Introduction to Rhetoric

Chapter 1

The Language of Composition

By the end of this lesson, you will be
able to:
• Identify the rhetorical situation of a written or
spoken argument;
• Analyze the relationship between speaker,
audience, and subject;
• Discuss the rhetorical appeals made by a
speaker; and
• Create an argument through conscious and deep
consideration of the rhetorical situation,
audience, and rhetorical appeals.
Important Terms
• Rhetoric • Rhetorical Appeals
• Rhetorical Situation • Ethos
• Subject • Pathos
• Speaker • Logos
• Audience • Concede
• Occasion • Refute
• Purpose • Counterargument
• Aristotelian (Rhetorical) • Persona
Triangle
• Context
What is Rhetoric?
As Aristotle defined the term, “the faculty of
observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion.”

In other words, it is the art of finding ways to

persuade an audience.
Where is Rhetoric used?
Not just in speeches…

• Every essay
• Political cartoon, photograph, advertisement
• Documentary films (lighting, music, what to
show, what to leave out, etc)
Types of Rhetoric
• Manipulative rhetoric
• Deceptive rhetoric
• Civil and effective rhetoric
• Receptive rhetoric
It is a part of our job as informed citizens and
consumers to understand how rhetoric works so
that we can be wary of manipulation or deceit,
while appreciating effective and civil
communication.
Activity 1 (page 2)
• Identify an article, a speech, a video, or an
advertisement that you think is manipulative or
deceptive and one that is civil and effective.

• Write a short response explaining why for each

example you provide.
Activity 1 examples:
• Let’s look at the following political
advertisement:

VOTE President Lyndon Johnson

[Link]
Sample response:
-Manipulative rhetoric
Easily one of the most manipulative political advertisements
in history, the “Daisy” ad from the Lyndon B. Johnson campaign
preyed on the greatest fear of the American people at the time:
nuclear war. The ad appealed especially to middle class families;
this is why a young, innocent-looking girl was chosen as the ad’s
primary focus.
Activity 1 examples continued
Let’s look at another example of rhetoric:

• Kindness Boomerang advertisement:

[Link]
FU
Example response:
-Civil rhetoric
The video I chose as my civil rhetoric example shows how one
completely random act of kindness can begin a domino effect. Not
only is the video footage itself useful, but by using the song "One
Day" by Matisyahu, the video also gives a message of utopia; a world
where there is no longer war and children can live in peace and
prosperity.
What kind of rhetoric is this?
manipulation rhetoric
This is an example of a manipulative rhetoric
because it is manipulating men into thinking
that they are not men if they do not join the navy
to help with the war efforts.
What about this?
deceptive rhetoric

• My example of deceptive rhetoric is an advertisement I

saw. The product, POM Wonderful, claims to have
"lifesaving" capabilities and asserts that it can be used to
treat or prevent heart disease and various cancers. As
one might imagine, this began a craze over pomegranate
juice, which is by no means a miracle drug. The Federal
Trade Commission sought to protect consumers and
demanded that POM Wonderful discontinue the
manipulative advertisements and health "claims"
because they had no support.
Occasion, Context, & Purpose
• Occasion—The time and place the text was
written or spoken.
• Context—The circumstances, atmosphere,
attitudes, and events surrounding the text.
• Purpose—The goal the speaker wants to achieve.
Let’s Practice!
Let’s read Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech. As you
read, identify the occasion, context, and purpose of
the speech.
Part 1: 5 minutes
Use post its to annotate the speech.
•Identify the occasion, context, and purpose
•Write words/lines that stood out to you as being
effective.

Part 2: 5 minutes
Whole class discussion
 The Rhetorical Triangle aka
Aristotelian Triangle
Another important aspect of the rhetorical
situation is the relationship among the speaker,
audience, and subject.

Why are these elements important?

What is the relationship between these elements?
The Rhetorical Triangle
SPEAKER

TEXT

AUDIENCE SUBJECT
Rhetorical Triangle
• The speaker is the person or group who creates a
text. It is important to not only think of the speaker
as a name, but to consider the description of the
speaker. Who is the speaker of the farewell speech?
• The audience is the listener, viewer, or reader of a
text or performance, but it is important to note that
there may be multiple audiences. Who is Lou
Gehrig’s audience?
• The subject is the topic. What is the subject of
Gehrig’s speech?
Rhetorical Triangle to Analyze Gehrig’s
Speech
• Speaker: baseball hero and ALS victim, Lou
Gehrig

• Audience: his teammates, fans in the stadium,

fans listening on the radio, and also the teams he
played against.

• Subject: his illness, ALS, but also the lucky

breaks that preceded his diagnosis.
 SPEAKER: baseball hero and ALS victim,
Lou Gehrig

TEXT: Lou Gehrig’s

Farewell Speech

AUDIENCE: : his teammates, fans in the SUBJECT: his illness, ALS, but also the
stadium, fans listening on the radio, and also lucky breaks that preceded his diagnosis.
the teams he played against.
 Let’s Practice!
Activity 2: (page 4)
Construct & analyze a rhetorical situation for writing a
review of a movie, video game, or concert. Be very specific
in your analysis:
• What is your subject?
• What is your purpose?
• Who is your audience?
• What is your relationship to the audience?

