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Tackling Rhetoric

Mini Rhetoric Lesson for College Comp I C. Stanford Fall 2015

+What is Rhetoric?

n  From Aristotle: The faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.

n  Rhetoric is a thoughtful, reflective activity leading to effective communication, including the rational exchange of opposing viewpoints.

n  In the time of Aristotle, and now in the 21st century, those who understand and can use the available means to appeal to an audience of one or many find themselves in a position of strength. n  Tools to resolve conflict n  Persuade readers/listeners n  Move others to take action

+Where is Rhetoric?

n  You might use rhetoric to convince a friend that Iggy Azalea is worth listening to.

n  To explain to readers of your blog that The Walking Dead is extremely influential in the realms of zombie cinema.

n  To persuade your parents that they should buy you a car.

n  It’s important to note that rhetoric is not just about speeches. Every essay, political cartoon, photograph, and advertisement is designed to convince you of something. n  These texts are cultural products that can be read, meaning not just

consumed and comprehended, but investigated. n  We need to be able to read between the lines regardless of what we

are reading or viewing.

+What are these advertisements saying to you?

+Now what about these?

+The Rhetorical Situation

n  Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech n  July 4, 1939

n  Transcript reading

n  Why is this an effective speech?

n  Occasion – the time and place the text was written/spoken

n  Context – the circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes and events surrounding the text

n  Purpose – the goal the speaker wants to achieve

n  http://youtu.be/626Dt9JdjQs

n  How does the video enhance the overall effect of the speech?

+The Rhetorical Triangle

n  Represents the relationships within a rhetorical situation.

n  The Speaker/Author is the person or group that creates the text. n  Don’t think of the speaker as

solely a name, but consider a description of who the speaker is in context of the text.

n  Persona – the difference between who the speaker is in real life and the role they speaker plays when delivering the message.

+Rhetorical Triangle

n  The audience is the listener, viewer, or reader of a text or performance.

n  There may be multiple audiences.

n  Speakers must ask what values their audience holds, and their general mood toward the subject matter.

n  The subject/text is the topic. It should not be confused with the purpose, which is the goal the speaker wishes to achieve.

+Practice…

n  Construct and 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. This is not an essay – just an analysis of the rhetorical situation.

+SOAPSTone

n  In discussing the rhetorical situation surrounding a text, we’ve talked about some of the background that you should consider (occasion, context, and purpose) and relationships that are more directly related to the text ( speaker, audience, subject). One way to remember all of these things is through the acronym SOAPSTone.

+Dear Phyllis

n  Einstein is responsible for the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and other foundational concepts. He won the Novel Prize in Physics in 1921. In 1936, he wrote the following letter to a sixth grade student, Phyllis Wright, in response to her questions: Do scientists pray? And if so, what do they pray for?

n  Analyze Einstein’s response using SOAPSTone. n  http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/05/dear-einstein-do-

scientists-pray.html

+Rhetorical Appeals

n  Rhetorical appeals are the attempts by a speaker to persuade an audience – or to put it another way, attempts to say things that an audience would find appealing.

n  Ethos

n  Pathos

n  Logos

+Ethos

n  Speakers appeal to “ethos” (Greek for Character) to demonstrate that they are trustworthy people who should be listened to when they discuss a given topic.

n  Speaker’s qualifications or authority play into this appeal as well.

n  http://tweakyourslides.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/rhetoric-lessons-from-ted/

+Speech to Congress, Lyndon B. Johnson, March 15, 1965

n  http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/lbj-voting-rights.html

n  How does LBJ bring ethos into the rhetorical situation?

n  The occasion was violence that had erupted the week prior in Selma, Alabama, when African-Americans preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting-rights discrimination were attacked by police.

+Quick with a partner…

n 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, and (2) to a group of middle-schoolers. Discuss how you would establish ethos in each situation. thinking

+Logos

n  Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas. Appealing to logos and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to support it.

n  Although Lou Gehrig’s speech may seem largely emotional, it is actually based on irrefutable logic. He starts with a thesis, “I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth” and supports it with 2 logical points

n  Love and kindness

n  His list of great people

+Logos continued…

n  One way to appeal to logos is to acknowledge a counterargument – that is, to anticipate objections or opposing views. n  You’ll be vulnerable if you ignore ideas that run counter to your

own.

n  In acknowledging a 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.

n  This combination of concession and refutation actually 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 position.

