1. Everything is Rhetorical
“ the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion."
Everything is Rhetorical
By Dianna Trang
Grapevine High School
Grapevine, TX
Created by Dianna Trang, Grapevine High School

2. Isn’t everything rhetorical? What are the inherent communications here?
Hairstyles
Clothes
Fingernails (!)
Handbags
Specs

3. 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. 
Ethos
Pathos
http//:

4. Logos (literally “word”; also understood as “topic”)
What are the facts?
Data
Expert testimony
Statistics
Eye Witness
Testimonials
Evidence
Logical Reasoning: Induction and Deduction

5. 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 :

6. 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 :

7. James Kinneavy’s Communication Triangle
Logos  Subject-Based Writing:
instructions. tech manuals,
textbooks, information-
based writing
Text
Pathos  Reader-Based Writing:
poems, stories, novels,
editorials, ads, essays
Ethos  Writer-based Writing:
shopping lists, diaries, scrapbooks

8. Text Subject--Logos Writer--Ethos Reader--Pathos
How does the subject affect
the writer?
How does the subject
affect the reader?
How does the writer
affect the subject?
How does the
reader affect
the subject?
Text
Reader--Pathos
Writer--Ethos
How does the reader
affect the writer?
How does the writer
affect the reader??

9. Joliffe’s Rhetorical Framework Design
What happened that may have made the writer to want to write this?
Exigence
Exigence
Whom may the author had in mind
when writing this piece?
Audience
Purpose
What might the writer be
hoping to accomplish?
With what evidence does the writer
to prove his claim or thesis?
Logos
How does the writer create an emotional response in
the reader?
Is the writer
credible?
Tone
Ethos
Pathos
Organization/Structure/Form
Diction
Syntax
Imagery
Figurative
Language

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. Purpose What is the writer hoping to achieve by writing 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

13. 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.

14. 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?

15. 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

16. 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:
Anaphora (I came, I saw. I conquered.)
Asyndeton (He was a winner, a hero)
Polysyndeton ( I laughed and played and talked and flunked.)
Created by Dianna Trang, Grapevine High School

17. Imagery From Earnest Hemingway’s “Three Day Blow” :
"The rain stopped as Nick turned into the road that went up through the orchard. The fruit had been picked and the fall wind blew through the bare trees"(205).
Imagery appeals to your senses to make the scene more vivid, alive, and real.

18. 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