Terms for Test
3 Classical Modes of Persuasion Ethos, Logos, Pathos
5 Steps in the Writing Process
  1. Prewrite (and Pre-read!)
  2. Write
  3. Revise 
  4. Edit
  5. Publish
6 Reporter's Questions
 Who?  What?  When?  Where?  Why?  How?
8 Ways to Develop a Narrative
  • Illustrating: concrete examples, good reasons
  • Defining: at length
  • Dividing and Classifying: Breaking into parts, classifying based on similarities
  • Comparing and Contrasting
  • Exploring Causes and Effects
  • Analogies (comparisons that explain)
  • Narrating
  • Reiterating
9 Rhetorical Strategies for Developing Your Essay
(See Envision p. 31)
  • Narration: Telling a story.
  • Comparison-Contrast: Showing how two (or more) things are alike or different.
  • Example/Illustration: Explaining or portraying an example of what you mean.
  • Cause and Effect: Showing how one thing leads to another.  (Logos)
  • Definition: Clarifying what something means.
  • Analogy: Showing how one thing is like another.
  • Process: Demonstrating how something is done or used.
  • Description: Describing a thing clearly.
  • Classification and Division: Showing how something fits into the larger scheme of things.  
Abstract/Concrete From the Oxford American Dictionary: "Abstract" means "existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence : abstract concepts such as love or beauty."  You should think of "abstract" in contrast to "concrete," which the OAD defines as "denoting a material object as opposed to an abstract quality, state, or action."  An abstract word like "people" can be replaced with a more specific word or set of words like "Bob, Sally, and all their kids."  You can say, "I threw my stuff in my bag and headed out the door," or you can convey the same message in more concrete terms: "I threw my books, my PSP, and my phone in my messenger bag and headed out the door of my apartment."  The more concrete your language, the more information you convey to your readers.
Analysis “Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something, typically as a basis for discussion or interpretation” (OAD).
Argument: “[A] reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong” (Oxford American Dictionary); the backing for a claim (or assessment, or point, or thesis) being put forward in any rhetorical act; that which the sender hopes the receiver will accept.
Arrangement Arrangement is important in all written or visual arguments.  The beginning of a sentence should point logically to the end of the sentence; the end of the sentence should point logically toward the next sentence.  One written idea or visual image should lead logically to the next one in the sequence.  
Distress/Eustress "Distress" is negative stress that does you no good; "eustress" is positive stress that motivates you to do well or achieve and learn more.  Generally, the stress of a car accident is "distress."  Generally, the stress one feels before the big game or big performance is "eustress."
Ethos Appeal to authority and character.  Uses your positive  feelings for or respect for the persuader to persuade you.
Fallacies that Abuse Ethos
  • Authority over evidence: Claiming your expertise as reason to believe, rather than presenting facts and reasons.
  • Ad hominem: Attacking the speaker or the speakers motives, rather than the speakers arguments.
Fallacies that Abuse Logos
  • The Post Hoc Fallacy: (Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: “After this, therefore because of this.”)
  • Unwarranted cause-and-effect claims.
  • Either-Or Argument: (“False Dilemma”)  Reduces choices to two, ignoring other possibilities.
  • Stacking the Evidence (Suppressing evidence that goes against your claim)
  • Begging the Question: (NOT “Prompting the Question.)
  • The Red Herring: Distracting from the question at hand, rather than engaging it.
Fallacies that Abuse Pathos
  • Over-sentimentalization: Using emotional manipulation to distract from the actual evidence.
  • The Scare Tactic: Scaring people into siding with you.
  • The False Need: Making people believe they need something the do not need.
  • The Slippery Slope: Claiming that one event will lead to a whole string of other calamities.  (Bottom line: question all fortune tellers.)
Feedback See Illustration below.
Informal Citation Citing your sources without using a formal citation system like APA or MLA.  If you are citing your sources informally, you must convey to your audience not only how to find the source (its name, the date it appeared) and what kind of source it is (a website, a book, an image) but also the reputation of the author, the reputation of the publication, and the reason why the particular item you are using is valuable or interesting.
