RHETORICAL STRATEGIES Jon Stewart’s The Daily SHow & the rhetorical question. Explores leading question, the issue of framing, agency, responsibility, etc. http://www.cc.com/video-clips/8ov5kh/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-question-mark

What are Rhetorical Strategies? Tools that help writers and other communicators craft language (textual) or images (visual) so as to have an effect on the audience/reader. Strategies are means of persuasion, a way to get the reader’s/audience’s attention.

How do we analyze strategies? There is a several step process to analyzing strategies used in text: Identify the rhetorical strategy in the text and give an example. Describe how they work. Describe why they are used – what purpose do they accomplish? Always include a discussion of how the strategy helps the author/film maker develop and support the argument. Let’s look at different types of strategies…

Authorities or “Big Names” Commonly referred to as “appeals to authority,” using “Big Names” makes a statement/claim/ argument seem authoritative, well researched, believable. In analysis, answer the following question: How does this appeal to authority build trust in the author’s argument? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xsZ45Weng0

Cause & Effect Analysis Analyzes why something happens and describes the consequences of a string of events. In analysis, answer the following questions: What is the significance of the author’s examination of past events or their outcomes? What is the author’s purpose in performing this examination? Is it to inform, speculate or argue about why an identifiable fact happens the way it does? How does the cause and effect analysis further the argument of the text/film? How does the clip from the election ad shown previously demonstrate this strategy?

Commonplaces Also known as “hidden assumptions,” “hidden beliefs,” and “ideologies” They include assumptions, many of them unconscious, that groups of people hold in common. In analysis, answer the following questions: Who is the intended audience of the piece? What are some of the assumptions of this intended audience? What hidden assumptions or beliefs does the speaker have about the topic? How is the speaker or author appealing to the hidden assumptions of the audience? How does the use of commonplaces further the argument?

Comparison & Contrast Discussion of similarities and differences. In analysis, answer the following questions: Which two or more related subjects are discussed? How are the subjects alike or different? How does the comparison further the argument of the piece? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2CqOj5WpMs

Definition When authors define certain words, these definitions are specifically formulated for the specific purpose he/she has in mind. These definitions are crafted uniquely for the intended audience. In analysis, answer the following questions: Who is the intended audience? Does the text focus on any abstract, specialized, or new terms that need further explanation so that the readers/viewers understand the point? How has the speaker or author chosen to define terms for the audience? What effect does the definition have on the audience, or how does this definition help further the argument?

Description Details sensory perceptions of a person, place or thing. In analysis, answer the following questions: Does a person, place or thing play a prominent role in the text or film? Does the tone, pacing or overall purpose of the essay benefit from the sensory details? What emotions might these details evoke in the audience (see Pathos)? How does the description help the author further the argument? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn50mTEGnrU

Division & Classification Divides a whole into parts or sorts related items into categories. In analysis, answer the following questions: If the author/film maker trying to explain a broad or complicated subject? Does it benefit the text/film to reduce the subject to more manageable parts to focus the discussion? How does the division and classification help further the overall argument? How does the division and classification of injuries to various body systems/organs in the Quit Smoking ad shown before help its argument?

Exemplification Provides examples or cases in point. In analysis, answer the following questions: What examples, facts, statistics, cases in point, personal experiences, or interview questions does the author/film maker add to illustrate claims or illuminate the argument? What effect do these have on the reader/audience? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9WB_PXjTBo

Ethos Aristotle’s term ethos refers to the credibility, character or personality of the speaker or author or someone else connected to the argument. Ethos brings up questions of ethics and trust between the speaker or author and the audience. In analysis, answer the following questions: How and why is the speaker / author trying to get the audience to trust her or him? What specifically does the author do to obtain the audience’s trust? How does the author/speaker show fairness? Understanding of the topic? Trusworthy-ness? Consideration of the audience’s needs? How does the author/speaker construct credibility for his/her argument?

Logos Refers to the use of logic , reason, facts, statistics, data and numbers. Logos often seems tangible and touchable, so much more real than other rhetorical strategies. In analysis, answer the following questions: How and why does the other chose logos? How does the author show there are good reasons to support his or her argument? What kind of evidence does the author use to construct logos, and how does this further the argument?

