Rhetorical Terms

Message

Point the author is trying to make to a particular audience; overall takeaway

Speaker

Who?

What do we know/ don't know?

How does who the speaker is affect the message?

Purpose

What does the speaker want to accomplish?

Reason behind text?

What do they want the audience to believe after listening/reading?

Audience

Who is the speaker trying to reach? How do we know?

What assumption are in the text about the audience?

Context

Time and Place of Text

What is happening in the world relating to the topic?

Exigence

What was the catalyst that moved the speaker to write?

What event impacted the speaker?

Ethos

Appeal to credibility, beliefs, and values

Pathos

Appeal to emotions; can be manipulative if overdone

Logos

Appeal to logic, Organization and order

Tone

Attitude or character of text

Syntax

How words/phrases are arranged to make well-formed sentences

Diction

Word choice as an aspect of style

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word

Connotation

The felting meaning of the word

Thesis

-Short statement:Usually one sentence

-Summarizes the main point or claim of an essay

-Developed and explained through the essay by examples and evidence

Line of Reasoning

The development, organization, and flow of a text that is traceable for understanding the reasoning

Commentary

The writer’s explanation of evidence to establish a logical relationship between the evidence & the claim it supports; incorporates source material into their line of reasoning

Kairos

Creating & taking advantage of the perfect moment for the right message inside a text

Bias

Prejudice toward or against something; the degree to which a source does or does not consider other positions reflects the degree to which the source is biased

Allusion

A reference to something else, often used to show group values/belonging or a relationship

Anaphora

A repeated word/phrase at the beginning of successive clauses

Anadiplosis

When a word is used near the end of a clause & then it’s repeated to begin next clause for emphasis

Anecdote

A short account of an interesting, amusing, or biographical event, used to make listeners ponder a topic

Analogy

A comparison between 2 similar things for clarification

Antithesis

A direct opposite/contrast, sometimes expressed using parallelism

Epistrophe

A repeated word at the beginning of multiple phrases

Asyndeton

The omission/absence of a necessary conjunction between parts of a sentence

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word/phrase substituted for a more blunt/harsh phrase when something could be unpleasant or embarrassing

Chiasmus

Words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order but slightly modified

Hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration

Imagery

Visually descriptive figurative language

Juxtaposition

2 things held up to each other in order to make a contrast

Metaphor

A comparison of 2 things saying 1 thing IS another

Metonymy

To substitute the name of an attribute or object for the thing meant

Motif

A distinctive feature/repeated idea in a text/art

Oxymoron

A figure of speech that makes contradictory terms appear in conjunction 

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true

Parallelism

The echo of form by the use of successive verbal constructions 

Polysyndeton

Several coordinating conjunctions are used together for effect (extra unnecessary)

Personification

Giving person-like qualities to non-human things

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect, to make a point rather than to get an answer–try to avoid, can be immature

Simile

A comparison of 2 unlike things using like/as

Synecdoche

A figure of speech when a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa