Silva Rhetoricae

The Forest (and Trees)

of Rhetoric

Anybody??

• Sesquipedalian????

What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric, Content, Form, Relationship between content and

form

Rhetoric

• “The whole process of education for me was learning to put names on things I already knew” (as said by Kinsey Millhone in Sue Grafton’s novel, C is for Corpse)

• You already ‘know’ rhetoric, you just might not know the terms

• Rhetoric is all around us in conversation, in movies, in ads, in books, in body language, and in art

Your Job as AP Students is:

• 1) to perceive how language is at work orally and in writing, and

• 2) to become proficient in applying the resources of language in your own speaking and writing

• 3)in other words, to become a rhetorician

Rhetoric

• The study of effective:– Speaking– Writing

• What is said (content)

• How it is said (form)

How vs. What

• how one says something conveys meaning as much as what one says

• Don’t be mislead by the saying “mere rhetoric”• “Rhetoricians divided form and content not to place

content above form, but to highlight the interdependence of language and meaning, argument and ornament, thought and its expression.

• “[This] means that linguistic forms are not merely instrumental, but fundamental—not only to persuasion, but to thought itself.”

Content vs. Form“ornament”

• “superficial”• “inessential

decoration”

• “to equip”

• equipment required to achieve the intended meaning

Speaker

Audience Subject

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle

Speaker and Subject

• Rhetor = speaker or writer

• Subject = what the writer knows and needs to know

Audience

• Often neglected by the rhetor

• Involves speculating about reader’s expectations, knowledge and disposition relating to the subject

• Often teacher-driven (write 5 pages about…)

• More on audience in a little while……..

Speaker

Audience Subject

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle

8 year old boy, 7th grade science teacher, youth pastor, AIDS counselor

8 year olds, 7th graders, teens, hookers

ContextDirty picture, PPT, bible, brochure SEX

Encompassing Terms

Kairos, Audience, Decorum

Kairos

• exigencies and constraints of place, time, culture, and audience that affect choices made by speakers and authors to influence that moment

• considers the opportunities within this specific context for words to be effective and appropriate to that moment

• In its most simple form: I see you getting bored so I cut out part of my lecture or add something funny to get your attention

Halloween is coming up…

Audience

• Those who will hear or read your work

• The stylistic choices you make depend on the audience you are writing to

Decorum

• Decorum = good manners, appropriate behavior• Words and subject must fit with the audience

and occasion• If they match, your speech will be successful• Speech to school board about frosted animal

cookies in vending machine?• Slang? • Logos, ethos, etc.

What students need to know

• Read the following three slides that contain an introduction to an essay that answers the question:

• “What do AP students need to know about rhetoric?”

• Which one is best?

What do students need to know?

• The AP Exam places a strong emphasis on students’ ability to analyze texts rhetorically. It’s an important question for teachers to consider what students need to know about this often misunderstood term in order to write confidently and skillfully.

What do students need to know?

• The traditional definition of rhetoric, first proposed by Aristotle, and embellished over the centuries by scholars and teachers, is that rhetoric is the art of observing in any given case the “available means of persuasion.”

What do students need to know?

• “The whole process of education for me was learning to put names to things I already knew.” That’s a line spoken by Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton’s private investigator in one of her series of alphabet mystery novels, C is for Corpse. When I began a graduate program that specialized in rhetoric, I wasn’t quite sure what that word meant. But once I was introduced to it, I realized rhetoric was something I had always known about.

So…which one is best?

• It’s a rhetorical decision based on what the writer knows about:

• herself• her subject• her audience

Persuasive Appeals

Pathos, Logos, Ethos

Pathos

• Appeals to emotion

• Anger, love, hate, sympathy

Logos

• Appeals to logic

• authority

• Statistics, facts

• reasoning

Ethos

• Relates to writer’s ‘character’

• Credibility of speaker or writer

• Must appear both knowledgeable and benevolent

• Also appeals to audience’s ethics, sense of right and wrong, sense of duty, sense of patriotism

What appeal is it?

• “Because so much is riding on your tires.”

What Type of Appeal?

1.Brand XLNT tires had 50% fewer blowouts than Brand SCK

2. Don’t let this happen to you!

Canons of Rhetoric

Canons of Rhetoric“Cannons”

• Invention• Arrangement• Style• Delivery• Memory

Invention

• Having something to say

• The art of finding and developing materials

• The ability to discover ideas

• Relates closely to memory

Arrangement

• Organization

• How do I put my ideas together?

• Selecting evidence and ordering it with a purpose

Arrangement

• Aristotle’s Classical Arrangement

Excordium—introduction

Narration—background info/ context

Partition—outlines and defines scope of argument

Confirmation—offers evidence

Arrangement

• Basic 4-part structure

assertion (I think…)

concession (Others may think…)

evidence/rebuttal (However, here’s why I’m right)

Conclusion (Therefore…agree with me)

Arrangement

• Modes of development- Example/illustration- Classification- Comparison and contrast- Analogy- Process analysis- Cause and effect- Definition- Description- Narration

Style

• Artful expression of ideas

• To equip one’s thoughts with verbal expression for a purpose

• Includes figures of speech (lit. terms), appeals, diction, syntax

• Also includes elements of persuasion

Delivery

• How it appears on the page

• Spelling, grammar and punctuation

• Neatness counts!!!!!

Memory

• You have to know stuff

• Refers to what students know, can access, and use

• Mature Academic Perspective

• Read widely—books, newspaper, periodicals like Time or Newsweek, political cartoons

Rhetorical Pedagogy

Rhetorical analysis

Imitation

Categories of Change

Tropes and Schemes