The Rhetorical Triangle

What is Rhetoric?

What is said (message)Who is saying it (speaker)Who is listening (audience)Where / when it is being said

(context, appeals)Why it is being said (purpose)How it is being said (tone, style)

What is the Rhetorical Triangle?

Shows the relationship between speaker, audience, message, style, purpose, tone

Understanding these rhetorical elements makes both writing and analysis much clearer

The Rhetorical TriangleMessage

Speaker Audience

Tone Style

Purpose

The Breakdown

Pathos- Emotions

- Sympathy= pity

-Apathy= lack of feeling

-Antipathy= hate

-Empathy=relate

Ethos

Ethics- MoralsRight From Wrong

Logos

LogicStatisticsFactsData

The Author / SpeakerThe Author / Speaker

Gender / racial / geographical/ socioeconomic/ political orientation of author

Author Bias / hidden agendaOther important biographical

information may affect text

The AudienceThe Audience

Are they friend or foe? (hostile or sympathetic)

How will they receive the message?How will they affect tone? style?Who is the intentional audience?Who is the unintentional audience?Over time, does the message/effect

of the message change as the audience changes?

The MessageThe Message

What is the main point being made? In other words, what is the writer’s / speaker’s thesis?

Look at the message as an argument / position being sold to the audience. What is the author trying to convince the audience of?

The MessageThe Message

Consider this when trying to identify the exact message:– What is the topic (1-2 words) about which the

piece is written?– What is the most important aspect or

perspective about that topic that the author wants you to understand?

– What, exactly, does the author want the reader to think/do/feel/say?

– What is the “no” on the other side of the author’s “yes?” (And vice versa)

The MessageThe Message

Read the Ralph Waldo Emerson piece on “Nature.” What, exactly, do you think best restates Emerson’s writer’s thesis? Which quotes from the text best reveal that thesis, that purpose?

“In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in the streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds something as beautiful as his own nature.”

The ToneThe Tone

What is the author’s attitude about his / her subject / message?

What words in the message let you know the tone?

How does the selection of the tone affect the audience’s reception of the message? Is it appropriate for the occasion/subject matter?

The ToneThe Tone

Very often, tone words will vary in meaning only in the degree of intensity, in the “positiveness” or “negativeness.”

Take a look at the TONE words on the following slide. Can you categorize these words into groups (positive/ negative, specific degrees of emotion)? Can you tell the difference between the word pairs?

The ToneThe Tone

Zealous Apathetic Reticent

Condescending Conciliatory Complimentary

Remorseful Resigned Nostalgic

Self-Deprecating Detached Haughty

Sardonic Sarcastic Irreverent

The ToneThe Tone

Read again the Ralph Waldo Emerson piece on “Nature.” Given Emerson’s message, which of the tone words on either the previous screen, your tone list, or your own imaginings best captures Emerson’s attitude toward the wilderness?

The StyleThe Style

What strategies does the author employ in order to get his / her message across?

These strategies may include: ethos, logos, pathos; organization; diction; syntax; figurative language; grammatical structure; selection of details; imagery

The Rhetorical PurposeThe Rhetorical Purpose

Under what circumstances is the author addressing his/her audience?

In other words, what is going on in the world at the time this text was composed, and how do those events affect the text?

What is the “no” on the other side of the author’s “yes”?

The Rhetorical PurposeThe Rhetorical Purpose

There are four main “purposes” for argumentation:

To AssertTo InquireTo DominateTo Negotiate/Reconcile

The Rhetorical PurposeThe Rhetorical Purpose

Arguments to Assert:

“Traditionally, argument has been understood as a formal attempt to state a position on an issue (your thesis), offer acceptable reasons for that position, provide evidence in support of those reasons, and anticipate objections. Indeed, to write an effective argument of any kind requires you make a clear assertion and support it adequately…” (IA, pp. 11-12)

The Rhetorical Purpose

Arguments to Inquire:

Inquiry is the nature of almost all academic writing – i.e., “I ’m interested in this…I will research the available data on the subject and then write…”

Inquiry is “arguing to learn and understand” (IA, pg13)

“These arguments, then, are exploratory in two ways; (a) they encourage the writer to explore a topic in order to arrive at a reasonable position; and (b) they invite writers to engage in exploring that topic as well” (IA, pg.16)

The Rhetorical Purpose

Arguments to Dominate (Aristotelian):

Arguments that dominate are used in “win-lose” situations and are particularly applicable in situations involving the law.

“Being able to recognize the complexity of…situations will help you identify argument to dominate is that you can make informed decisions about them.” (IA, 17-18)

“Examples provided in your text note that sometimes truth is not what is emphasized as much as what is morally or ethically relevant.

The Rhetorical Purpose

Arguments to Negotiate/Reconcile (Rogerian):

These arguments negotiate differences and lead to compromise.

“Writer practicing Rogerian argument (from Carl Rogers) negotiate differences by “restat[ing] what others have said before offering their own views” (IA,19).

This style of argumentation “rests on the assumption that language can be completely neutral—an idea that has been seriously questioned by modern linguists and philosophers” (IA,19).

Final Questions:

Is language ever neutral?

Is listening to the other side of an issue always effective?

How could the each purpose of argumentation be useful to you?

Summary

Remember – it is not one of these elements of the rhetorical triangle that can be used to analyze a text; it is the relationships between these rhetorical elements that composes the meaning we get from a text!

True analysis is not only the what, but also the why and the how!