AP Rhetoric and Fallacies Unit

The Rhetorical Triangle

How does it work:

What is the rhetorical triangle? Shows the relationship between speaker, audience, message Style, purpose/rhetorical situation, and tone are the vehicles that connect the three main points Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are rhetorical appeals associated with each point

The Author/Speaker Gender / ethnic / geographical orientation Author Bias / hidden agenda Other important biographical information may affect text

Message What is the main point being made (the thesis)? Look at the message as an argument / position being sold to the audience. What is he convincing the audience of?

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?

Rhetorical Situation 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?

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?

Style What strategies does the author employ in order to get his / her message across? These strategies may include: appeals to ethos, logos, pathos; organization; diction; syntax; figurative language; grammatical structure; selection of details; imagery In this class, we will refer to these stylistic elements as “rhetorical devices”

Persuasive Appeals Pathos

Consider the following… Here are two openings for the same speech; consider how each affects you as a listener. Which is more effective and why? "Last year, 20 thousand people lost their lives to AIDS.” "The young woman's emaciated face shows the ravages of AIDS. Though only 28, her thin, wrinkled skin looks like that of an elderly woman."

Pathos Emotional effect Related terms: pathetic, sympathy, empathy May use any emotions: fear, patriotism, guilt, love, joy, anger Can be manipulative Compels people to not only listen, but react as well Reaches us on a subconscious level

How to appeal to emotions Emotionally loaded language Vivid descriptions Emotional examples Anecdotes, testimonies, or narratives about emotional experiences or events Figurative language Emotional tone (humor, sarcasm, disappointment, excitement, etc.)

Word Connotation Words that mean the same thing in a literal sense often carry very different emotional connotations Administration/Regime (Ex. The Bush Regime) Terrorist /Freedom Fighter Can you think of any others?

How to Talk about It You don’t use pathos like you would use a metaphor. You appeal to it or develop it. Example: When referencing 9/11, the author is appealing to pathos. Here, he is eliciting both sadness and anger from his readers.

How does this show pathos? "[T]his is the lesson: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated. Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer."