The Power of Rhetoric : The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing.

1. The Power of Rhetoric:The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing.

2. Why evaluate a publication? • When an educated reader evaluates a text or source, he or she needs to analyze the printed evidence: • Who wrote this? • Why did they write it? • How credible is the author, the argument, and the evidence? • What rhetorical devices are they using to get the reader on their side? • What is the real intention or meaning and purpose of this text?

3. The rhetorical triangle is made up of three types of appeals: Ethos Logos Pathos

4. Ethos (related to the word “ethics”): • Appeal based on the speaker’s character, image, or ethics • This includes the: • Reputation • Credibility • Authority • of the: • Author • Publication • Reputation of referenced institutions conducting studies or research

5. Pathos (related to the word “pathetic”): • Appeal based on emotion • This includes: • Use of loaded, emotional language • Examples, case studies, and/or anecdotes intended to elicit strong emotional reactions from the reader • This type of appeal can be very powerful; people will do incredible things based on their feelings and emotions! • In some cases, people will totally deny and ignore facts to justify their feelings.

6. Logos (related to the word “logic”): • Appeal based on logic • This includes: • Use of facts, statistical data, research, and solid evidence (which can always be manipulated!) • Reasoning meant to appeal to good judgment, common sense, and logic

7. The most common rhetorical devices used in arguments: • Ambiguity: being vague and unclear • Figurative language: using figures of speech • Propaganda: information of a biased or misleading nature; used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view • Repetition: repeatedly emphasizing a point or phrase • Diction: word choice

8. Ambiguity • The term is used for words that suggest two or more appropriate meanings or that convey both a basic meaning and complex overtones of that meaning. • Sometimes, authors make deliberate choices of words that simultaneously cause several different streams of thought in the reader’s mind. • "Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that before.“ • Prostitutes Appeal to Pope (newspaper headline)

9. Figurative Language • Alliteration: using the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent words • Antithesis: a balance of opposites • Assonance: repetition of a vowel sound • Cliché: a phrase or opinion that is overused and lacks original thought • Hyperbole: extreme exaggeration • Idiom: a phrase that has a certain meaning that can’t be understood from the actual words • Irony: saying the opposite of what is really meant • Metaphor and Simile: comparing unlike things

10. Propaganda • Assertion: an enthusiastic or energetic statement presented as a fact, although it is not necessarily true • Bandwagon: follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well • Card stacking: presenting information that is positive to an idea and omitting negative information • Glittering generalities: indefinable words that have positive meaning and are linked to highly valued concepts • False analogy: two things that may or may not really be similar are portrayed as being similar

11. Propaganda • Faulty cause and effect: suggests that because B follows A, A must cause B; just because two events or two sets of data are related does not necessarily mean that one caused the other to happen • Name calling: derogatory words that carry a negative connotation when describing an enemy • Plain folks appeal: an attempt to convince others that the views presented reflect those of common people

12. Types of Repetition • Repetition of single word, with no other words in between. • Anaphora: repeating a sequence of words at the beginning of a clause to cause emphasis • “I have a dream… I have a dream…” – MLK, Jr. • Epistrophe: repeating a sequence of words at the end of a clause to cause emphasis • “There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

13. Diction • The precise choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. • I don’t like her. VS I hate that witch so bad I want to claw her face off! • He’s good looking. VS He’s smoking hot. • It was raining. VS The mist hung heavy in the air as droplets of water converged to form a steadily increasing shower of rain that seemed to wash away all of the stress from my day as I sat on the park bench. • The house is scary at night. VS Lying in bed with the sheet pulled over my head, I was petrified as I heard terrifying creaks and moans echoing from within the walls of the house that seemed to play host to unsettled spirits of the past.