Transcript The Rhetorical Triangle - SOAPS

The Rhetorical Triangle - SOAPS
SPEAKER/WRITER
GENRE
essay, letter,
speech, etc
AUDIENCE
OCCASION
PURPOSE
Context
(time, place, etc.)
SUBJECT
Randall Leigh’s Dilemma
Revisited
Reread the scenario and then, in a group, discuss the
following questions:
 What kind of persona (personality) did Randal try to present to each of
his three audiences – Brandon, Kim, and Nate?
 What assumptions do you think Randal made about each of the three
audiences – Bandon, Kim, and Nate – that led him to make decisions
about how to present his case?
 What kinds of pleas, evidence, or proof did Randall employ with each of
the audiences to try to persuade Brandon, Kim, and Nate to lend him the
bus fare?
 What do you think Brandon, Kim, and Nate knew about Randall – his
personality, his job, and so on – that led them to react the way they did?
Speaker or Writer
 A rhetor who understands persona is able to
do two things: first, speak or write so that the
audience members perceive a distinct
character, usually one who is educated,
considerate, trustworthy, and well
intentioned; second, make inferences and
judgments about the character and
personality of another writer or speaker.
Listen to this voice from a editorial by
Frank Deford in the Sports Illustrated of
August 5, 2002:
Subject’s we are tired of hearing about, because
nothing-is-ever-going-to change-anyhow:
1. Does the Second Amendment mean just the militia?
2. Does Shakespeare really write Shakespeare?
3. Yes, but what about the Grassy Knoll?
4. Is Oprah going to marry Stedman?
5. Should Pete Rose go into the Hall of Fame?
(questions)
Still.
The next paragraph suggests reasons that
Rose belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame.
It is Hall of Fame induction time again (Ozzie
Smith went in on Sunday), so we ought to at least
mention the lunacy of baseball’s freezing Charlie
Hustle out of Casa Immortality. First of all, it is
irrational to deny the man who made the most hits
in history a place in Ye O;de Shrine. Second, it is
stupid. Third, it is not working: the only person the
ban benefits is Pete himself.
(analysis)
Deford develops his case with anecdotes
about baseball fans, with the history of
baseball commissioner’s unfair exclusion of
other figures like Shoeless Joe Jackson in the
early twentieth century, and finally with this
admission:
Of course Pete Rose is guilty of betting on baseball. He’s as
guilty as, well, Paul Hornung, who bet on NFL games while
playing in the NFL but is properly plaqued in Canton. He’s
as guilty as all sorts of putative baseball immortals who
stoke up on steroids. But Rose was guilty only when he was
a manager. Even if he bet on baseball, even if he disobeyed
the infield fly rule or shot Cock Robin, there is not a scintilla
of evidence that he did anything untoward when he was
playing the game. Even if you fervently believe that
Manager Rose soiled the National Pastime, how unfair, how
unAmerican, is it that the glories of his youth should be
censored by the sins of male menopause? That’s just not
right. (analysis)
Writer/speaker persona or voice
The word persona today is used to show the
artfulness of the writer/speaker’s creation of
voice, how deliberately the speaker selects
words, tells stories (anecdotes), repeats
phrases in order to help readers/listeners hear
the voice the writer/speaker has decided will
be most effective.
(journal writings – three distinct personas)
Audience
 A key to developing skill is rhetoric is an
understanding of:


how a text appeals to an audience
the needs and the knowledge and the experience
of the audience
 In order to persuade the audience to a course
of action based on a common search for
truth.
Audience Appeals
 A rhetor:
 Employs logos (logic) by offering a clear, reasoned central idea (thesis)
and developing it with appropriate evidence to appeal to an audience’s
sense of logic.
 Appeals to ethos (personal credibility) by offering evidence that he or
she is credible – knows important and relevant information about the
topic at hand and is a good, believable person who has the reader’s best
interest in mind.
 Appeals to pathos (emotion) by drawing on the emotions and interests of
the audience so that they may be sympathetically inclined to accept and
buy into the central ideas and arguments. (tie into Deford’s piece)
(journal entry – employ three appeals)
Subject
 It is vital for a successful rhetor to
comprehend that what one decides to include
in a text is intimately connected to why one is
writing, whom one is writing to, and what
kind of text one is composing.
 A text can never be effective rhetorically if it
covers subject matter about which everybody
agrees.
Good vs Bad Thesis
 Shakespeare was a famous sixteenth and early
seventeenth century English playwright.
 VERSUS
 Shakespeare was a famous late sixteenth century
and early seventeenth century playwright whose
plays demonstrate remarkable insights in European
history and politics, even though Shakespeare
himself never traveled or studied in Europe.
Arouse Curiosity
 A successful rhetorician generates effective material
by



capitalizing on what audience members already know
making them curious to know more about the topic
satisfying their curiosity by providing facts, ideas, and
interpretations that build on what they already know.
Sky’s the limit
 You can say anything you want IF you have
the evidence and reasoning to back it up.
 CLAIM + SUPPORT
 Small group work: Read the editorial (page
14-15) answer the questions.
Occasion (context)
 Every text arises from an occasion (context):
 The convergence of the immediate situation calling
forth the text
 Any pertinent historical background information
about the topic
 The persona and identity of the rhetor,
 and the knoeledge and beliefs of the audience.
Occasion - continued
 Let’s say it is April 2007, and a writer is analyzing
the cult of celebrity in American society in the wake
of the death of celebrity icon Anna Nicole Smith in
January 2007.
 The writer would be remiss not to acknowledge:



Smith’s death and the media frenzy surrounding it
The details of Smith’s rise to fame
Her mysterious death
 The writer should address all of these factors aspart
of the occasion or context, whatever the writer’s
position.
Occasion - continued
 Occasion/context, then can be immediate or distant,
bound by current events or historical patterns.
 You might stop and consider how you would work
with occasion if you were writing about celebrity
culture. Is there an event that has happened in y our
school of community that would proved evidence
and help persuade or interest readers if you used it?

STANLEY CUP visits Madison area (legacy behind the
traveling cup)
Purpose (intention)
 A writer;s purpose is what he or she wants to
happen as a result of the text, what he or she
wants the audience to believe of do after
reading the text.
 Public transportation:



Advantages and disadvantages
People should use public transportation
Madison does not need high speed rail….
Genre
 Every rhetor chooses to produce a certain
type of text – genre appropriate for the
intention and in the particular
occasion/context.
 Essay, speech, letter……..
 All must contain an intro, body, conclusion.
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