Rhetorical Situation
This element of the rhetorical situation refers to the person or group the text is intended to reach.
What is the audience?
This rhetorical appeal relies on logic, reasoning, and facts.
What is logos?
Known facts, statistics, or measurable data are examples of this type of evidence.
What is quantitative evidence?
This effect of evidence helps the audience better understand a claim by giving concrete, specific instances.
What is providing examples?
This method supports a claim by providing specific instances of it being true or correct.
What is exemplification?
In rhetorical analysis, we need to consider the background, credibility, and motivations of this person.
Who is the speaker?
This appeal seeks to influence the audience through emotion, either relying on existing emotions/biases or inspiring them.
What is pathos?
This type of evidence focuses on descriptions, observations, or personal experiences rather than numerical data.
What is qualitative evidence?
When evidence makes an abstract or complex claim easier to visualize or imagine, it is doing this.
What is illustrating a claim?
This method explains why something happens and/or what results from it.
What is cause/effect?
This term refers to the historical, cultural, or social circumstances surrounding a text.
What is the context?
This appeal is built through the speaker's credibility, character, and/or authority.
What is ethos?
A personal story used to support a claim is known as an...
What is an anecdote?
This effect of evidence often overlaps with pathos and is used intentionally to shape how the audience feels about the topic before they logically evaluate the claim.
What is setting a mood?
This method of development explains a topic and/or claim by detailing similarities and differences.
What is compare/contrast?
This part of the rhetorical situation explains why the speaker is writing or speaking in the first place, namely what they want the audience to achieve.
What is the purpose?
An argument that draws a general claim about pushing back school start times needing after citing multiple studies and examples relies on this type of reasoning.
What is inductive reasoning?
Evidence/statements that come from experts, authorities, or other credible stories are known as...
What is testimonies?
This effect occurs when evidence reinforces the importance or seriousness of a claim by adding weight, intensity, or a sense of range or scope.
What is emphasizing or amplifying a claim?
This method of development leads the audience through a story, wherein the claim is developed over the course of the events of the story.
What is narration?
This term refers to the immediate and recent circumstances that prompted a speaker to create their argument, or the circumstances that gave them the opportunity to be heard.
What is the exigence?
An argument that applies a universal rule, such as “all citizens deserve equal rights,” to a single policy debate relies on this type of reasoning.
What is deductive reasoning?
This type of evidence supports a claim by explaining an unfamiliar idea through its similarity to a more familiar concept, though it can become weak if the comparison is oversimplified or misleading.
What is an analogy?
Effective commentary seeks to do one or both of these things:
Explain the effect of the evidence on the argument,
Or, explain the argument's impact on this part of the rhetorical situation.
What is the audience?
This method of development clarifies an abstract concept by delineating what it is like, and what does and does not qualify as being an example of that concept.
What is definition/description?