Download Intro to Rhetoric

An Introduction to Rhetoric
Notes: Intro to Rhetoric
● Readers and writers can understand one another so
well because every day they use rhetoric –
● Initial definition: art humans use to process all
the messages we send and receive (we’re going
to add to this definition, so leave room!)
Notes: Intro to Rhetoric
● When we produce messages, rhetoric helps us
get ideas, emotions, and opinions across to
others.
● When we receive messages, rhetoric helps us
understand the ideas, emotions, and opinions
of those around us.
Intro to Rhetoric
● Rescue Rhetoric from its bad reputation!
○ Negative association with the word “rhetoric”, thinking it only
means to manipulate through words in order for some personal
evil-doing
○ Misleading, cloudy definitions of rhetoric are wrong. They are
legacies of several moments in history when some influential
philosophers misunderstood rhetoric
● ex. of Rhetoric being used inappropriately:
Some people say Hitler was a “good rhetorician” because he could,
through language and skillful manipulation of events, encourage
people to believe the worse cause was the better one
THIS is NOT what rhetoric is about. So, what is it about?
Intro to Rhetoric
● Rhetoric is defined as 2 things:
○ Art of analyzing all the language choices that writer,
speaker, reader, or listener might make in a given
situation so that the text becomes meaningful,
purposeful, and effective
○ The specific feature of texts, written or spoken, that
cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and
effective for readers or listeners in a given situation
● Rhetor = Greek term used to reference the writer
and/or speaker
Rhetorical Triangle
● Suggests that a person
creating or analyzing a text
must consider three
elements:
○
○
○
Rhetor - speaker/writer –
character/persona behind the
text; how the author might use
his/her personal character
effectively in the text
Subject – what - and the kinds
of evidence used to develop it
Audience – who’s
listening/reading - their
knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and
beliefs
Rhetorical Transaction
Rhetorical
Transactional
FAIL.
Rhetorical Triangle