terms for literary and rhetorical analysis

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Terms for Literary and Rhetorical Analysis

Devices, Strategies, and Techniques for AP English Language and Composition

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Pick a category...

Tone and style

Literary and figurative devices

SyntaxRhetorical devices

Structures and types of arguments

Rhetorical Techniques

Rhetorical appeals

SyllogismLines of Proof

Anticipated Argument Logical

fallacies

Identify

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Rhetorical Appeals

LogosPathosEthos

Back to rhetorical techniques

Ethos—invoking character

“We believe good men more fully and more readily than others” -AristotleEstablish the morality of the speaker, orShow that the speaker has good intentions, orShow that speaker is credible or is an authorityCommon ethical appeals:

God and religionClaim something is the RIGHT thing to doPersonal history that reflects good deedsUse “we” to imply unity with audienceUse expert testimony to support self

Ask yourself:What character is the speaker presenting?How?Is that character reliable enough that you can accept her/his argument?

EthosIn an argument promoting strict standards for toxic emissions, Al Gore might:

Establish his own twenty year crusade to protect the environment

Cite evidence from credible PhDs and organizations that have conducted studies that support his claim

In a speech to announce her candidacy for Governor of North Carolina, Libby Dole might:Reference her work with the red crossEstablish her selfless goals to benefit

the population of the stateTell an anecdote about attending

church with her family

Back to Rhetorical Appeals

Pathos—emotional appeal

Stir the emotions of the audience

Use audience’s anger, fear, patriotism, sympathy to call them into action

Use CHARGED DICTION—words with emotional connotation

Tell emotional anecdotes

Create imagery that inspires emotion

PathosIn a speech rousing an army to fight courageously, a general might:

Allude to soldiers of the past who have demonstrated courage

Reference a recent event that evokes anger

Remind soldiers of the families they hope to protect by winning their war

In a letter encouraging county commissioners to invest in a poverty-stricken area of town, a person might:Describe sympathetic images of

suffering in the communityNarrate an anecdote about a man who

died from heat stroke because he could not afford an air conditioner

Back to Rhetorical Appeals

Logos—logical appeals

Use logical explanations

Use reasons to support ideas

Substantiate/support your claims

Deductive reasoningSyllogism

Enthymeme

LogosIn an editorial arguing in favor of wire tapping without warrants, a writer might:

Cite a survey that shows a high percentage of public support for the program

Provide evidence that such a program can reduce the threat of terrorism

In a discussion convincing your parents to allow you a later curfew, you might:Establish the conditions under which a person

ought to be permitted adult responsibilities

Show evidence that your responsible friends are permitted later curfews and have not broken them or been harmed during later hours

Deductive LogicIf a fact is generally true about a group, then it is true about parts of that group.

For example, if all students are unique, then Kandes is unique.

Used when a believable truth or principle can be used to determine truth for a specific case

Syllogism

Deductive Logic—Syllogism

Major premise: a definition or statement of truth

Must be general enough to be accepted as true

Should be specific enough to prepare the minor premise and conclusion

Minor premise: an example of that definition or statement

Generally requires evidence

Conclusion: What logically makes sense following the major and minor premises

It’s like the transitive property of equality:

if A=B

and B=C

then A=C

So deductive logic is mathematical

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Syllogism example

All humans are mortal.

Socrates is human.

Socrates is mortal.

Major Premise

Minor Premise

Conclusion

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Syllogism example

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Rules that restrict free speech are unconstitutional.

The dress code restricts students from expressing themselves freely.

The dress code is unconstitutional.

Syllogisms—some suggestions

Use syllogisms to prove a specific case.

Start by figuring out what you want to prove (for example: the dress code is unfair)

Then figure out what major premise you can use to make your point (for example: rules that stifle individuality are unfair)

Write and support your minor premise with examples, statistics, etc.

