Faber - English II-H

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN ANALYZING RHETORIC

P.A.T.T.R

PURPOSE

AUDIENCE

THEME

TONE

RHETORICAL STRATEGIES

  1. Purpose (also called rhetorical appeal) – the main appeal or interest of the author; he/she may use one of all three of the appeals
  2. Ethos – an ethical or value-based appeal; draws upon the audiences’ virtue, morals, prudence
  3. Pathos – an emotional appeal; draws upon the audiences; feelings and sentimentality
  4. Logos – A logical appeal; draws upon the audiences’ sense of reason using facts, statistics, evidence
  1. Audience – the listeners or readers of the rhetoric
  1. Theme– the subject being discussed and the author’s opinion about the subject
  1. Tone – a suggestion of the author’s attitude formulated by the analysis of diction, imagery, and syntax. Tone is always expressed as an adjective
  1. Rhetorical strategies – any device that persuades the audience to agree with the author
  1. Rhetorical devices

Analogy – clarifying a concept by showing similarity to a more familiar concept

Antitheses - a statement OPPOSED to something previously asserted

Anticipate an objective – addressing a possible protest before the opposition can raise it; audience centered

Concession – acknowledgement of personal flaws or flaws to a proposal; speaker-centered

Reduce to the absurd – a statement to show the utter foolishness of another argument

Rhetorical question – asking a question desiring thought, not an audible response

Under/Overstatement – saying considerably less or more than a condition warrants

  1. Logical Fallacies

Ad homineum – “against the man;” a person’s character is attacked instead of his argument

Ad populum – “to the crowd;” a widespread occurrence makes someone makes something wrong or right

Begging the question - assuming in a premise that which needs to be proven before moving on the next idea; assumes that certain points are self-evident when they are not

Either/or fallacy – tending to see and issue as having only two sides; also called false dilemma

Faulty analogy – overlooking important dissimilarities between two situations

Hasty generalization – a conclusion is reached on the basis to of too little evidence

Loaded Words – unjustifiably using highly connotative diction to describe something favorably or not

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc – “after this, therefore because of this;” 1st incident causes the 2nd incident

Red herring – when a writer raises an irrelevant issue to draw attention away from the real or central issue

Straw Man- When a writer argues against a claim that nobody actually holds or is universally considered weak.