Notes: Rhetoric

Notes

Overall

• Set your goals and the argument’s tense
• Think of whether you want to emphasize the ethos (character, gut), logos (logic, mind) or pathos (emotion, or heart).
• Make sure the kairos (time and medium) are right.

Cicero’s outline (speech or presentation)

• Introduction
• Narration
• Division
• Proof
• Refutation
• Conclusion

Goals

• Personal goal
• Audience goal
  • Mood
  • Mind
  • Willingness to act
• Issue control
  • Blame: Covers the past
  • Values: Demonstrative
  • Choice: Deliberative

Ethos

• Decorum
  • Code grooming
  • Identity strategy
  • Irony: Saying one thing to outsiders with a meaning revealed only to your group.
• Virtue, or cause
  • Bragging
  • Witness bragging: An endorsement by a third party, the more disinterested the better.
  • Tactical flaw
  • Switching sides
  • Eddie haskell ploy
  • Logic-free values
  • Identity
• Practical wisdom, or craft
• Disinterest or caring
  • Reluctant conclusion
  • Personal sacrifice
  • Dubitatio
• Liar detector
  • Needs test
  • Comparable experience
  • Dodged question
  • “That depends” filter
  • “Sussing” ability
  • Extremes
  • Virtue yardstick
  • Code inoculation
• Screw-up recovery
  • Set your goals right after you screw up.
  • Be the first with the news.
  • Switch immediately to the future.
  • Avoid belittling the victims
  • Don’t apologize. Instead, express your feelings about not living up to your own standards.

Pathos

• Sympathy
• Belief
  • Experience
  • Storytelling
  • Expectation
• Volume control
  • Litotes
  • Climax
• Unannounced emotion
• Passive voice
• Backfire
• Persuasive emotions
  • Anger
  • Belittlement charge
  • Patriotism
  • Emulation
  • Humor
• Figures of speech
• Cliché twisting
• Word swap
• Weighing both sides
• Editing out loud
• Word investing
  • Verbing: Turns a noun into a verb or vice versa.
  • Like figure: Strips a word of meaning and uses it as a pause or for emphasis.

Logos

• Deduction
• Induction
• Concession
• Framing
• Logical fallacies
• Rhetorical fouls

Kairos

• Persuasive moment
  • Moment spotter: Uncertain moods and beliefs - when mids are already beginning to change - signal a persuasive moment.
  • Perfect audience
  • Audience change
• Senses

Speechmaking

• Invention
• Arrangement: Use Cicero’s outline
• Style
• Memory
• Delivery

Essay Writing

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Offence

• Ciecro
• Orphan Annie
• Aristotle
• Eminem
• Lincon
• Belushi
• Quintillion
• Aquinas
• Homer Simpson
• Monty Python
• Mandela
• Apple
• Stalin
• Give a persuasive talk
  • Cicero’s 5 cannons:
    • invention
      • What does you and your audience want?
        • Past = law and order
        • Present = values
        • Future = Choices
      • Aristotles enthymeme
    • arrangement
      • Ethos -> Logos -> Pathos
    • style
    • memory
    • delivery
• Obama
• Brad Pitt

Defense

• Seven deadly sins
• Nixon

Rhetorical devices

1. Alliteration: The repetition of similar sounds at the beginning of words to create a rhythm or emphasize a point. Example: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

2. Anaphora: The repetition of a phrase at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses to create a sense of rhythm and emphasize a point. Example: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets…”

3. Antanagoge: The juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas to create a sense of balance. Example: “Sure, the car is expensive, but it’s worth it in the long run.”

4. Chiasmus: The repetition of similar phrases in reverse order to create a balance or emphasize a point. Example: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

5. Euphemism: The use of a mild or indirect word or phrase in place of one considered to be too harsh or blunt. Example: “He passed away” instead of “He died.”

6. Hyperbaton: The rearrangement of the normal order of words to create an emphasis or unexpected effect. Example: “Into the water dove the boy” instead of “The boy dove into the water.”

7. Hyperbole: The exaggeration of a statement for emphasis or effect. Example: “I’ve told you a million times to clean your room!”

8. Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning, often for humorous or dramatic effect. Example: “Isn’t it ironic that the only time I have free time is when I’m sick?”

9. Juxtaposition: The placement of two objects or ideas side by side to create a comparison or contrast. Example: “The beauty of the sunset was juxtaposed with the ugliness of the city skyline.”

10. Litotes: The use of a double negative or understatement to create an effect of emphasis or affirmation. Example: “She’s not the brightest bulb in the box.”

11. Metaphor: The comparison of two dissimilar things to explain a concept or create an image. Example: “Life is a journey.”

12. Onomatopoeia: The use of words that imitate sounds to create a vivid image or atmosphere. Example: “The bees buzzed around the flowers.”

13. Oxymoron: The juxtaposition of two contradictory terms to create a paradoxical effect. Example: “Jumbo shrimp.”

14. Paradox: A statement that appears to be self-contradictory but may in fact be true. Example: “This statement is false.”

15. Personification: The attribution of human qualities to non-human things or ideas to create a vivid image or emphasize a point. Example: “The wind whispered through the trees.”

16. Rhetorical question: A question asked for effect or emphasis, not for a genuine answer. Example: “Do you think I’m stupid?”

17. Simile: The comparison of two dissimilar things using the words “like” or “as” to explain a concept or create an image. Example: “She ran as fast as a cheetah.”

18. Synecdoche: The use of a part to refer to the whole, or vice versa, to create a vivid image. Example: “All hands on deck” instead of “All sailors on deck.”

19. Zeugma: The use of a word to modify two or more words, but in different

References

• Stanford encyclopedia of Rhetoric
• Wikipedia