rhetoric
the art of persuasion; Aristotle listed three kinds of rhetoric: forensic (legal), which tries to prove guilt or innocence; demonstrative, which makes people believe in a community's values; and deliberative. This course deals mostly with deliberative rhetoric, the language of political persuasion; its main topic is the "advantageous" - what's best for an audience, community, or nation.
argument
a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong
speaker
the person delivering the message or argument
audience
the person/people to whom an appeal is made in an argument
subject
the controversy, event, etc. about which an argument is being made
context
the rhetorical art of seizing the occasion; in ancient Greece, this was referred to as Kairos
bias
personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment
appeals
ways in which a rhetorician tailors an argument to his or her specific audience; according to Aristotle, there are three main appeals or "ingredients for persuasion": 1) ethos, an appeal to credibility, 2) pathos, an appeal to emotion, and 3) logos, an appeal to logic
concession
to show empathy for a hostile and resistant audience before putting forward one's conflicting argument
rebuttal
to put forward one's opinion, evaluation or suggestion; to point out weaknesses in the conceded premise, evidence, or point of view
counterclaim
a claim made to rebut a previous claim
logical fallacy
arguments which have some inherent fault in logic
deduction
applying a general principle to a particular matter; a simplistic example - The syllabus for Mrs. Meisel's course says no late work accepted. Billy didn't do his annotations for homework last night. Billy will not be allowed to turn his work in at a later date
induction
argument by example; it starts with the specific and moves to the general; a simplistic example - Billy didn't do his annotations for homework last night. Mrs. Meisel didn't take them the next day. Late work is not accepted in this class
authors purpose
the reason an author writes about a specific target, creates a specific argument, and/or targets a specific audience
claim
fact/research/knowledge based ideas which are stated in support of an assertion or them
assertion
main idea or theme of an argument
syntax
the way in which linguistic elements (such as words) are put together to form constituents (such as phrases or clauses)
diction
word choice; especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness
structure
the way in which information is organized within a piece or writing or argumentation
tone
a quality, feeling, or attitude expressed by the words a speaker or writer uses; in rhetorical analysis, to miss the tone is to miss the entire meaning
repitition
a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer; as a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase or a full sentence or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text
comparison
pointing out the similarities between two things or ideas which often don't appear to be similar at first glance; in rhetoric this often takes the form of a metaphor, simile, or analogy
juxtaposition
encourages the reader to see contrasts between ideas, claims, events, etc. to highlight certain characteristics of a subject or to challenge the typical perspective on a subject
ethos
credibility
logos
appeal to logic or reason
pathos
appeal to emotion