Rhetoric
The faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion; the art of finding ways of persuading an audience
Audience
The listener, viewer, or reader of a text.
Texts
Any cultural product that can be read
Occasion
The time and place a speech is given or a piece is written
Context
The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text
Purpose
The goal that the speaker wants to achieve
Rhetorical (Aristotelian) Triangle
A diagram that illustrates the interrelationship among the speaker, audience, and subject in determining a text
Speaker
The person or group who creates a text.
Persona
The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience; his 'mask'
Subject
The topic of a text; what the text is about
SOAPS
A mnemonic device that stands for Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker; a handy way to remember the various elements that make up the rhetorical situation.
Rhetorical Appeals
Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. These include ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion)
Ethos
A force appealed to by speakers to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic by displaying their 'character'
Logos
A force appealed to by speakers by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics or expert testimony to back them up; the speakers 'embodied thought'
Counterargument
An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward.
Concession
An acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable.
Refutation
A denial of the validity of an opposing argument; often follows a concession
Pathos
Force that is appealed to by speakers in order to emotionally motivate their audience and their 'suffering' and 'experience' including their values, desires, hopes, fears, and prejudices.
Propagandic
Relating to the spread of ideas or information to further a cause.
Polemical
An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority if one opinion over all others. A type of argument that generally does not concede that opposing opinions have any credit; a 'hostile' argument
Connotations
Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation.