The Rhetorical Triangle Mr. Eisner August 26, 2019

Yes… You must take notes and yes, there will be a quiz on this information tomorrow! This PowerPoint will be posted online later today.

Rhetoric Definition: —The art of persuasion, or —The various choices a speaker makes in order to create an effective text. *In this class, we will focus on four specific categories of choices: Tone 2. Diction 3. Syntax 4. Imagery

“Text” A text is any medium that communicates information—advertisements, political cartoons, news broadcasts, literature, letters, speeches. Every text has a speaker, audience, and purpose. Every texts uses techniques (specific to that domain) to communicate its ideas.

The 5 Canons of Rhetoric Invention: How an author finds and develop ideas to support arguments. Arrangement: How an author arranges ideas to support an argument. Style: The choices an author makes including tone, diction, syntax, and imagery. Memory: What an author knows to support their ideas. Delivery: How a text looks on a screen or page.

The Rhetorical Triangle An Interaction Based On Balance… Rhetorical Situation  Speaker (must develop credibility, ethos) Audience Purpose (must know their audience, pathos) (must convey their argument, logos) Rhetorical Choices

Discuss: What is the rhetorical situation for To Kill a Mockingbird? Who is the speaker? What is the occasion? Who is the audience? What was its purpose?

Definitions Speaker: The individual(s) (not necessarily the author) that have created the text. This includes whatever background can be inferred about them through the text. Audience: The individual(s) for whom the text is intended. Purpose: The speaker’s purpose for having created the text. Rhetorical Choices: The various techniques used by a speaker to create an effective text. Rhetorical Situation: The context, or particular time (including related social and political issues) and place (i.e., Selma, Alabama in the 1960’s versus Nazi Germany in the 1940’s) during which a text was created/intended to be shown.

Aristotle’s Classical Appeals Ethos: The appeal to the audience’s sense of morality. To do so, the speaker must establish credibility. Pathos: The appeal to the audience’s emotions. Pay particular attention to the choice of imagery and diction. Logos: The appeal to the audience’s sense of reason. Does the speaker use facts and statistics or other data? Does the speaker rely on expert testimony? Graphs? Charts? Authority?

Inferences Infer: to make an educated guess about an author’s choices. Though a text may have a very clear purpose, it will not always be clear how that purpose is conveyed. Your job is to figure out what those choices are and why, and how they function to make the text effective.

Text vs. Subtext By making inferences, you can evaluate the difference between the text and the subtext. The “text” is the surface level information (what you see, colors, images, phrases, fonts, sizes) The “subtext” is what lies below the surface. The subtext is the speaker’s true intention. In order to find the subtext, you must make inferences (educated guesses using supporting textual evidence).

Discuss: S.O.A.P.S Make inferences… Who is the speaker? This is Rosie the Riveter, an icon used during WWII to represent women who worked in factories, taking over the jobs of men who went to fight in the war. S.O.A.P.S Make inferences… Who is the speaker? What is the occasion? Who is the audience? What is the purpose? Discuss:

Make Inferences… Consider: 1. Who is the speaker? Images and phrases Why those images and phrases are used How these images and phrases affect the audience Minor details in this image might be important, and why? 1. Who is the speaker? 2. What is the occasion? 3. Who is the audience? 4. What is the speaker’s purpose?

Conducting a Close Reading Whenever we read texts, we will not only consider the rhetorical triangle and classical appeals, we will further review the stylistic choices used to achieve purpose. These include a focus on: Tone: the speaker’s attitude toward their subject Diction: the specific words a speaker uses and their effect Syntax: sentence structure Imagery: the sensory details evoked by the speaker’s language.