Discussion 2-2

a. Which specific emotions does the author evoke? (Note: Although there are several different approaches to categorizing and describing emotions, I recommend referring to Robert Plutchik’s evolutionary biological framework, which he dubbed the “Wheel of Emotion” (1980), for it is cited regularly in contemporary research and can be located quite easily on the Internet)

b. How does she do it?

c. How does the author use these emotions as a tool to persuade the audience?

3. Logos – Loosely defined, logos refers to the use of logic, reason, facts, statistics, data, and numbers. Very often, logos seems tangible and touchable, so much more real and “true” than other rhetorical strategies that it does not seem like a persuasive strategy at all.

a. How and why does the author or speaker chose logos?

b. How does the author show there are good reasons to support his or her argument?

c. What kinds of evidence does he or she use?

Some Organizational Strategies:

In the world of rhetoric, organization refers to the arrangement of ideas and information within a text.

There are different ways of thinking about organization. For instance, some authors might approach organization from the traditional Introduction, Body, and Conclusion framework. Although this seems simple, what happens in each section—especially the Body of a text—regarding the arrangement of ideas and information can be quite complicated.

In the following section, I present 11 different approaches to organizing/arranging information. This list is not exhaustive, but it covers many of the most common approaches to arranging ideas.

As you work through them, keep these two questions in the back of your mind:

· How does this structure or organization help strength the argument?

· What headings or titles does the author use? How do these strengthen the argument?

1. Cause and effect analysis—Analyzes why something happens and describes the consequences of a string of events.

a. Does the author examine past events or their outcomes?

b. Is the purpose to inform, speculate, or argue about why an identifiable fact happens the way it does?

2. Chronological: The argument is organized to describe information in time order, like a baseball game from the first pitch to the last at-bat.

3. Comparison and contrast—Discusses the similarities and differences between two or more objects. This organizational approach can either address one point of comparison for two (or more) objects at a time, or it can take a block method approach to analyzing similarities and/or differences between two (or more) things.

a. Does the text contain two or more related subjects?

b. How are they alike? different?

c. How does this comparison further the argument or a claim?

4. Definition –When authors define certain words, these definitions are specifically formulated for the specific purpose he or she has in mind. In addition, these definitions are crafted uniquely for the intended audience.

a. Who is the intended audience?

b. Does the text focus on any abstract, specialized, or new terms that need further explanation so the readers understand the point?

c. How has the speaker or author chosen to define these terms for the audience?

d. What effect might this definition have on the audience, or how does this definition help further the argument?

5. Description: Details sensory perceptions of a person, place, or thing, and these perceptions likely utilize a combination of details connected to sight, feel, taste, touch, and sound.

a. Does a person, place, or thing play a prominent role in the text?

b. Does the tone, pacing, or overall purpose of the essay benefit from sensory details?

c. What emotions might these details evoke in the audience? (See Pathos)

d. How does this description help the author further the argument?

6. Division and classification: Divides a whole into parts or sorts related items into categories.

a. Is the author trying to explain a broad and complicated subject?

b. Does it benefit the text to reduce this subject to more manageable parts to focus the discussion?

7. Exemplification: Provides examples or cases in point used to strengthen or support another idea.

a. What examples, facts, statistics, cases in point, personal experiences, or interview questions does the author add to illustrate claims or illuminate the argument?

b. What effect might these have on the reader?

8. Narration: Recounts an event.

a. Is the narrator trying to report or recount an anecdote, an experience, or an event? Is it telling a story?

b. How does this narrative illustrate or clarify the claim or argument?

c. What effect might this story have on the audience?

d. How does this narrative further the argument?

9. Problem – Solution: The argument presents a problem and a possible solution, such as making coffee at home to avoid spending extra money.

10. Spatial: The argument follows a visual direction, such as describing a house from the inside to the outside, or a person from their head down to their toes.

11. Topical: The argument is organized according to subtopics, like describing a baby’s bubble bath first in terms of the soap used, then the water conditions, and lastly the type of towels.

Additional Rhetorical Strategies:

1. Analogy—A comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple.

2. (Unstated) assumptions – Also known as hidden assumptions, hidden beliefs, and ideologies. Unstated assumptions, many of them unconscious, are beliefs or values that groups of people hold in common.

a. What hidden assumptions or beliefs does the speaker have about the topic? How is the speaker or author appealing to the hidden assumptions of the audience?

b. Who is the intended audience of this piece? What are some assumptions of this intended audience?

3. Authorities or “big names” – Frequently an author will quote from a famous person or well-known authority on the topic being discussed.

a. How does this appeal to authority build trust in her argument that the consensus can be trusted?

b. How does this appeal tap into assumptions about scientific method?

