Rhetorical Strategies for Writing

1. Rhetorical Strategies for Writing An Introduction

2. ? Rhetoric • In reading, speaking, and writing Rhetoric is a tool that enhances composition • Formal study of rhetoric allows one to carefully construct writing instead of haphazardly casting words. • Make sure you are helping rather that hindering yourselves!!!

3. Style The Decoration of writing Style does the following: reveals personality reveals attitude towards a subject your choice = effect

4. Four Aims of Rhetoric • Persuade • Inform • Express • Entertain

5. Persuasion • Arouses emotional appeal • Provoking powerful imagery • Calling upon reputable authorities • All of the above give you power to communicate a message!!!!!!!

6. Who uses this most???????? • Politicians • Lawyers • DNC Speech – San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro • Says the “right” things – appeals to audience • Precise, conducts audience, confident

7. Inform and Express • Teaching • Ex. Metaphor • Less formal than informing • Ex. College essay (personal thoughts) • Ex. Writing proficiency • No need to convince, just persuade that your ideas are worth reading • Style is muyimportante!!!!!!!!!! • Structure is muyimportante!!!!!!!!!

8. Entertain • Diction and syntax • Pull your readers in with word choice and order • Take readers where YOU want them to go • You can take a topic that is dark (war) and provide a humorous look, move back and forth between happiness and sadness, make a reader outraged, etc!

9. Some Common Stuff • Hyperbole – NOT a video game!!!!!!!!! • Most popular and commonly used rhetorical device! • DO NOT have your reader mistake hyperbole as fact!! • Aim is to exaggerate the truth, not make a fact out of exaggeration!

10. Ex. • Fact – “What is causing the biggest problem is that there are over three billion people on the planet!” • Hyperbole – “The planet is getting so crowded that we may have to take turns sitting down!”

11. 3 Main Uses • When YOU want to make a point strongly • “There are more reasons for NASA to fund a trip to Jupiter than there are miles in the journey.” • Get the reader to snap to attention and focus on what you are writing (a tap on the shoulder) • “At these words people became so silent you could hear a beating heart from across the room!”

12. Showing a difference • “Compared to the world during the last Ice Age, a Minnesota winter feels like spring in Hawaii.”

13. Understatement • The force of a descriptive statement is less than one would expect • Sometimes the best way to demonstrate the how powerful an idea or event actually is! • Can be used for humor • Be careful – over simplifying something in an essay can weaken your case while properly using understatement will strengthen your point(s).

14. Ex. “Whatever his faults, Sir Isaac Newton did have a fairly good mind for science.” • Ex. “The Middle East is currently having some political squabbles.” • Ex. “To the uninitiated, neuropsychology can be a bit of a challenge.”

15. Litotes • Similar to understatement, litotes use a word opposite to the condition to emphasize a point. • Instead of “The trip across the mountain was no easy journey” on might choose “The trip was no easy journey” • Understatement = “The trip was easy.” • Combine with understatement to further emphasize a point • “It was not a bad deal” emphasizing the Louisiana Purchase

16. A way to describe one’s own achievements without seeming arrogant • “My daughter’s graduation from Harvard as magna cum laude was no small accomplishment.” • Used to weaken a claim • Instead of “It was a good day” one may say “It wasn’t a bad day.”

17. Examples • “A cup of coffee would not be unwelcome” • “It’s not the smartest idea I have ever heard” • “That store is not in the most convenient location”

18. Practice