what are rhetorical appeals
rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion).
define ethos
Greek for “character.” Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.
define logos
Greek for “embodied thought.” Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.
define pathos
Greek for “suffering” or “experience.” Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.
what are rhetorical techniques
the specific methods of rhetoric that are used to appeal to a particular audience
define diction
A speaker’s choice of words. Analysis of diction looks at these choices and what they add to the speaker’s message.
what is a periodic sentence
Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end.
what is a cumulative sentence
Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on.
define denotation
the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast (against) to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. Dictionary definition of a word.
define connotation
Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. Connotations are often positive or negative, and they often greatly affect the author’s tone.
define metaphor
Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as.
define simile
A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words like, as, or as though
define personification
Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or an idea
define analogy
A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Often, an analogy uses something simple or familiar to explain something unfamiliar or complex.
define allusion
Brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art.
define paradox
A statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory on the surface, but delivers an ironic truth.
what is irony
A figure of speech that occurs when a speaker or character says one thing but means something else, or when what is said is the opposite of what is expected, creating a noticeable incongruity
define hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.
define understatement
A figure of speech in which something is presented as less important, dire, urgent, good, and so on, than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect. Also called litotes, it is the opposite of hyperbole.
define syntax
The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences. This includes word order (subject-verb-object, for instance, or an inverted structure); the length and structure of sentences (simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex); and such schemes as parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, and antimetabole.
what is parallel structure
using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance
define antithesis
opposition , or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction
define tone
a speaker’s attitude toward the subject conveyed by the speaker’s stylistic and rhetorical choices
what is a claim of fact
asserts that something is true or not true
