“ . . . the
faculty of
observing in any given
case the available
means of persuasion."
Everything is Rhetorical:
Even Literature!
By Dianna Trang
AP Language and Composition
Grapevine High School
Grapevine, TX
Isn’t everything rhetorical?
What are the inherent communications here?
Hairstyles
Clothes
Specs
Fingernails (!)
Handbags
Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle
Logos
Communication is a three-sided
relationship…
each point of the triangle:
• influences the others.
• Carries some responsibility for the success
of the communication.
• corresponds with one of Aristotle’s three
appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos.
• is influenced by the context of the
communication.
http//:www.public.asu.edu/rjvavasu/rhet-triangle.htm
Logos
(literally “word”; also understood as “topic”)
• What are the facts?
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Data
Expert testimony
Statistics
Eye Witness
Testimonials
Evidence
Logical Reasoning: Induction and Deduction
Ethos
(“character”)
• Convincing the reader by the character of the
author:
– Conveyed through tone and style of writer.
– Can be based on the writer’s reputation,
experience, or expertise.
– Can be based on the writer’s integrity and
honesty.
– Can be revealed through writer’s respectability
and likeability.
From : http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html
Pathos
(literally means “suffering”)
• Affects the reader’s emotional response to
the text:
– Attempts to play on our needs, desires, fears,
and insecurities.
– Appeals to our “imagination and sympathies.”
– Created through use of vivid examples and
emotionally charged diction.
– Uses narrative and personal anecdote.
From : http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html
James Kinneavy’s
Communication
Triangle
Logos  Subject-Based Writing:
 instructions. tech manuals,
textbooks, informationbased writing
Text
Pathos  Reader-Based Writing:
 poems, stories, novels,
editorials, ads, essays
Ethos  Writer-based Writing:
 shopping lists, diaries,
scrapbooks
How does the subject affect
the writer?
How does the subject
affect the reader?
How does the
reader affect
the subject?
How does the reader
affect the writer?
Text
How does the writer
affect the subject?
How does the writer
affect the reader??
Joliffe’s Rhetorical Framework Design
Exigence
Exigence
Whom may the author had in mind
when writing this piece?
Audience
Purpose
With what evidence does the writer
to prove his claim or thesis?
Is the writer
credible?
Ethos
What happened that may have
made the writer to want to write
this?
What might the writer be
hoping to accomplish?
Logos
How does the writer create
an emotional response in
the reader?
Tone
Pathos
Organization/Structure/Form
Diction
Syntax
Imagery
Figurative
Language
Exigence
• Try to think of what may have been the
reason for the writer to sit down and write
the piece you are reading.
– When you write an essay, the exigence is the
teacher is making you or you want a good
grade to pass the class.
– What are other reason for writing something?
• A shopping list?
• A poem? A biography? An editorial?
Audience
• Try to keep in mind who the ORIGINAL
audience for the piece was .
• Think for a minute:
– Whom were the Gospels written for?
– Who was the Declaration of Independence
written for?
Purpose
• What is the writer hoping to achieve by
writer this document?
• Are there any consequences that might
occur because of this writing?
– Think about:
•
•
•
•
•
A shopping list
A short story
A speech
A poem
An editorial in the newspaper
Tone
• Is created through use of logos, pathos
and ethos, which are created through
facts, word choices, sentence structure,
figurative language, and appeals to our
senses.
Organization/Structure/Form
•
•
•
•
Is it in chronological order or spatial order?
Is there any organization?
Are there paragraphs or not?
Are the paragraphs long or short or a
combination thereof?
• Is it a letter? A memo? An article? An
essay? A narrative?
Diction
• Is about the words a writer chooses to use
• Considers the connotation of a word
(emotional associations we have with
words) versus the denotation of a word
(the literal meaning of a word)
• Example: svelte/skinny/scrawny;
striking/flamboyant; to die/to pass on
Syntax
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identifies and analyzes sentence structure.
Look for long sentences versus short.
Long sentences explain.
Short sentences declare facts (or try to)
Rhetorical questions and fragments
Schemes, such as anaphora, asyndeton,
polysyndeton, etc.
Imagery
• Any text that appeals to one of your
senses, but primarily sight and sound.
Figurative Language
• Tropes such as:
– Metaphor: My love is a red, red rose.
– Simile: This is as exciting as dirt.
– Synecdoche: 60 eyes watched the teacher.
– Metonymy: The White House announced. . .
– Personification: The wind whispered secrets.
– Hyperbole: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
– And many more