AP Lang Rhetoric

What does SPACECAT stand for?

Speaker 

Purpose

Audience

Context

Exigence

Choices

Appeals

Tone

What is the intended purpose of applying SPACECAT to a work of nonfiction?

It is a starting place for rhetorical analysis. 

It will not take readers to deep layers of analysis, but it reminds us of some of the elements we should begin considering.

What is the definition of tone?

The author’s attitude towards the subject; made evident through diction

narration

• Telling a story; recounting series of events

• Based on personal experience or knowledge of experience

• Chronology

• Concrete detail

• Point of View

• Dialogue

• Crafting of a story to support a thesis

• Way to enter/introduce the main topic

Description

• Emphasizes the senses by painting a picture

  • Sight

  • Sound

  • Smells

  • Tastes

  • Feels

• Establishes mood or atmosphere

• Clear and vivid details to persuade; build empathy and connection

• Works with narration

Process Analysis

• Explains how something works, how to do something, how something was done

• Clarity: Explain clearly and logically

• Transitions are a must! 

• Clear verbs

Exemplification

• Providing a series of examples to turn a general idea into a concrete one

  • Examples: facts, cases, instances

• Extended example or series of related examples helps to illustrate a point

• Induction: logical proof

  • Examples lead to conclusion

Comparison and Contrast

• Juxtaposing two things to highlight similarities and differences

• Used to analyze information carefully 

• Organization:

  • Subject by Subject: all elements of one subject discussed first, then the other subject is discussed

  • Point by Point: discusses an aspect of both subjects, and then another aspect and so on… 

Classification and Division 

• Sorting material or ideas into major categories

• “What goes together and why?”

• Make connections between seemingly unrelated things

• Sorting into pre-made categories

• Creating new categories to break down larger concepts into parts 

  • Use examples and analysis

Definition

• Defining key terms lays the foundation to establish common ground for the author’s main argument/claim

• First step in a debate or disagreement

Cause and Effect

• Analyzing the causes that led to a certain effect

• Analyzing the effects that resulted from a cause

• Causal analysis depends on clear logic, tracing a chain of cause and effect; it’s easy to run into logical fallacies 

Rhetoric Definition 

Rhetoric refers to the art of finding and analyzing all the choices involving language that a writer, speaker, reader, or listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners.

Effective Communication

It is situational 

Ethos

• Refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer or speaker.

• The speaker’s reputation. 

  • Immediately establishes ethos

• The speaker’s expertise, knowledge, experience, training, sincerity 

  • Through the discourse/information itself

• The way the speaker causes the audience to consider the “fairness” of a situation

Pathos

• An appeal to the audience’s  sympathies or emotion and imagination. 

• Established through language in the form of figurative language,  vivid description, and personal anecdotes.

• Established through diction with strong connotation, either negative or positive

• Considered weak on its own (propagandistic, polemical); rarely effective in the long term

Logos 

• An appeal to logic or reason through offering clear, rational ideas

• Clear main idea (thesis) is supported through effective evidence:

  • Specific details, examples, facts, statistical data, expert testimony

• Appeal to logos by addressing counter argument: anticipate objections and opposing viewers

  • Concede (agree)

  • Deny (refute)

Paradigm

Acceptable/accepted way of thinking in a given time period: social constructs

What is the purpose of the Rhetoric Triangle?

It is meant to capture the necessary consideration a speaker/writer must make as they tailor their subject for the intended audience.

What are the parts of the Rhetoric Triangle

Speaker (writer), Audience (reader), Subject (topic)

Exigence 

What compelled the writer to write

something that happens before they write

purpose

• The speaker’s goal or intention

• Win an agreement? Persuade to action? Evoke sympathy? Make someone laugh? Inform? Provoke? Celebrate? Repudiate? Propose? Secure support? 

Something the writer hopes for the outcome, after 

Persona

A character a speaker creates; a sort of mask

Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric

Rhetoric is the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.

Form vs Content

Form = How it is said

Content = what a rhetor says

Context is:

the occasion, time and place

Bias is

a predisposition, a subjective view point

Arrangement

How a piece is organized

Is it organized in the best possible way to achieve its purpose?

tensions

The sticky challenges a speaker must consider in a rhetorical situation