Back to Rhetorical AppealsBack to Structures

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IdentifySpeaker attempts to identify or connect with the audience by alluding to what they have in common:

Shared history

Shared heros

Shared values

Shared religion

Shared beliefs

Shared mythos

Sometimes use of 1st person plural (we, us, our) can help speaker identify with audience.

I like Jesus. Do you?

Yeah. Jesus rocks. Let’s be friends.


Lines of ProofSocrates--Plato--Aristotle--Alexander the Great

Ancient Greek philosopher, scientist, etc.

Wrote Rhetorica

Analytical thinker--classified everything into categories, subcategories, etc.

Categorized 64 lines of proofStructures for logical argumentation used commonly by people constructing arguments.

Analogy

Logical Division

A Fortiori

Causes Produce the

Same Results

Consistency with Past Action

Presence and Absence of Cause and

Effect

Motives of Self Gain

Correlative Ideas


Motives of Self Gain

If a person can gain or can prevent loss, then they are likely to act in order to do so.

You might find war generally immoral and unnecessary; however, you and your nation stand to gain power politically and economically by waging war. You should, therefore, wage war.

Back to Lines of Proof

Correlative IdeasIf an act is good or likely to happen, then it is right or likely that a person cause it to happen.

If it is acceptable for children to be paddled for misbehavior, then it should be acceptable for teachers to paddle them when they misbehave.


Presence and Absence of Cause and Effect

If a cause is present, then the effect is also present.

If a cause is absent, then the effect is also absent.

The teacher’s excessive homework assignments were the cause of my failure. If she would stop giving so much homework, I would pass.


Consistency with Past Action

If a behavior or fact has generally existed in the past, then it is likely or good that it exists in the present.

America has always been a land of opportunity for people of all ethnicities.

America should continue to offer citizenship to people of Arab nations.


Causes Produce the Same Results

If two results are the same, then their causes are the same.

Jessie’s parents valued education, and Jessie succeeded in school. Martha also succeeded in school, so it is likely that her parents valued education.


A FortioriLatin: “from the stronger”

If X is true in a less likely case, then X must also be true in a more likely case.

We consider Bethany, who has only killed one person in her life, an immoral monster, so we must consider Walker, who has murdered many times, immoral as well.


Logical DivisionIf result X has several possible causes (A, B, C), but all but one of those causes (B & C) can be eliminated, then the remaining cause (A) must exist as the sole cause of the result.

You can fail because of poor attendance or low grades. Your grades are A’s, so you must have missed school too many days.


AnalogyTwo situations that are alike in most observable ways will tend to be alike in other ways.

The Soviet Union and China both had communist revolutions…

Soviet dictators corrupted communist priciples, so China probably did, too.


Anticipated Argument

When a writer predicts an opponent’s argument and addresses them in his own argument.

But doesn’t it harm his argument?

If he doesn’t, then the opponent’s position is presented unopposed and is assumed to be true.

Two kinds of anticipated argument:

ConcessionRefutation


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ConcessionConceding or admitting validity or truth in opponent’s argument.

In an argument promoting the war against terror, President Bush might admit that his opponents are correct when they argue for peace, because war is only a last resort.

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RefutationAcknowledging your opponent’s argument and explaining why it is invalid, illogical, or false

In an argument promoting the war against terror, President Bush might acknowledge his opponent’s call for peace but argue that peace will not generate itself when violent terrorists are attacking. Peace will be made only when war can be ended.


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Logical fallaciesAn argument that is, either deliberately or accidentally, flawed in its logic.

The Informed Argument isolates 15 logical fallacies. Several fallacies are defined in the slides that follow.

Faulty Analogy

False Dilemna

Ad Hominem

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Begging the

Question

Equivo-cating

Opposing a Straw

Man

Non-Sequitor

Slippery Slope

Faulty Generaliz

ation

Red Herring


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Faulty AnalogyMaking an argument by comparing two scenarios, situations, or events.

The analogy becomes faulty when the comparison is unreasonable to the audience.

