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Rhetorical Strategies

Techniques speakers use to influence an audience.

Rhetorical Situation

The context surrounding a text, including the speaker, subject, audience, and their relationships.

Speaker

The person or group who creates a text.

Occasion

The time and place a text is created or delivered.

Audience

The listener, viewer, or reader of a text, often with multiple layers.

Purpose

The goal the speaker wants to achieve.

Subject

The topic of the text; what the text is about.

Rhetorical Effects

The effects and effectiveness of rhetorical strategies on an audience.

Message

The speaker’s main idea or argument.

Ethos

An appeal to credibility and trustworthiness.

Logos

An appeal to reason using clear, rational ideas and evidence.

Pathos

An appeal to emotions, values, and desires of the audience.

Tone

The speaker’s attitude toward the subject conveyed through stylistic choices.

Rhetorical Choices

Decisions made by a writer or speaker to convey a message.

Organization

The structural choices in the arrangement of a text.

Diction

A speaker’s choice of words and their impact on the message.

Details

Examples, descriptions, or narratives included in a text.

Syntax

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Imagery

Descriptive language appealing to the senses.

Figurative Language

Language that represents something significant beyond its literal meaning.

Metaphor

A figure of speech comparing two things without using "like" or "as."

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, place, or work of art.

Simile

A figure of speech comparing two things using "like" or "as."

Personification

Applying human qualities to nonhuman things.

Noun

A word used to name a person, place, thing, or idea.

Pronoun

A word used in place of a noun to avoid repetition.

Adjective

A word used to describe a noun or pronoun.

Verb

An action, state, or occurrence word; essential in a clause or sentence.

Adverb

A word used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

Preposition

A word showing relationships between nouns or pronouns.

Article

A word indicating whether a noun is definite or indefinite.

Conjunction

A word connecting words, phrases, or clauses.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance (e.g., for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

Subordinating Conjunctions

Connects a dependent clause to an independent clause (e.g., after, although, because).

Verbals

Words made from verb forms that do not function as verbs.

Gerund

A verbal ending in "-ing" that functions as a noun.

Infinitive

A verbal that usually begins with "to" and can function as a noun, adjective, or adverb.

Participle

A verbal that functions as an adjective.

Phrase

A group of words lacking a subject, a verb, or both.

Clause

A group of words that includes a subject and a verb.

Independent Clause

A clause that can stand alone and does not include a subordinating conjunction.

Dependent Clause

A clause that cannot stand alone and includes a subordinating conjunction.

Relative Clause

A dependent clause beginning with a relative pronoun (e.g., "who," "which," "that").

Subject

The noun or pronoun performing the action of the verb in a clause.

Predicate

The part of the sentence telling what the subject does or is.

Object

A noun or pronoun receiving the action of a verb.

Simple Sentence

A sentence with one independent clause.

Compound Sentence

A sentence with two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

Complex Sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Compound-Complex Sentence

A sentence with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.