Rhetorical Terms Chapter 1

Question 1

Audience

Answer 1

Listener , viewer or reader of a text. Most texts have multiple audiences

Question 2

Concession

Answer 2

An acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable.

Question 3

Connotation

Answer 3

Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation.

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.

Question 5

Counterargument

Answer 5

An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward.

Question 6

Ethos

Answer 6

Greek for “character” speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trust worthy to speak on a given topic.

Question 7

Logos

Answer 7

Greek for “embodied thought”. Speakers appeal to logos, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.

Question 8

Occasion

Answer 8

The time and place a speech is given or a piece is written.

Question 9

Pathos

Answer 9

Greek for “suffering” or “experience”, speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audiences values , desires, and hope, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.

Question 10

Persona

Answer 10

Greek for “mask”. The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.

Question 11

Polemic

Answer 11

Greek for “hostile”. An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others.

Question 12

Propaganda

Answer 12

The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, propaganda is the use of rumors and lies.

Question 13

Purpose

Answer 13

The goal the speaker wants to achieve

Question 14

Refutation

Answer 14

A denial of the validity of an opposing argument

Question 15

Rhetoric

Answer 15

As Aristotle defined the term, “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion”

Question 16

Rhetorical appeals

Answer 16

Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. (Ethos, logos, pathos)

Question 17

Rhetorical triangle

Answer 17

A diagram that illustrates the interrelationships among the speaker audience and subject

Question 18

SOAPS

Answer 18

A mnemonic device that stands for subject, occasion, audience, purpose and speaker. Handy way to remember the various elements that make up rhetorical situation.

Question 19

Speaker

Answer 19

The person or group that creates a text

Question 20

Subject

Answer 20

The topic of text, what the text is about

Question 21

Text

Answer 21

This term generally means written word, or any cultural product that can be read