Imagination and Memory Learning to make use of your own imagination and memory is crucial not only to coming up with new ideas but also to the process of research.  Your knowledge of ideas and things will help you make connections as you do research.  Your imagination will help you put ideas together and make new and interesting connections.  It will also help you know how to proceed with research, how to pick sources that might be interesting, how to present your information in the best possible way.
Kairos Timeliness.  Refers to all the elements of context which need to cooperate to create effective communication.  Good “kairos” means that everything fits, everything is in its place, and communication occurs.  The message is “in the zone” or “in the groove.”
Logos Appeal to reason.  Uses statistics, facts, definitions, formal proofs; means “reason” or “word”; same origin as the word “logic”; Hard proofs plus reasonable interpretation.
The Matlock Principle On Matlock, the 1980s Andy Griffith show, Matlock invariably finds some random piece of evidence in the first part of the show that helps him solve the crime later in the show.  For your writing and composition, the Matlock principle means that if you use a detail in your story or paper, it should have a payoff somewhere later in the paper.
MLA Style You should be able to set up a Word document in the MLA format.  See Hacker p. 151 for examples.
Observation “[T]he action or process of observing something or someone carefully in order to gain information” (OAD).
Observation Process:
Record . . . your observations.
Assess . . . the situation.
Choose . . . supporting details.
Arrange . . . the details helpfully.
Acknowledge . . . the details that do not support your assessment.
Explain . . . your assessment, in light of all the details.
Pathos Appeal to emotion & sensibility.  Persuasion via emotions and emotional state; “Putting the audience in a particular frame of mind” (Envison 38); “appeal to nonrational impulses” (Envision 41).
Persuasion “[T]he action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something” (Oxford American Dictionary); all rhetorical acts, one way or another, are meant to persuade.
Rhetoric Simplest definition: The art of communication.  Aristotle's definition:Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion."
Rhetorical Act Any action meant to communicate
Rhetorical Situation  See “rhetorical triangle” (below).  The rhetorical situation is created by the interaction between a communicator, a receiver of the communication, and a text or message. Changing any one of those elements affects the other two.  (For example, what seems to be the same message given by your parents, by the President, and by me will affect you, as receiver of the message, in different ways.) 
Rhetorical Strategies "[T]he techniques rhetoricians use to move and convince an audience" (Envision 29).
Sensibility This is an old word, used in the definition of pathos.  It refers to sensitivity, taste, discernment, insight, empathy, intuition, perceptiveness, awareness.  A person with a well-developed sensibility for fashion is one who dresses very well.  
"So What?" Question any reader of your essay should be able to answer at the end of the essay.  You should have conveyed to your readers not only facts but also a sense of why the subject of your paper is interesting, exciting, cool, or otherwise noteworthy.  
(Some) strategies for Invention, Planning, and Editing that We Used and Discussed this semester.
  • Writing in "chunks" on a theme (like "my literacy"), then finding common elements between the chunks and creating a unified essay around one or more of those elements.
  • Freewriting and Brainstorming.
  • Visual Mapping of Ideas.
  • Fat Draft/Skinny Draft.
  • Reading the essay aloud to yourself.
  • Reading the essay aloud to a friend.
  • Outlining the essay.
  • Having a friend outline the essay.
  • Reading the essay backwards, sentence by sentence, to check for grammar and spelling trouble.
  • KW: Taking time to write down what you Know,  and then to identify what you Want to know.
  • The reporter's questions
  • Burke's Pentad (act, scene, agent, agency purpose)
Visual Argument  The visual backing for the persuasive point (or points) being put forward in a visual rhetorical act
Visual Literacy The ability “to read our visual world” (Envision 6)
Visual Rhetoric  “[A] form of communication that uses images to create meaning or construct an argument” (Envision 5)
Useful Illustrations:
Scott McCloud's illustration of transforming an image from the concrete to the abstract:
The Feedback Loop:
The Rhetorical Triangle