+Pathos

n  Pathos is an appeal to emotions, values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices on the other.

n  Although an argument that appeals exclusively to emotion is by definition weak – it’s generally propagandistic in purpose and more polemical than persuasive.

n  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.

+Richard Nixon – Checkers

n  One other thing I probably should tell you, because if I don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me too. We did get something, a gift, after the election. A man down in Texas hear Pat [Nixon’s wife] on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore, saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was? It was a little cocker spaniel in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas, black and white, spotted. And out little girl, Tricia, the 6-year-old, named it “Checkers.” And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog, and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.

+What are Nixon’s methods?

n What emotions are engaged during Nixon’s excerpt?

n Do his words appeal more to logic or emotions?

+Humor & Rhetoric

n  Humor works rhetorically by wrapping a challenge to our beliefs in something that makes us feel good – a joke – and thus makes us more receptive to the new idea.

n  Whether it is gentle tongue-in-cheek teasing or bitter irony, humor may help a writer make a point without seeming to preach to the audience or take himself too seriously.

+Combining Ethos, Logos & Pathos

n  Most authors don’t rely on a just a single type of appeal to persuade their audience; they combine these appeals to create an effective argument. And the appeals themselves are inextricably bound together: if you lay out your argument logically, that will help build your ethos.

n  Take a look at Toni Morrison, the only African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, who wrote the following letter to then senator Barack Obama endorsing him as the Democratic candidate for president in 2008. The letter was published in the New York Times.

+Morrison’s letter to Obama

n  Letter

n  Who is Morrison’s audience for this letter?

n  Does she need to establish ethos based on her audience?

n  How does she develop a logical argument without figures or expert sources?

n  How does she appeal to pathos?

+Activity – Think, Pair, Share

n  Choose one of the following rhetorical situations, and discuss how you would establish your ethos and appeal to logos and pathos. 1.  You are trying to persuade your skeptical parents that a “gap year” –

taking a year off between high school and college will be beneficial.

2.  You have been asked to make a presentation to your school’s principal and food-service staff to propose healthier food choices in the cafeteria at a time when the overall school budget in constrained.

3.  You are making the case for the purchase of a specific model and make of car that will best fit your family’s needs and resources.

4.  You are the student representative chosen to go before a group of local businesspeople to ask them to provide financial support for a proposed school trip.

+Fiction & Poetry

n  Imaginative literature (fictional pieces of literature) often have a rhetorical purpose, even if it’s not immediately obvious. The most direct use of rhetoric in imaginative literature is through a speech by a character or a persuasive bit of dialogue between characters.

n  Consider the soliloquies in Shakespeare’s plays, or Atticus Finch’s closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird.

n  These examples of literary rhetoric usually have 2 speakers, the author and the character. It’s important to keep in mind the concept of persona and remember that these two speakers are not necessarily the same and might not have the same purpose.

+When I heard the learn’d astronomer – Walt Whitman WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

+Whitman

n  The poem seems simple enough, but who is the speaker? n  Is it Whitman? How do you know for sure?

n  The poem’s single periodic sentence presents the thoughts of a person who attends a lecture, becomes bored, and goes outside to soak in the majesty of nature.

n  What rhetorical purpose does this poem serve?

n  Whitman’s attempt to not only express his view but also to convince us to share in it?

+Activity – I sit and sew

n  In 1920, the African American poet Alice Dunbar-Nelson wrote “I Sit and Sew,” a dramatic monologue protesting the limitations of her assigned role during a time of war. Analyze the poem rhetorically, paying close attention to the argument the speaker develops.

n  I sit and sew

+Reflections – Exit Ticket

n  Now that you have experienced this lesson – how do you define rhetoric?

n  How can/do we use it everyday?

n  Who are some famous rhetoricians?

n  What are you taking away from our work with this material?