Pathos Refers to feelings. The author/speaker wants the audience to feel the same emotion that he/she is feeling, whether or not they actually agree with the topic. In this way, the audience is more likely to eventually agree with the author/speaker later on. In analysis, answer the following questions: What specific emotion does the author invoke? How? How does he/she use emotion as a tool to persuade the audience How does the use of emotion help further the argument? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERRlDEoHG9Y

Identification This is rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s term for the act of “identifying” with another person who shares your values or beliefs. Many speakers or authors try to identify with an audience or convince an audience to identify with them and their argument. In analysis, answer the following question: How does the author build a connection between him/herself and the audience? How does this connection further the argument? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9xCCaseop4

Metadiscourse Language about language. Announces to the reader what the writer is doing, helping the reader to recognize the author’s plan. Can be used to both announce the overall project or purpose of the paper and to announce its argument. Can provide “Signposts” along the way, guiding the reader to what will come next and showing how it is connected to what has come before. In analysis, answer the following questions: What is the author’s voice in this text/film? How does it enter and guide the audience through the text/film? How does the author’s use of metadiscourse further the argument?

Below are some examples of metadiscourse in writing, denoting: the writer's intentions: "to sum up," "candidly," "I believe" the writer's confidence: "may," "perhaps," "certainly," "must" directions to the reader: "note that," "finally," "therefore," "however" the structure of the text: "first," "second," "finally," "therefore," "however" Most writing needs metadiscourse, but too much buries ideas. Technical, academic, and other non-fiction writers should use metadiscourse sparingly.[

Metaphors, Similes, Analogies Commonly referred to as “figurative language” Comparison of two parallel terms or situations in which the traits of one are similar to another – often one relatively firm and concrete, and the other less familiar and concrete. Simile is an analogy that use “like” or “as” These allow the author / film maker to use concrete, easily understood ideas to clarify a less obvious point. In analysis, answer the following question: What two things are being compared? How does the author’s / film maker’s use of figurative language help further the argument? Help the audience view the argument in a new way? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; Shakespeare from the play As You Like It

Motive Sometimes an author may reference the motives of his or her opponents. In analysis, answer the following questions: How does the author / film maker use his/her opponents arguments to make a point? Does the use of an opponent’s motive make the author’s / film maker’s argument stronger? How? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROhNSsi79E

Narration Recounts an event, tells a story, that supports the argument. In analysis, answer the following questions: How does the narration illustrate or clarify the argument? What effect dos the story have on the audience? How does this narrative further the argument? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_WAB7TXtXQ

Precedent When an author speaks or argues from precedent, he or she references a previous situation, one that can be compared to the author’s situation. In analysis, answer the following questions: Does the author reference any historic incidences that he/she claims are similar to the ones being discussed? What details about this historic situation help further the author’s argument?

Prolepsis Anticipating the opposition’s best argument and addressing it in advance. Also known as “Counterargument and Rebuttal.” Uses the reality that readers often interact with the text and ask questions of it – disagreeing and pointing out where there are differing opinions or weaknesses in argument – as a tool to help the reader believe the argument. In analysis, answer the following questions: How does the author present any counterarguments or rebuttals? What effect do the counterarguments or rebuttals have on the power of the author’s argument?

Process Analysis Explains to the reader how to do something or how something happens. In analysis, answer the following questions: Were any portions of the text more clear because concrete directions about a certain process were included? How did the description of a process help the author develop his or her argument? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZihWYatUrEw

Questioning Rhetorical Questions: a question designed to have one correct answer. The author leads the reader into a position rather than stating it explicitly. In analysis, answer the following questions: Why does the author ask a question with an obvious answer? How does the use of the rhetorical question strengthen the author’s argument? Transitional Questions: Leads the reader into a new subject area or area of the argument. How does the transitional question help guide the reader? How does the use of the transitional question help the author organize his argument?

Organization & Structure Topical: argument organized according to subtopics. Describing a baby’s bubble bath, first in terms of the soap used, then the water conditions, then the type of towel. Chronological: argument organized with information in time order. Description of a baseball game from the first pitch to the last at-bat. Spatial: argument follows a visual direction. Description of a house, from the inside to the outside, or a person, from their head down to their toes.

Organization & Structure Problem-Solution: argument presents a problem and a potential solution. Description of the need to make coffee at home to save money. Cause and Effect: argument describes the relationship between the cause or catalyst of an event and the effect. Description of identifying the over-consumption of candy as the cause of tooth decay.

Logical Ordering of Information Inductive: argument moves from one specific example to draw a general conclusion. Specific to broad. Deductive: argument moves from a generalized theory or assumption to decide the causes or characteristics of a specific example or event. Broad to specific. Linear: argument is told using linear order, scaffolding information or reasoning. Circular: supports the argument using assumptions or information from the argument itself. Recursive: the text consistently moves forward, but circles back on the specific points in the process.