos: to display undeniable truths to strengthen your ideas.