4. Figures of Speech—There is a surprising sum of these stimulating, sumptuous, yet sporadically frustrating uses of language (see what I did there). Typically, a figure of speech is defined as a form of expression that establishes a figurative, not a literal, connection or association. And, there are a few specific characteristics of figures of speech of which RWS students should be aware:

First, there are a few general purposes for the use of figures of speech. Possibly the most common are

1. Repetition/addition of language

2. Omission/subtraction of language

3. Substitution of language

And second, Western linguistics has separated figures of speech into two categories.

1. Scheme—a figure of speech in which the regular arrangement or pattern of words is altered.

2. Trope—a figure of speech in which the usual meaning of words is changed.

Here are some common “schemes” and “tropes”:

1. Alliteration—repetition of the same first consonant sound in a series of words.

2. Allusion—a brief, unexplained reference to another text, person, or event.

3. Asyndeton—the omission of conjunctions between related clauses. Polysyndeton is the inclusion of conjunctions between items.

4. Euphemism—the substitution of a more offensive or harsh term for one that is more agreeable or less grating.

5. Hyperbole (exaggeration): deliberate overstatement of something in order to create emphasis or perhaps humor.

6. Metaphor: a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another by being spoken of as though it were that thing: e.g. “a sea of troubles.”

7. Parenthesis— the addition of a word, clause, or sentence that is inserted as an explanation or afterthought into a passage that is grammatically complete without it

8. Paronomasia (pun)—the substitution of one word for another in which both words sound similar but possess different meanings.

9. Personification: the attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or inanimate object. Ideas and abstractions can also be personified. It is a metaphorical representation.

10. Simile: a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities.

11. Understatement: a statement that says less than what it means. This is the opposite of hyperbole. It is a technique for developing irony and/or humor in which one writes or says less than what is intended.

5. Identification – This is rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s term for the act of “identifying” with another person who shares your values or beliefs. Many speakers or authors try to identify with an audience or convince an audience to identify with them and their argument.

a. How does the author build a connection between himself or herself and the audience?

6. Juxtaposition—the placement of two items, images, characters, or visual texts side-by-side or adjacent to each other. Although there can be multiple reasons for using this rhetorical strategy, traditionally, authors will place two things side-by-side in order to highlight certain similarities, or as it is more commonly used, to point out noticeable differences.

7. Metadiscourse – Metadiscourse can be described as language about language. It announces to the reader what the writer is doing, helping the reader to recognize the author’s plan. (Example: In my paper . . .) Metadiscourse can be used both to announce the overall project or purpose of the paper and to announce its argument. It also provides signposts along the way, guiding the reader to what will come next and showing how that is connected to what has come before.

a. Metadiscourse can signal the tone the author wants to convey. What is the author’s voice in this paper? How does she enter in and guide the reader through the text?

b. What role does she adopt? What voice does she use?

8. Motive – Sometimes an author may reference the motives of his or her opponents.

a. Why we should or shouldn’t trust someone’s argument –(ex. if the CEO of Krispy Kreme doughnuts argues against nutritional information on product packaging)

9. Precedent – When an author or speaker argues from precedent, he or she references a previous situation, one that can be compared to the author’s situation.

a. Does the author reference any historic instances that he or she claims are similar to the one being discussed?

b. What details about this historic situation help the author’s argument?

10. Prolepsis – Anticipating the opposition’s best argument and addressing it in advance.

a. Readers interact with the texts they read, and often that interaction includes disagreement or asking questions of the text.

b. Authors can counter disagreement by answering anticipating the opposition and introducing it within the text. Authors then respond to it.

11. Process analysis: Explains to the reader how to do something or how something happens.

a. Were any portions of the text more clear because concrete directions about a certain process were included?

b. How does this help the author develop the argument?

12. Question: By definition, a question is a sentence worded or expressed with the intent of drawing out information from an audience.

a. Is the author posing the question as an alternative form of making a claim (in a declarative sentence)

b. How might the target audience respond to this question?

13. Rhetorical question: A question designed to have one correct answer. The author leads you into a position rather than stating it explicitly.

a. What is the most obvious answer to this question?

b. Why is it important to have the reader answer this question? How does it help the author persuade the audience?

14. Transitional question: Lead the reader into a new subject area or area of argument.

a. What role do these questions play? How do these questions lead the direction of the argument?

b. How is this helpful for the reader?

A Few Key Stylistic Rhetorical Strategies:

1. Diction—commonly referred to as “word choice,” this stylistic feature concerns the literal/proper denotations (dictionary definitions) and figurative associations conjured by the selection of certain words. For instance, if an author referred to a 14-year old female as a “kid” instead of a girl, young person, minor, adolescent, or teen, the target audience may develop certain images/attitudes toward that 14-year-old female depending upon which word is chosen by the rhetor.

a. What is/are the literal/proper definitions for the term/word?

b. What figurative associations for the word exist in the current cultural context occupied by the rhetor and target audience?