Employees are like nails. Just as nails must be hit in the head in order to make them work, so must employees.

Back to Logical Fallacies

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Ad Hominem Argument

President Roosevelt’s New Deal was not a sound policy. His upper-class background made him an incapable representative for the poor.

“To the man”

Rather than arguing an issue, the speaker directs an argument toward the individual.


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Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

“After, therefore because of”

An argument that suggests that because one event followed another, then it must have happened as a result of the event.

The economy was in great shape when President Clinton was in office, but it fell apart when President Bush took office. He must be the cause.


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Begging the Question

Eating McDonald’s is bad for you because it’s unhealthy

“Circular Reasoning”

When the premise from which an argument is presented is only believable to someone who already believes conclusion.

Usually, premise and conclusion are essentially the same.


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Equivocating

America is a land of truth and justice, and justice is what will be dealt to any nation supporting the terrorists.

Using vague or ambiguous language to mislead an audience.

Eg. freedom, justice, real, right, society, power.


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Opposing a Straw Man

A straw man is an artificial or imagined opponent with positions that are easy to refute.

Speakers will sometimes refute the “straw man” rather than debating the actual opponent.

Pretending to oppose your opponent by refuting only an extreme position from the opposing point of view.

Students will argue that X-STOP prevents them from obtaining research they need for their courses, but research of pornographic images and offensive rap lyrics is hardly pertinent to their studies.


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False DilemmaPosing only two options (as solutions, etc.) when other possibilities exist.

But officer, I had to speed; otherwise, I would have missed curfew, which is illegal, too.


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Non-SequiturLittle Nicky stars Adam Sandler, one of the funniest comedians of our time. The movie has to be hilarious.

“It does not follow”

Presenting a conclusion that does not follow logically from the evidence or explanation.

It is important to question the assumptions, or warrants, being used in these arguments.


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Sliding Down a Slippery Slope

Arguing that one small step will inevitably lead to extreme consequences.

If we permit cloning of cells for medical purposes, then, before you know it, we’ll have armies of cloned humans, an Aryan Nation, perhaps, as Hitler once conceived.


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Faulty Generalization

Democrats defend a woman’s right to abort a pregnancy.Felicia is a democrat; therefore, she must be pro-choice.

Arguing that if something is generally true about a group, then it must be true about any part of that group.

The generalization becomes faulty when it is too broad or fails to recognize the possibility of variation within a group.

This fallacy is a reminder that premises must be believable.


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Red HerringThe school newspaper should not be protected by the 1st Amendment. The advisor is irresponsible and the students like to play with spinny chairs.

A red herring is a stinky fish, often used to throw dogs off a trail.

As a logical fallacy, a red herrings is when you make an argument that does not relate to the issue at hand in an effort to lead your reader off the actual topic.

Notice that in this case, the red herring looks much like an ad hominem argument.


Literary & Figurative Devices

Imagery Allusion Simile Metaphor

Personification Apostrophe Synechdoche

Back to categories

Symbolism

Metonymy

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ImageryUsing concrete language to create sensory details.

Frequently visual images.

Also:Smell=olfactory

Taste=gustatory

Touch=tactile

Sound=auditory

Here and there, where the vaporish clouds had rolled apart to reveal a clump of trees or a bare, jagged, fang-like snag of rocks, the reverberations of their haunting melody sang out like a choir of brass in an orchestra. Henry Miller

Miller calls on concrete imagery to create a sense of mysterious beauty for his

setting, the Greek island of Corfu.

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AllusionA reference, usually subtle or indirect, to another work of art or literature

Most common are Biblical allusions, references to the characters and stories of the Bible

In Ayn Rand’s Anthem Equality renames himself Prometheus when he discovers the value of the self and the word “ego.”

The name Prometheus alludes to Greek mythology and suggests the character’s ability to deliver new knowledge to the masses, even at the

risk of offending the gods, which the Greek Prometheus did by bringing fire from Mt.

