Rhetoric Vocab Quiz

The Rhetorical Situation

Circumstances, background, authorship and purpose of a text - by understanding the RS, you can analyze the effectiveness of the writing

Speaker

Writer or speaker - their background impacts their purpose

Purpose

What the author wants the audience to feel, think, believe, do - 

Inspire, motivate, persuade, call to action, change a belief, agree with them, be afraid,

Audience

Who the author is writing to - this is specific and targeted - not accidental

Context

Relevant background to the writing - political, economic, social, cultural 

What’s going on???

Exigence

The urgent problem, issue or event that motivates the writer to write

Why now???

Appeals:

(ethos, pathos, logos) Ways to build a relationship between the author and the audience

Ethos

Ethical appeal → establishes credibility or trust between the author and the audience

• Citations of credible people, their background or expertise

Pathos

 

Emotional appeal → evokes an specific audience’s emotions (joy, anger, frustration, love, passion, sense of fairness)

Logos

Logical appeal → objective reasoning, something logically true

Repetition

Strategic reuse of words, phrases, ideas or sentences for impact, to evoke emotional response, to connect to another idea or belief, to reiterate the importance of something

• Key concepts, builds emotional resonance, reinforces a key argument

Parallelism

Consistent grammatical structure for a series of words, phrase or clauses 

• Builds a sense of order, reinforces a balance of ideas or beliefs, simplifies a complex idea

Figurative language

Non-literal language meant to evoke vivid imagery, a metaphor or emotional response 

• Adds layers of meaning, depicts a creative way to imagine a complex idea, dramatic effect, evoke emotion

Anecdote

Short, true and relatable personal story used an example of a larger idea

• Establish speaker’s credibility and relatability, simplify complex ideas, evoke emotions

Allusion

Reference to a well-known and contextually relevant person, event, place, or literary work - relies on shared knowledge

• Bible is a common reference, pop culture figures, evokes a common understanding and clarifies or simplifies complex ideas

Diction

Word choice - using specific, strong language - diction creates tone 

• Analyzed for formality, seriousness, emotional impact, humor, anger, jealousy, violence …