Remember, you need not write a full essay; just analyze the
rhetorical situation.
Activity 2 Examples:

1. My review will be on the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The

purpose is to convince my friends that Breakfast at Tiffany's is a
movie worth watching. The audience is my friends. The relationship
between the audience and myself is they are my friends therefore
increasing my credibility.

2. The subject of my rhetorical situation is the movie Mean Girls.

My purpose is to convince people that it is a funny movie. My
Audience is primarily teenage girls in high school. The relationship
between my audience and I is that we are both teenage girls in high
school.
Continued…
3. Subject- My Sister's Keeper
Purpose- To convince my best friend that a dramatic
movie is entertaining and heart warming.
Audience- My audience is my best friend, because I
want her to like "chick flicks" and enjoy a movie with
emotion. She usually doesn’t like “chick flicks.”
Relationship- The relationship with my best friend
is strong, and she can trust me because no one knows her
better than me.
Let’s Review!
• What is rhetoric?
• What are the components of the rhetorical
situation?
• What is the relationship between subject,
speaker, and audience?
• Why is it important to identify the purpose of a
text?
SOAPS
When analyzing the rhetorical situation of a piece,
just remember:

S ubject
O ccasion
A udience
P urpose
S peaker
Let’s Practice!
Read the letter from Albert Einstein to Phyllis
Wright.

As you read, identify SOAPS.

SUBJECT The explicit subject here is whether scientists pray and, if
so, what they pray for. Implicitly, the subject is the
nature of faith.
OCCASION The occasion is Einstein’s receipt of a letter from Phyllis
Wright asking questions about science and religion.
AUDIENCE The primary audience for the letter is Phyllis herself,
though the formality of his response suggests that
Einstein realized that his letter would have a larger
audience. (Note that he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in
1921, so by 1936 he was a world-renowned scientist.)
PURPOSE Einstein’s purpose is probably the most complex element
here. At its most straightforward, his purpose is to
respond to a sincere schoolgirl’s question about science
and religion. Beyond that, it seems that Einstein’s
purpose is to expand Phyllis’s horizons a bit, to help her
understand that science and religion do not necessarily
represent two antagonistic ways of thinking.
SPEAKER The speaker, a scientist approaching age sixty, is
responding to a girl who is likely twelve, so his purpose is
intertwined with the speaker-audience relationship: the
wise elder in dialogue with the younger generation.
 Three Rhetorical Appeals

Rhetorical Appeals are the tools a speaker uses to

persuade an audience.

Aristotle, the father of the Classical Argument model

(that which we study in this class), identified three
rhetorical appeals:
• Ethos: credibility
• Logos: reason
• Pathos: emotion
Ethos

Speakers appeal to ETHOS to demonstrate that they

are credible and trustworthy.
 Think of a speech discouraging teenagers from drinking. How
might a speaker make him/herself credible to an audience of
teenagers?

• Appeals to ethos often emphasize shared values

between the speaker and the audience.
Let’s Practice!
Let’s look back at Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech…

How does Gehrig appeal to ethos in his speech?

Automatic Ethos
In some cases, a speaker’s reputation immediately
establishes ethos. We call this AUTOMATIC
ETHOS.

Read “The King’s Speech” given on September 3,

1939 by King George VI. How does King George VI
appeal to ethos in this speech?
 Let’s Listen!
[Link]
Let’s Practice!
Now read the passage from Judith Ortiz Cofer’s
“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl
Named Maria.” Here, the speaker does not have
automatic ethos. So, how does she make this
appeal?

Note: Pay particular attention to how she draws

on her own Puerto Rican heritage as she describes
her experiences with prejudice as a young Latina.
Let’s Practice!
Think of a situation in which you are presenting
your view on the same subject to two different
audiences. For instance, you might be presenting
your ideas on ways to stop bullying (1) to the
School Board or a group of parents and (2) to a
group of middle schoolers. Discuss how you would
establish ethos in each situation.
Activity 4, Student Example 1:

1. A way I will establish ethos for stopping bullying to the School Board is I will talk
about the horrible effects bullying has on children and how they are affected in the
long term. I will also bring teens or kids who have been/are being bullied and feel like
committing suicide because of it. This will allow the message of stopping bullying to
get through to the School board and how it is a serious matter because kids are
thinking of taking their lives due to the fact that they are being bullied and nothing is
being done. In addition to doing this, I will bring up articles and research I have done
online to show the long term effects bullying has had on children. This will increase my
credibility, because all the things I am saying have been thoroughly investigated and
published online.
2. On the other hand, to a group of middle schoolers I will build up my ethos
differently. I will first mention my own experience of bullying, and how I was bullied as
a middle schooler and have seen people be bullied. This will cause the students to
recognize that I am credible because I personally have witnessed/experienced bullying.
In addition to this, I will call on people in the audience who have been bullied and
have them talk about their feelings about bullying. Having the kids hear their own
peers talk about their feelings towards bullying will cause them to realize bullying isn’t
right. I will then present my ways in which we can stop bullying.
 ….Student Example 2
My situation would be owning a pet. My audience would be parents and kids.
1. For the parents , I would tell stories of kids who grew up with pets and
everything they've learned due to it. I would also present stories of rescue dog who
save kids in trouble. This would make parents feel relief and happy that their kids
would learn how to take care of another living thing.
2. For the kids , I would show how fun pets are and how the owner and pet
friendship will last forever. This would have kids hooked on how much fun a pet as
a playmate is.
 The speaker’s ethos—expertise, knowledge,
experience, sincerity, common purpose with the
audience, or a combination of these factors—gives
the audience a reason for listening to this person
on the subject.
Let’s Review
Discuss how you would establish your ethos in the
following situation:

You are trying to persuade your skeptical parents

that a “gap” year—taking a year off between high
school graduation and college—will be beneficial.
Logos
Speakers appeal to LOGOS, or reason, by offering
clear rational ideas.

•Appealing to logos means thinking logically—

having a clear main idea and using specific details,
examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to
back it up.
How does one create a logical
argument?
• Creating a logical argument often involves
defining the terms of the argument and
identifying connections such as causality.
• It can also require considerable research.
▫ Evidence from expert sources and authorities,
facts, and quantitative data can be very persuasive
if selected carefully and presented accurately.
 Let’s look back again at Lou Gehrig’s speech.
Though, at first glance, his speech may seem
largely emotional, it is actually based on irrefutable
logic.

How does Gehrig make appeals to logos?

How does Gehrig appeal to logos?
• Begins with a clear thesis statement:
▫ “the luckiest man on the face of the earth”
• Supports this thesis statement with two points:
[Link] love and kindness he’s received in his
seventeen years of playing baseball; and
2.A list of great people who have been his friends,
family, and teammates in that time.
How else can a speaker appeal to
logos?
CONCEDE and REFUTE
• Acknowledge a counterargument: anticipate the
objections or opposing views.
▫ Your argument will be vulnerable if you ignore
ideas that run counter to your own.
 In acknowledging the counterargument, you agree
(concede) that an opposing argument may be true or
reasonable, but then you deny (refute) the validity of
all or part of the argument.
 Concession and Refutation strengthens your own
argument: it appeals to logos by demonstrating that
you understand a viewpoint other than your own,
you’ve thought through other evidence, and you stand
by your view.
 How does Gehrig address a counterargument?

•Gehrig concedes what some of his listeners may

think: that is “bad break” is a cause for
discouragement or despair.
•Gehrig refutes this by saying that he has “an awful
lot to live for!”
Let’s Practice!
Read the passage from “Slow Food Nation,” a
piece by famous chef, food activist, and author
Alice Waters.

What counterargument does Waters acknowledge?

Pathos
PATHOS is an appeal to emotions, values, desires,
and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and
prejudices, on the other.
•Although an argument that appeals exclusively to
the emotions is by definition weak, an effective
speaker or writer understands the power of
evoking an audience’s emotions by using such
tools as figurative language, personal anecdotes,
and vivid images.
 Let’s return again to Lou Gehrig’s speech.

What appeals to pathos does Gehrig make in his

speech?
•Uses first person (I)—reinforces the friendly sense that this
is a guy who is speaking on his own behalf.
•Chooses words with strong positive connotations.
•Uses an image—”tower of strength”
•Creates a powerful contrast between his horrible diagnosis
and his public display of courage.
 Let’s Practice!
Let’s look at a more direct example of pathos.

As a vice-presidential candidate, Richard Nixon gave a

speech in 1952 defending himself against allegations of
inappropriate use of campaign funds.

Read the excerpt from the speech and identify Nixon’s

appeals to pathos.
 Let’s Listen!

[Link]
A
How else can a speaker appeal to
pathos?
• Use striking imagery—written and visual images
• Use humor
• Understand the needs and beliefs of the
audience.
Combining Ethos, Logos, and
Pathos
Most authors don’t rely on just a single type of
appeal to persuade their audience; they combine
these appeals to create an effective argument.
The appeals themselves are inextricably linked: if
you lay out your argument logically, that will help
to build your ethos.

It is only logical to listen to an expert on a subject,

so having ethos can help build a foundation for an
appeal to logos.

It is also possible to build your ethos based on

pathos—for example, who better to speak about the
pain of losing a loved on than someone who has
gone through it?
 Let’s Practice With All of the
Appeals!
Let’s examine a letter that Toni Morrison, the only
African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature, wrote to then-senator Barak Obama
endorsing him as the Democratic candidate for
president in 2008. The letter was published in the
New York Times.

As you read, consider the rhetorical appeals made

by Morrison and how they function together to help
Morrison effectively communicate her purpose.
Homework
Read the passage from Book 24 of Homer’s The
Iliad and complete the organizer to help you
analyze the rhetorical situation and rhetorical
appeals.
Resources
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin
Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition,
2nd ed., Boston and New York: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2013.