Olympus to humans.


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SimileA comparison of one thing (character, event, object, setting) with something it is not.

Comparison uses “like” or “as” to indicate similarity.

In the early afternoon it was always quiet, the whole place tossing slowly in tropical repose, as if the building itself swung on a miraculous hammock...•from Americana by Don DeLillo

DeLillo emphasizes the relaxed, post-lunch atmosphere of the office by comparing the feeling

to that of swinging on a hammock.


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MetaphorAn association of one thing (character, event, object, setting) with something it is not.

Says one thing IS another. Does not say it is similar or like...

The moon is full tonight

an illustration for sheet music,

an image in Matthew Arnold

glimmering on the English Channel,

or a ghost over a smoldering battlefield

in one of the history plays

from “Moon” by Billy Collins

Collins gives the reader as sense of the moon’s mystery and artistic quality by associating it with other images,

particularly that of a ghost over a battlefield.


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PersonificationAssigning human or human-like qualities to non-human and inanimate objects.

Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds.

from “Araby” by James Joyce

Joyce adds life, perhaps even willpower, to the rain by choosing the action verb “playing” instead of falling or plunging


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ApostropheSimilar to personification

Addressing or speaking to inanimate objects as if they are human

“You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s soft-winged angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron!”

from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Douglass speaks to the sailboats as if they

are free men, comparing them to

himself, a slave contemplating escape. The pronoun choice--

you--makes the use of apostrophe evident


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SymbolismThe use of a physical object, character, or setting to represent an abstract idea or to parallel a character.

Colors can also be symbolic

Allegory: when a story consists of a series of symbols and is symbolic in itself

GREENwith

ENVY= KNOWLEDGE


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Synechdoche


o A figure of speech in which a part represents the wholeo All hands on deck! o Hands represent sailors.o His parents bought him new wheels for his birthday.

oNew wheels can imply a new car.oMouths to feed

oWhat does the word “mouths” represent?

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Metonymy

o A figure of association in which one word is replaced by an associated wordo Sweat=hard worko Dish=a course in a mealo The Press=the news mediao Nixon bombed Hanoio The crown released a public statement regarding the

military service of Prince Harry. o What is the metonymy in this sentence? Substitute another word for it.


Syntax

Syntax devices

LengthSimple

CompoundComplex

DeclarativeImperativeInterrogativeExclamatory

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Sentence lengthThe average sentence ranges from 12-20 words.

Sentences that are significantly shorter or longer than that average range might imply rhetorical intent.

Long sentences:

Tend to imply elaboration and increased complexity

Might suit a more academic or educated audience

But could imply unpunctuated rambling

Tend to slow pacing

Pacing is the rate at which an author’s prose flow. A faster pace implies

intensity, whereas slower pacing might imply contentment or calm or might serve as contrast to a building pace/intensity.

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

from Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”

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Sentence lengthShort sentences:

Suggest simplicity

Emphasize a definitive, blunt point, esp. in the context of longer sentences.

In succession, tend to increase pacing. The same is true, perhaps moreso, of series of short clauses and phrases within sentences.

They should've buried Lance Armstrong this time. They had him laid out like a yard sale on a Pyrenees road. Had him sick, white-mouthed and dizzy. Had him riding in the weeds, riding borrowed bikes and cracked bikes. Hell, once they had him carrying his bike. Had him scabbed and swollen, hip throbbing, saddle sores mounting, out of water and luck and hope. But they didn't bury him. Couldn't.

Back to syntax

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Sentence complexitySimple sentences

Sentences containing one independent clause--that is one subject and one predicate.

Tend to imply simple ideas.

Jonah ate cake.

Hiding beneath his bed, Jonah devoured glorious mounds of birthday cake.

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Sentence complexityCompound sentences

Contain two independent clauses, that is two sets of subject/predicate pairings.

