Intro to Rhetoric

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What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the use of language for a specific purpose, usually to persuade a specific audience.

Why Rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the key strategy that authors use in order to persuade their audience of their position. We see this in advertising when advertisers try to sell us their products. They use specific language, images, colors, and arguments in order to get consumers to purchase the product. The same is true for our daily lives. We tailor our speaking strategies to fit our audiences.

For example, if we need to ask our boss for a day off of work, we will speak to him/her much differently than if we want to convince our friend to come out to dinner with us. With our boss, we will be much more formal and apologetic, while we may use a guilt trip to persuade our friend to come to dinner and say, "You never spend time with us anymore!" We may also rationalize it and say "You'll be home in time to get your homework done!" Simply put, we do not use the same rhetorical techniques for every person we speak to in our daily lives. 

In this module, we will take a look at the different techniques that authors use depending on their purpose and audience. You will then practice identifying rhetorical devices in different advertisements. 

Rhetorical Situation:

Please watch the following 7-minute video on the rhetorical situation:

PACES:

In addition to the rhetorical situation, there are certain key elements that make up an argument, and we use the acronym PACES for these parts of an argument:

	Part of Argument	Definition	Example
P	Project	What is it that the author is trying to accomplish? Is the author composing a research paper? Conducting an interview? Writing a blog?	An argumentative essay about the best ice cream flavor
A	Argument	this is the main argument of the text. Remember that an argument has two parts--the topic and the opinion.	The best ice cream flavor is pistachio.
C	Claims	These are the subclaims or the reasons to support the main argument.	Pistachio is the best because it is healthier than most ice creams.
E	Evidence	Evidence is the facts, personal experience, expert opinion, etc. used to support the claim.	Pistachio ice cream is made from pistachios, which contain 12% of our daily healthy fats (Smith 101).
S	Strategies	These are the means by which we incorporate the evidence into our paragraph.	The above piece of evidence is from an expert; however, we can choose to narrate a story, use cause and effect analysis, etc.