Rhetoric

Question 1

What is rhetoric?

Answer 1

The art of effective communication (the art of persuasion)

Question 2

What are rhetorical strategies?

Answer 2

The efforts used by an author (or individual) to persuade or inform the audience

Question 3

What does how we respond to verbal and written media have to do with?

Answer 3

Our perceptions

Question 4

What are our perceptions influenced by?

Answer 4

Our own personal experiences, our opinions regarding certain topics (cultural values, life, environment, and attitudes), the effectiveness of the arguments of others which either reinforce our beliefs or challenge them

Question 5

What is a perception?

Answer 5

To become aware of something through the senses

Question 6

What is subtext?

Answer 6

How an individual interprets what he/she experiences which is shaped by our own attitudes, beliefs, and experiences (connected to inherent bias which are biases that impact how we perceive situations)

Question 7

What is logos?

Answer 7

Appeals to logic or reason that uses facts and figures to make a point

Question 8

What is ethos?

Answer 8

Appeals to your sense of right and wrong which relies on the reputation of the speaker as they are trying to display signs of “good” “trustworthy” and “morality”

Question 9

What is pathos?

Answer 9

Appeals to your emotions which uses a lot of faulty logic to persuade. Fear, sympathy, and anger are usually emphasized (can be considered the most effective in getting people to do things

Question 10

What is kairos?

Answer 10

“The right time”, referring to when and where information is presented to the audience (think timeliness, as in the right timing to a message)

Question 11

An appeal to logos is effective because?

Answer 11

It sends a message to the audience’s brain

Question 12

An appeal to ethos is effective because?

Answer 12

It conveys the credibility of the speaker

Question 13

An appeal to pathos is effective because?

Answer 13

It sends a message to the audience’s heart

Question 14

An appeal to kairos is effective because?

Answer 14

Utilizes good timing to capture your attention

Question 15

What are the strategies used to get people to do what you want?

Answer 15

Manipulation tactics

Question 16

What is reciprocity?

Answer 16

To make people feel obligated (the guilt trip, if I do this for you you have to do this for me)

Question 17

What is scarcity?

Answer 17

To make people think there isn’t much to go around (limited time offer, only available to first 50 callers)

Question 18

What is authority?

Answer 18

Relating to ethos because people are more likely to take you seriously if you have a degree or wear a uniform (place in life)

Question 19

What is consistency?

Answer 19

If you can get people to do one small thing with commitment, you can probably get them to agree to larger commitments later on (small tasks lead into big projects)

Question 20

What is liking?

Answer 20

If you are friendly and diplomatic, people will listen to you (civility, calmness, and understanding leads to being listened to more)

Question 21

What is consensus?

Answer 21

We tend to do what we think others are doing (bandwagon, followers, socially “acceptable” trends)

Question 22

What is faulty logic/logical fallacies?

Answer 22

Errors in logic that can be proven wrong with reasoning which fall underneath pathos, use charged words to get an emotional reaction

Question 23

What is self-evident truth?

Answer 23

The writer implies that something “goes without saying” refer to words like “obviously, “clearly”, or “apparently”

Question 24

What is sweeping generalization?

Answer 24

Whenever a person arrives at a general conclusion based on too little evidence, refer to words like “never”, “always”, “only”, “nothing”, “nobody”, “everybody”

Question 25

What is the false dilemma?

Answer 25

When you reduce an argument down to only two options despite the fact that there may be many more to choose from, refer to “You’re either with us or against us”

Question 26

What is the slippery slope/domino theory?

Answer 26

Taking an argument from a sensible, moderate place and moving it to an extreme place by “one thing leads to another” kind of route without any logic or rational evidence to support the claim like “If you don’t let me go to the concert this weekend, my friends will think I’m a total loser and they’ll dump me…”

Question 27

What is the weak analogy?

Answer 27

Comparing two similar things in an over-simplistic and inaccurate way, “Orange juice? You might as well just spit in your cereal.” Compares OJ to spit

Question 28

What is begging the question/circular reasoning?

Answer 28

When the speaker supports a claim with restatements of the same claim and with reason making the same claim as the original argument like “Pizza is delicious because it tastes good”, “I’m so busy because I have a lot to do”.

Question 29

What are charged words?

Answer 29

Words that carry an extra “kick” that can influence an audience, pathos statements use charged words to intentionally get you emotionally riled up

Question 30

What is slant?

Answer 30

The writer’s awareness of the audience that results in a somewhat biased representation of information (Rolling stone publishes articles that lean left/liberal because most of its readers are younger people)

Question 31

What is spin?

Answer 31

A severe slant in which the article makes little to no attempt to present two sides of an issue

Question 32

What is yellow journalism?

Answer 32

Sensationalist media designed to illicit an emotional reaction from readers