Two clauses are combined with:

comma + conjunction

semicolon

Show relationships between ideas

Jonah ate cake, and Betty nibbled on carrots.

Hiding beneath his bed, Jonah devoured glorious mounds of birthday cake, but his mother could not find him.

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Sentence complexityComplex sentences

An independent clause with one or more dependent clauses.

Tend to imply complex ideas.

Show relationships between ideas

Dependent/subordinate clause receives less significance than main clause.

Jonah snuck upstairs to eat cake when no one was looking.

Because his parents restricted his diet 364 days per year, Jonah devoured glorious mounds of birthday cake beneath the safe confines of his bed.

Back to syntax

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Types of sentencesDeclarative

Statements of fact

Implies an assertion of knowledge.

Most common sentence type.

“Marmeladov fell silent, as though his voice had failed him.”

ImperativeStatements that command or

instruct

Often implies speaker’s authority, superiority, certainty or command over audience.

Often “you” is understood subject.

“Do me a favor, don’t speak of it”

examples quoted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

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Types of sentencesInterrogative

Questions

May imply uncertainty, investigation, or range of possibility.

May be rhetorical

“Who am I to help anyone? Do I have any right to help? Let them all gobble each other alive--what is it to me?”

ExclamatorySentences that exclaim (and

tend to be punctuated with exclamation marks!)

Implies zeal, enthusiasm, vigor, intensity.

“Now is the kingdom of reason and light and ...and will and strength... and now we shall see! Now we shall cross swords!”

examples quoted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

Back to syntax

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Syntax Devices

Devices of distinction

Devices of exaggeration

Interrogative devices

Devices of repetition

Devices of comparison

and other Back to syntax

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Syntax devices of comparison

JuxtapositionAntithesisAnalogy

Oxymoron Parody Contrast

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AnalogyAn explicit comparison between two things (events, ideas, people, etc.)

Purpose is to further a line of reasoning or allow audience to associate recognizable traits of compared item with the item being discussed..

“Our men in uniform are like the college football players. While the struggle is impending, they are observing the rules of training that they may be fit to fight. But when the game has been won, the temptation to break training and make up for the restraints of the past months and years will be a mighty one.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. War Campaign Address

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Antithesis

A contrasting of opposing ideas in adjacent (usually parallel) phrases, clauses or sentences

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here”

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

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JuxtapositionWhen two contrasting things (ideas, words, images) are placed beside each other for comparison

“...A mango tree on broadway...”

Meena Alexander

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OxymoronTwo words with contrary or apparently contradictory meanings occurring next to each other, which evoke some measure of truth

“Safe sex--now there’s an oxymoron. That’s like tactical nuke or adult male.”

Tim Curry in Lover’s Knot

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ParodyA humorous imitation of a work of art or style of an artist, often in an effort to mock it.

Space Balls=Star Wars

Scary Movie=Scream (and other horror films)

Austin Powers trilogy=James Bond films

Back to comparison

QuickTime™ and aSorenson Video decompressorare needed to see this picture.

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ContrastA general term for the use of images, words, ideas, or characters that serve as opposites to each other.

Use of contrast tends to emphasize the item being contrasted.

Back to comparison

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Syntax Devices of Repetition

TextEpistrophe AnaphoraRepetition


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RepetitionRepeated use of any word, phrase, image, or idea used to emphasize or elaborate upon the idea.

Back to devices of repetition

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EpistropheRepetition of final word or group of words in successive phrases or clauses

“I said you’re afraid to bleed. [As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls being murdered, you haven’t got no blood.”

Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots


“I said you’re afraid to bleed. [As] long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time to seeing your own churches being bombed and little black girls being murdered, you haven’t got no blood.”

Malcolm X, Message to the Grassroots

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AnaphoraRepetition of initial word or group of words in successive phrases or clauses

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“To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us.”

Hillary Clinton, 1996 Democratic National Convention

“To raise a happy, healthy, and hopeful child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes business people; it takes community leaders; it takes those who protect our health and safety. It takes all of us.”

