Transcript Rhetorical Devices - Harrison High School

Persuasive Techniques
and
Rhetorical Devices
Persuasive Technique: Appeals
Designed to sway the audience:
• Logical appeal builds a well-reasoned argument based
on evidence such as facts, statistics, or expert
testimony
• Emotional appeal attempts to arouse the audience’s
feelings, often by using loaded words that convey
strong emotions
• Ethical appeal is directed at the audience’s sense of
morality or values. This type of appeal is linked to the
audience’s perception of the trustworthiness and
moral character of the speaker or writer.
Appeals
Directions: Identify the following passages as logical, ethical, or
emotional appeal and explain WHY it is the type you say.
1. “I know not what course others may take; but as
for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
2. “Our petitions have been slighted; our
remonstrances have produced additional violence
and insult; our supplications have been
disregarded; and we have been spurned with
contempt from the foot of the throne! In vain,
after these things, may we indulge the fond hope
of peace and reconciliation.”
3. “Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.
There is a just God who presides over the destinies
of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our
battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong
alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”
Rhetorical Devices
Patterns of words and ideas that create emphasis
and stir the audience’s emotions:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Charged Words
Rhetorical Questions
Repetition
Restatement
Parallelism
Antithesis
Allusions
Imagery
Imagery
Imagery is words that appeal to the senses.
– Sight
– Hearing
– Touch
– Taste
– Smell
Charged Words
Charged words are words with strong connotations
beyond their literal meaning that are likely to
produce an emotional response.
– Tyranny (evokes a feeling of fear, suggests living in
a state of terror)
– Liberty (suggests an ideal life characterized by
freedom)
– Justice (can be associated with freedom and
equality)
– Honor (evokes a sense of morality and dignity)
Charged Words
He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of
death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous
ages, and totally unworthy the head of a
civilized nation.
Charged Words
He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of
death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous
ages, and totally unworthy the head of a
civilized nation.
Contrast
(technique?)
The Effect of Charged Words
• “Grandmother Arrested in Pot Sting”
• The fact that the person is a grandmother has no
relevance to the fact that she was arrested on a
drug charge. It may not even reflect the fact that
she is old, since I’ve know grandmothers as young
as 32. But the use of the term conjures up an
image of a sweet, gentle person, and juxtaposed
against the crime, elicits far more outrage than if
the headline was “Local Woman Arrested in Pot
Sting”
People are informed by facts, but
moved by emotion.
• Which is stronger?
Fast food is bad for you.
- OR Parents are murdering their children by feeding
them fast food.
• Ultimately, they say the SAME thing and
preface the SAME article!
Notice anything?
• it becomes necessary for one person to
dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another
• it is their duty, to throw off such government
• states need to strike out on their own
• What’s going on here?
• They ALL say the same thing!
• This is RESTATEMENT
How about this?
• Parents are actively engaged in their children’s
academic conquests.
• Parents email teachers on a daily basis about
every dot and tittle.
• Parents won’t leave their children alone and let
them work out assignments for themselves.
• Yep! Same thing – three different ways!
• RESTATEMENT!
Now YOU try it!
• Write a sentence that expresses an idea you
feel strongly about.
• Then, write the same idea again, but in
different words.
• Finally, one more time, write the SAME IDEA in
DIFFERENT WORDS.
• That’s RESTATEMENT!!
What’s Going On Here?
• Mom came into my room when I was gone. I
need to leave! Dad charges me for the gas I
use in his car. I need to leave! My parents tell
me where I can go. I need to leave!
• What part of this will you remember most?
• Why?
• Repetition pounds an idea into your head.
• How is it different from restatement?
What’s happening here?
• He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the
lives of our people.
• What is this an example of?
• Parallelism (or Parallel Structure)
• EVERY item in this series is Verb+Direct Object
– Plundered our seas
– Ravaged our coasts
– Burned our town
Understanding Parallelism
• Faulty Parallelism
“For my own part, what ever anguish of
spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the
whole truth: to know the worst and I will
provide for it.”
• Effective Parallelism
“For my own part, whatever anguish of
spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the
whole truth; to know the worst, and to
provide for it.
Identifying Parallel Structure
Directions: Identify the parallel elements in each of the following sentences.
1. Are we disposed to be of the number of those who
having eyes see not, and having ears hear not?
2. Ask yourself how this gracious reception of our
petition comports with those warlike preparations
which cover our waters and darken our land.
3. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other.
4. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances
have produced additional violence and insult; our
supplications have been disregarded.
Structure of items?
•
•
•
•
•
With malice toward none; with charity for all…
Parts of Speech?
Preposition+Noun+Preposition+Pronoun
Parts of the Sentence?
Prep+OP+Prep+OP
What is wrong here?
• He has invaded our homes in the middle of
the night, and taking our stored provisions.
• This is NOT in parallel structure.
• The tense and corresponding verb
construction is different.
• It should be “He has invaded our homes in the
middle of the night and taken our ….”
• Both verbs must conjugate with has.
Fix these problems with parallelism:
• 1. An actor knows how to memorize his lines
and getting into character.
• 2. Tell me where you were, what you were
doing, and your reasons for doing it.
• 3. Clark's daily exercises include running,
swimming, and to lift weights.
• 4. To donate money to the homeless shelter is
helping people stay warm in the winter.
• 5. Jim not only likes working outside but also
getting dirty.
Check Your Answers!
• 1. An actor knows how to memorize his lines
and (how to) get into character.
• 2. Tell me where you were, what you were
doing, and why you were doing it.
• 3. Clark's daily exercises include running,
swimming, and lifting weights.
• 4. To donate money to the homeless shelter is
to help people stay warm in the winter.
• 5. Jim likes not only working outside but also
getting dirty.
How are these similar?
• Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,
moderation in the pursuit of justice is no
virtue. Barry Goldwater
• Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I
loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• Our repeated petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. Thomas Jefferson
• John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country
can do for you – ask what you can do for your
country.”
Antithesis
• opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a
balanced or parallel construction
• The idea is that they enhance one another,
kind of like two halves of the perfect whole:
yin and yang, sweet and sour, Good cop/Bad
cop
Antithesis Poem
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life
appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you
possess.
I wish you enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final
“Goodbye.”
- – - “I Wish You Enough” written by Bob Perks, P.O. Box
1702, Shavertown, PA 18708-1702, USA
Antithesis-Needy Character
• Which character in The Great Gatsby is a
model for the need for antithesis?
• Which character couldn’t appreciate
birthdays, or Christmas, or presents?
• Why not?
• Because she had not experience want, Daisy
was unable to appreciate all that she had.
In Oratory, Please…
• Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,
moderation in the pursuit of justice is no
virtue. Barry Goldwater
• Brutus: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I
loved Rome more. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• Our repeated petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. Thomas Jefferson
• Ask NOT what your country can do for you;
ask what YOU can do for your country. -JFK
Let’s Hear From YOU!
• Step one: Name two things that, by their
contrast, enhance each other. (a gentle brook/a
raging river)
• Step two: Identify a noun or adjective associated
with each of the things you named in Step one.
(happiness (hello)/anger (goodbye))
• Step three: Create two sentences, in parallel
structure, linking the associated items you have
identified.
• The gentle brook sings our first hello; the raging
river roars our last goodbye.