Download Logos

Logos
The Appeal to the Rationale
of the Work
A Word of Advice
• Students would do well (very well) to treat
substantially pathos and ethos when they
analyze.
• Students would do well (yes, quite well) to use
pathos and ethos when they construct their
arguments.
• I advise students not to mention logos in their
analyses: logos is quite general and large and
meaningless unless it is treated specifically.
• Pathos and Ethos are little bitty and focused
(and very important) appeals. Logos is
everything else.
Main Ideas and Details
• Differentiate between main ideas and
details.
• Aim for granularity (levels of specificity).
• Use the rule of three: Three supporting
details are preferable to one or two.
Main Ideas and Details
• Arrange details according to your purpose
and your audience:
– From most important to least important (as in
an executive summary)
– From least important to most important (as in
building a case)
– From earlier to later (chronologically)
Categories of Support:
Use of Testimony
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Researched facts
Statistics
Testimony from personal experience
Expert testimony
The text before our eyes
Thesis
• Implied thesis
– The paragraph conveys the thesis implicitly.
Summarize the paragraph to capture the main
idea of the paragraph, i.e., the thesis. The
thesis is not stated explicitly in most mature
compositions.
• Thesis statement (explicit)
– One of the sentences of the paragraph
captures the essence of the paragraph.
Opposing Ideas
• Counterarguments
• Counterfactuals (What-ifs)
• Concession to the opposition
– Straw-man fallacy
– “Even though” strategy
– Paradox that concession to the opposition
strengthens one’s argument
• Refutation of the opposing argument
Rhetorical Modes—1
• Definition
– Exemplification
– Contrast
– Convention (dictionary, thesaurus)
– Genus and differentia
• Genus and species: Homo sapiens
• General and specific (Classification and Division,
Exemplification)
Rhetorical Modes—2
• Causal Reasoning
– Simple causation (often fallacious)
– Multiple causation (used and observed by
mature thinkers)
– From cause to effect
– From effect to cause
– Cyclical causation (See “Politics and the
English Language”)
– Chain of causation: An effect becomes a
cause.
Rhetorical Modes—3
• Comparison
– Similarities (comparison)
– Differences (contrast)
– Point by point
– Topic by topic
Rhetorical Modes—4
• Classification and Division
– Categories of thought
• Analogy
– Extended analogy
• Description
– Sensual imagery
• Exemplification
– Induction: from the specific to the general
– Deduction: from the general to the specific
Conceptual Hierarchy of Rhetoric
• Evaluation
– Judging the validity and effectiveness of an argument
• Interpretation
– Explaining ideas about the argument
• Analysis
– Breaking down the logic of the argument
• Summary
– Stating the main ideas of the argument
– Discarding, without disregarding, details
– Involving knowledge and comprehension.
How to Borrow Information and to
Incorporate Information into a Text
• Summary
– Reducing the original to a size that still captures its
essence (20:1?, 10:1?, 5:1?)
• Paraphrase
– Capturing the essence of the original in the capturer’s
own language, without a significant change in size
(5:4?, 5:6?)
• Direct quotation
– Capturing, precisely, the original quotation, with
ellipses, where appropriate
• What do ellipses signal to an AP Reader? (T)
– Providing a context for the quotation, introducing and
concluding, like a setting for a diamond