Hillary Clinton, 1996 Democratic National Convention


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Syntax Devices of Distinction

Distinctio Enumeration

Polysyndeton

Apposition

AsyndetonParallelism Periodic sentence


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ParallelismA means of arranging a series of related words, phrases or clauses in which each item in the series is grammatically equal.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

Back to devices of distinction

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AsyndetonA series of words or phrases not separated by normally occurring conjunctions (and, or, yet, but, so)

Emphasis added to series, esp. to final item in series.

We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life defending something. You use them as a punch line.

delivered by Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men


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PolysyndetonDeliberate and excessive use of conjunctions (and, but, yet, or, so) in series of words, phrases or clauses

Tends to isolate and add impact to each item in list

Tends to emphasize abundance of items

“In years gone by, there were in every community men and women who spoke the language of duty and morality and loyalty and obligation.”

William F. Buckley

“In years gone by, there were in every community men and women who spoke the language of duty and morality and loyalty and obligation.”

William F. Buckley


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Periodic sentenceSentence in which the most important idea (of the sentence) occurs at the end. That is, the MAIN CLAUSE occurs last.Places key idea or term foremost in audience’s mind, thus emphasizing that idea.


A false, unnatural, and destructive economic system develops when the poor worker is allowed to work at half price and the good worker is forced to work for an inadequate wage, hardly sufficient to support a family.

When the poor worker is allowed to work at half price and the good worker is forced to work for an inadequate wage, hardly sufficient to support a family, a false, unnatural, and destructive economic system develops.

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Distinctio

Explicit definition of or elaboration upon the meaning of a word or set of words set off by an introductory reference:

“by X I mean”

“which is to say that”

“that is”

Tends to isolate and add impact to each item in list

Tends to emphasize abundance of items

“I’ve been in football all my life, really, and I want to say this--that it’s a great game, and it’s a Spartan type of game. I mean by that it takes Spartan qualities in order to be a part of it, to play it.

Vince Lombardi


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Enumeration

“We formed in 1979, June, in Washington D.C. the Moral Majority, with a handful of people...which has grown now to over a hundred thousand priests and rabbis and pastors and blacks and whites and young and old and all kinds.”

To enumerate

The listing or detailing of the parts of something.

What other device is at work in this example?


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I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.

Barbara Jordan, 1976 Democratic Convention Address

I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.

Barbara Jordan, 1976 Democratic Convention Address

AppositionUse of an appositive, a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun

Adjacent nouns or noun phrases with one elaborating on the other


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Syntax devices of exaggeration

EuphemismUnderstate-ment

HyperboleApotheosis


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Apotheosis

Oscar Schindler rose up, as if from death, hovering above the weakened workers, and from him shone an ethereal light, which all would follow as if salvation depended on it.

When a character or thing is elevated to such a high status that it appears godlike

To apotheosize is to deify in literature

Emphasizes/exaggerates traits of character


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Euphemism

The community whispered behind her back that she was in a family way.

A mild or pleasant sounding expression used to convey an unpleasant idea

Tends to mollify the intensity and disguise negative connotation of charged terms

The community whispered behind her back that she was in a family way.


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UnderstatementWhen an author assigns less significance to an event or thing than it deserves.

Frequently used for humorous effect

Hurricane Floyd drizzled on Eastern North Carolina, sprinkling the trees and flowers with new life.


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HyperboleIntentional exaggeration for rhetorical effect

Tends to intensify or exaggerate significance of item being exaggerated.

Frequently used for emotion (or pathetic, as in pathos) appeal.

“Why you got scars and knots on your head from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. And every one of those scars is evidence against the American white man.


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Interrogative Syntax Devices

HypophoraRhetorical question


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Rhetorical questionSentence which asks a question, not for the purpose of further discussion, but to assert or deny an answer implicitly

A question whose answer is obvious or implied. A question for argument

“Until someone can prove the unborn child is not a life, shouldn’t we give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is?”

