Rhetoric and Non-Fiction Techniques

Ethos = credibility A Greek term for “character,” it refers to one’s credibility, trustworthiness, and believability. ○ An appeal based on the character or credibility of the speaker or writer ○ A way to achieve credibility is for the reader to believe the author or the author’s...

Ethos = credibility A Greek term for “character,” it refers to one’s credibility, trustworthiness, and believability. ○ An appeal based on the character or credibility of the speaker or writer ○ A way to achieve credibility is for the reader to believe the author or the author’s sources is someone the audience can trust. ○ This kind of appeal is often established by the way an argument sounds (tone, voice) and helps convince the audience that the author and her ideas should be taken seriously. ○ Demonstrates writer put into research ○ Carefully crafted and edited argument ○ Demonstrates writer knows and respects audience ○ Shows concern about communicating with audience Logos = “logic” A Greek term for “word,” often associated with logic, and argument. ○ Logos is an appeal based on the logic of the message. ○ Logos’ main concern is the claim and the supporting evidence that proves the claim. ○ Cites commonly held beliefs ○ Alludes to history, religious texts, literature or mythology ○ Provides testimony ○ Draws analogies ○ Chronological order ○ Provides and classifies evidence ○ Quotes research ○ Uses facts ○ Theorizes about cause and effect ○ Argues for precedent Pathos = “emotion” A Greek term for “emotion,” and is an appeal to the audience’s feelings. ○ It is an emotional appeal to the audience by the writer. ○ One can advance an argument by appealing to the audience’s emotions because people are not only swayed by ideas, but by their feelings. ○ Uses language that involves the senses ○ Includes a bias or prejudice ○ Includes an anecdote ○ Connotative language ○ Euphemisms, description ○ Colloquial language ○ Figurative language  Sound Devices - Alliteration - Assonance Alliteration A number of words, having the (ex) A big bully beats the baby boy. same first consonant sound, (ex) The majestic, the magnificent occur close together in a Mississippi. series. (ex) Whisper words of wisdom (ex) From forth the fatal loins of these two foes… (ex) Assonance When two or more words close (ex) The apparatus, thus muffled, was cut to one another repeat the off. same vowel sound but start (ex) I must confess that in my quest I felt with different consonant depressed and restless. sounds. (ex) A deep, green stream vowels: a e i o (ex) Hear the mellow wedding bells (Poe) u (ex) Try to light the fire  Use of Conjunctions - Asyndeton - Polysyndeton Conjunction: joining words (ex): for, and, nor, but, or yet, so Asyndeton (ex) It was as if, in the midst of a film The omission of concerning an avalanche, a tornado, a conjunctions between hurricane, a volcanic eruption, something had gone wrong. coordinate clauses or words, (ex) They surged about her, caught her up creating a sense of buildup. and bore her back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door. use of (ex) He came, he saw, he conquered. commas Polysyndeton (ex) They read and studied and wrote and drilled. Structurally the opposite of I laughed and played and talked and flunked. asyndeton, it is the use of a (ex) And Joshua, and all of Israel with him, took conjunction between each Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, word, phrase or clause. and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. (ex) Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness. Figurative Language Allusion A brief and indirect reference (ex) To eat, or not to eat, that is the to a person, place, thing or dieter’s question. idea of historical, cultural, (ex) His yard was an Eden for the children literary or political of the neighborhood. significance. (ex) She’s a modern day Eve. Anaphora (ex) Tell them to be good, tell them to follow their The deliberate repetition of elders, and tell them to mind their manners. the first part of the sentence. (ex) We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the An ancient invention to ease seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall memorization, it was often defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on landing employed by the Psalmist. grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. (ex) To think on death it is a misery. / To think on life it is a vanity, / To think on the world verily it is,... Personification (ex) I hied me away to the woods-- away A thing, an idea or an animal back into the sun-washed alleys. is given human attributes. (ex) Lightning danced across the sky. (ex) The stars winked in the night sky. (ex) The bridge stretched over the interstate. (ex) Because I could not stop for Death. (use of capital - makes it an active force in the line) Aposiopesis When a sentence is (ex) And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back purposefully left incomplete ceaselessly into the past. or cut off. It’s caused by an (ex) “O judgment! thou art fled to brutish inability or an unwillingness beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with to continue speaking. This me, allows the ending to be filled My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, in by the listener’s And I must pause till it come back to me…” imagination. Chiasmus (ex) Fair is foul and foul is fair. A clause that is inversely repeated and switches in the (ex) Charm is a woman’s strength, strength is a man’s charm. same sentence to have a (ex) But O, what damned minutes tells he different meaning. o’er Who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves. Hyperbole A figure of speech, which (ex) I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you ‘till China and Africa meet, and the river involves an exaggeration of jumps over the mountain and the salmon ideas for the sake of sing in the street. emphasis. (ex) A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. (ex) That dog is the cutest thing alive. Understatement The presentation of (ex) Bill Gates is financially secure. something as being smaller, (ex) I have to have this operation. It isn’t or less important, than it very serious. I have this tiny little tumor actually is. on the brain. - Catcher in the Rye Imagery The use of language to create a (ex) Outside, even through the shut window- pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street picture with words. The use of little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn images that appeal to the senses. paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own. Oxymoron (ex) Horribly beautiful! Two opposite ideas are joined (ex) O brawling love! O loving hate! to create an effect. (ex) Parting is such sweet sorrow. (ex) Passive aggressive (ex) Friendly fight Symbol An object or idea that has a (ex) All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. greater significance than itself. (ex) The cross as a symbol for suffering. (ex) A dove as a symbol for peace. X represents Y. Irony (3 Types) Dramatic Irony: When characters are oblivious of the situation but the audience is not. - (ex) Romeo kills himself, thinking Juliet is dead, while the audience means otherwise. Situational Irony: When the opposite of the intended outcome occurs. - (ex) When an ambulance runs over and kills a pedestrian. Verbal irony involves using a word or phrase that one does not mean. (Sarcasm) - (ex) “What a great idea!” when someone says something foolish.  - Analogy Comparisons - Metaphor - Juxtaposition - Simile Analogy (ex) What’s in a name? That which we call An analogy is a comparison a rose / By any other word would smell as in which an idea or a thing is sweet. / So Romeo would, were he not compared to another thing Romeo called, that is quite different from it. (ex) Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand It is always more extended Canyon and waiting for the echo. than a simile or metaphor as an analogy is explained. Metaphor An implicit, implied or hidden (ex) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day. comparison between two things that are unrelated but (ex) My brother was boiling mad. share common (ex) I am the bread of life. characteristics. Juxtaposition Two or more ideas, places, (ex) The characters of God and Satan in Paradise Lost. characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative (ex) The Juliet and Nurse relationship and or poem for the purpose of the Romeo and Friar Lawrence relationship. developing comparisons and contrasts. These are usually EXTENDED texts. One scene compared to another, one theme compared to another, one paragraph compared to another. Simile (ex) I wandered lonely as a cloud. A comparison, showing similarities between two (ex) Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like different things with the help thorn. of the words “like” or “as.” (ex) You're as cold as ice.