Key Terms
The specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a given situation.
What is rhetoric?
A text becomes rhetorical only when this reads or listens to it and responds to it.
What is the audience/reader?
The character that a writer or speaker conveys to the audience.
What is persona?
Being skilled at rhetoric =
speaking and writing + these two skills.
What are reading and listening?
This pillar of support for claims is defined as an instance serving to illustrate a point.
What are examples?
The speaker or writer who uses elements of rhetoric effectively in oral or written text.
What is a rhetor?
This component of the rhetorical triangle needs to be treated fairly, fully, and effectively.
What is the subject?
Word choice, which is viewed on scales of formality/informality, concreteness/abstraction, Latinate derivation/Anglo-Saxon derivation, and denotative/connotative value.
What is diction?
Being skilled at rhetoric =
understanding the main points of what you read + doing this.
What is analyzing why?
This pillar of support for claims relates to the process of telling a story or anecdote in support of a point.
What are narratives?
The appeal of a text based on the logical structure of its argument or central ideas.
What is logos?
Also known as intention or aim, this is what the rhetor wants to happen as a result of the text.
What is purpose?
The order of words in a sentence.
What is syntax?
Being skilled at rhetoric =
doing this with compositions + writing them.
What is planning?
This pillar of support for claims involves the use of quantitative data to prove a point.
What are statistics?
The appeal of a text to the emotions or interests of the audience.
What is pathos?
Rhetorical transactions always take place within this component—a convergence of time, place, people, events, and motivating forces.
What is context?
The writer or speaker's attitude toward the subject matter.
What is tone?
Being skilled at rhetoric =
Examining a situation + doing this to people.
What is persuading them to take action?
This pillar of support for claims comes from an outside source with credible knowledge or expertise in the subject area.
What is testimony?
The appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator.
What is ethos?
This component is a text classified by its type—for example: email, essay, or advertisement.
What is genre?
The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer's or speaker's persona.
What is voice?
The three main purposes in speaking/writing.
What is to inform, to persuade, and to entertain?
This pillar of support for claims uses statements of the meaning of words or word groups to prove a point.
What are definitions?