Ronald Reagan

Back to Interrogative Devices

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HypophoraFigure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then answered, by the same speaker

Raising and responding to one’s own question(s)

“When the enemy struck on that June day of 1950, what did America do? It did what it always has done in all its times of peril. It appealed to the heroism of its youth.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower, “I Shall Go to Korea”

Back to Interrogative Devices

Tone and Style

Tone definition

Tone words Humor

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ToneThe attitude an author conveys toward his subject, or toward characters or events

Back to Tone

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Tone WordsAngry

Celebratory

Pedantic

Conceited

Whimsical

Ironic

Sarcastic

Enraged

Surreal

Euphemistic

Arrogant

Back to Tone

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HumorAuthors may use humor to convey tone

Humor can take many formsVerbal wit

Mockery

Slapstick

The ridiculous

The grotesque

Back to Tone

QuickTime™ and aCinepak decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Structure and types of argument

Toulmin Model

Deductive Inductive

Classical Rogerian

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Toulmin ModelInformal model for logical argumentation developed by Stephen Toulmin.

Acknowledges that logic is based on PROBABILITY more than CERTAINTY.

Consists of three parts

Claim: Assertion or conclusion speaker intends to prove

Data: Evidence supporting the claim. Also called reasons

Warrant: Assumption that connects the data with the claim

Claim: Tina may vote in the next election.

Data: Tina is an eighteen-year-old citizen of the US.

Warrant: US citizens eighteen and older are permitted to vote in elections.

Back to Structures

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Deductive

see The Informed Argument, p. 134

Developing an argument from broad, general truth to a specific conclusion

Specific details

General truth

Back to Structures

Go to Deductive Logic

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Inductive


Drawing a conclusion based on evidence presented.

Specific evidence is presented first.

A conclusion of general truth is drawn based on evidence.

Consider these suggestions:Arrange evidence so that reader anticipates the same conclusion you wish to draw.

Consider how your evidence will affect your reader.

Decide how much evidence to use.

Interpret/explain the evidence to your audience. Don’t wait for them to do it.

Specific details

General truth

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Classical Arrangement


Presents argument in this order:Introduction

Background

Proposition

Proof

Refutation

Conclusion

Background: Present/narrate key events behind your case, focus on presenting information, so audience will understand the case

Introduction: Capture reader’s attention, introduce issues, urge audience to consider care you are about to present

Proposition: Divide information portion of argument from reasoning part, outline major points to be followed, state position, indicate lines rest of argument will follow

Proof: Present heart of argument, make your case, discuss reasons and cite evidence to support evidence

Refutation: Anticipate and refute opposing views by showing errors or explaining flaws in logic

Conclusion: Summarize more important points, make final appeal to values and feelings to leave audience favorably disposed toward your case

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Rogerian

see Informed Argument, pp. 127-132

Carl RogersPsychotherapist, focused on listening for understanding

Influenced a more open-minded approach to rhetoric

Contrasts tendencies to:Avoid opponent’s position altogether

Assert own claims rather than seeking truth

Assert first and anticipate opponent’s argument later

Focuses more on concession than refutation

Summary of Opposing Viewpoints: Make accurate and objective statement of opponent’s views, reveal attitude of fairness and open-mindedness

Introduction: State the problem you hope to resolve, expressing need for solution, desire for positive (win/win) change

Statement of Understanding: Concede acceptance of opponent’s views, esp. that they be valid under certain circumstances,

Statement of Your Position: Explain your own position/solution to the problem

Statement of Contexts: Explain the context/situation under which your assertion is best, show merit of your position within those contexts, limit yourself to those contexts and avoid absolutes

Statement of Benefits: Appeal to interests/values of those beginning to adopt your position, show benefits of your solution, conclude with positive message

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Go to Anticipated Argument

terms for literary and rhetorical analysis

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