Rhetorical Strategies Rhetoric is the study and use of persuasive language. You use these techniques all of the time without even realizing it.

Warning: This is the hardest unit to cover in American Literature. These techniques and phrases must be understood in order to pass the Graduation Test. You cannot afford to miss days from school during this unit. We will write several papers, have numerous debates, and pick famous speeches and other pieces of Literature apart to identify rhetorical devices. No distractions of any kind will be tolerated. If you cannot follow the rules and do your best, I will send you to Mr. Johnson without hesitation.

Rhetoric Charts: You are responsible for bringing this chart, along with the rest of your materials, to class every single day. If you forget your chart, you will be assigned an automatic after school detention. No exceptions.

The 3 Central Concepts of Rhetoric: Logos Pathos Ethos Prepare to define the terms on your chart.

Logos: appeals to logic. Logos often focuses on using tangible things like statistics and other facts to support their point.

Pathos: appeals to emotion. Pathos tries to persuade by appealing to someone’s emotions or by making him/her feel a sense of danger.

Ethos: ethical appeals Ethos appeals to a person’s sense of “right” and “wrong”.

Choosing a Persuasive Technique: There are two basic ways to tell your side of an argument. 1. Deductive Reasoning: start with a conclusion and then discuss reasons. 2. Inductive Reasoning: start with reasons to reach a conclusion.

Rhetorical Questions: A question to which no answer is expected because the answer is obvious. These types of questions are often used in persuasive writing to emphasize a point of create an emotional effect. Example: Do you want to be grounded for the rest of your life?

Parallelism: When a speaker or writer expresses ideas of equal worth with the same grammatical form, the technique is called parallelism. Example: We have pleaded, we have asked, we have begged you to try your best in class.

Repetition: Repetition is the reoccurrence of words, phrases, or lines. Example: I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to survive.

Charged/Inflammatory Words: These are words that evoke emotional response. Example: Mark Twain’s use of the “N” word in Huckleberry Finn.

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. Example: Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. –Edgar Allan Poe **Think tongue twisters**

Assonance and Consonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words. Example: Along the window-sill, the lipstick stubs Glittered in their steel shells. –Rita Dove Consonance is the repetition consonant sound within and at the ends of words. Example: Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door. –Edgar Allan Poe

Simile and Metaphor: A simile is a comparison of two things that have something in common using “like” or “as”. Example: Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong. A metaphor makes a direct comparison between two things that are similar without using “like” or “as”. Example: Hope is the thing with feathers.

Anecdote: An anecdote is a brief story that focuses on a single episode or event in a person’s life and that is used to illustrate a particular point. Example: Stories passed down from the older people in your family.

Personification: Personification is the figure of speech in which an object, animal, or idea is given human characteristics. Example: The wind gave a shout as it ran.

Hyperbole: Hyperbole is a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect. Example: I am so hungry I could eat a horse!

Allusion: An allusion is an indirect reference to a person, place, event, or literary work with which the author believes the reader to be familiar. Example: Never allow for someone to “betray you with a kiss”. – allusion to the Apostle Judas, who betrayed Jesus by kissing him

Imagery: The descriptive words of phrases that a writer uses to re-create sensory experiences are called imagery. By appealing to the 5 senses, imagery helps a reader imagine exactly what the characters and experiences being described are like. Example: Mr. Brooks’ farts reek of rotten eggs, baked beans and fried fish.