Week Two Notes

Define: Rhetoric and Rhetorical device.
Define: Stylistic device and produce a glossary of terms.
Define: Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
Define: Close Reading.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively. It involves three audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the three canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement and style.
Our job is to: analayze and discuss how language is working in others' or one's own writing by dividing form and content, or what is being said and how this is said.
Rhetoric requires understanding a division between what is communicated through language and how this is communicated.
- Just as language influences people, people influence language. Language is socially constructed, and depends on the meanings people attach to it.
- Because language is not rigid and changes depending on the situation, the very usage of language is rhetorical.
- An author is always trying to construct a new world and persuading his or her readers to share that world within the text.
- Individuals engage in the rhetorical process anytime they speak or produce meaning.

*The aim of rhetorical analysis is not simply to describe the claims and arguments advanced within the disourse, but (more important) to identify the specific language strategies employed by the speaker to accomplish specific persuasive goals.

*Therefore, once you discovers a use of language that is particularly important in achieving persuasion, you move onto the question of "How does it work?" That is, what effects does this particular use of rhetoric have on an audience (you), and how does that effect provide more clues as to the speaker's (or writer's) objectives?

Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
Persuasion, according to Aristotle and the many authorities that would echo him, is brought about through three kinds of proofs or persuasive appeal:

logos The appeal to reason.
pathos The appeal to emotion.
ethos The persuasive appeal of one's character. How this character or author is established my means of the discourse.

Although they can be analyzed separately, these three appeals work together in combination toward persuasive ends.
Invention, arrangement, style

Invention concerns finding something to say (from the Latin invenire, "to find.")
Arrangement concerns how one orders speech or writing.

Style concerns the artful expression of ideas. If invention addresses what is to be said; style addresses how this will be said.

GLOSSARY of Rhetorical devices and stylistic devices.

Allusion: is a short, informal reference to a famous person or event.

Amplification: involves repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what might otherwise be passed over. In other words, amplification allows you to call attention to, emphasize, and expand a word or idea to make sure the reader realizes its importance or centrality in the discussion.

Analogy: compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax and with

Parallelism: To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity;/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think that here man hath no perfect bliss. –Peacham

Antithesis establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure.

Aporia expresses doubt about an idea or conclusion. Among its several uses are the suggesting of alternatives without making a commitment to either or any.

Apostrophe interrupts the discussion or discourse and addresses directly a person or personified thing, either present or absent. Its most common purpose in prose is to give vent to or display intense emotion, which can no longer be held back:
But all such reasons notwithstanding,dear reader, does not the cost in lives persuade you by itself that we must do something immediately about the situation?

Exemplum: citing an example; using an illustrative story, either true or fictitious.
Hyperbole: deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect.

Hypophora consists of raising one or more questions and then proceeding to answer them, usually at some length. A common usage is to ask the question at the beginning of a paragraph and then use that paragraph to answer it.
Metaphor compares two different things by speaking of one in terms of the other. Unlike a simile or analogy, metaphor asserts that one thing is another thing, not just that one is like another. Very frequently a metaphor is invoked by the to be verb:

Parallelism is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

Rhetorical question (erotesis) differs from hypophora in that it is not answered by the writer, because its answer is obvious or obviously desired, and usually just a yes or no. It is used for effect, emphasis, or provocation, or for drawing a conclusionary statement from the facts at hand.

Simile is a comparison between two different things that resemble each other in at least one way. In formal prose the simile is a device both of art and explanation, comparing an unfamiliar thing to some familiar thing (an object, event, process, etc.) known to the reader.

Repetition is the deliberate use of a word or phrase more than once in a sentence or a text to create a sense of pattern or form or to emphasize certain elements in the mind of the reader or listener.

A flashback (which is one of the most easily recognized utilization of plot structure) is a scene in a writing which occurs outside of the current timeline, before the events that are actually occurring in the story. It is used to explain plot elements, give background and context to a scene, or explain characteristics of characters or events. For instance, one chapter may be at the present time in a character's life, and then the next chapter might be the character's life years ago. The second chapter gives meaning to the first, as it explains other events the character experienced and thus puts present events in context.

Diction is the choice of specific words to communicate not only meaning, but emotion as well. Authors writing their texts consider not only a word's denotation, but also its connotation. For example, a person may be described as stubborn or tenacious, both of which have the same basic meaning, but are opposite in terms of their emotional background (the first is an insult, while the second is a compliment). Similarly, a bargain-seeker may be described as either thrifty (compliment) or stingy (insult). An author's diction is extremely important in discovering the narrator's tone, or attitude.

Syntax: Sentences can be long or short, written in the active voice or passive voice, composed as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. They may also include such techniques as inversion or such structures as appositive phrases, verbal phrases (gerund, participle, and infinitive), and subordinate clauses (noun, adjective, and adverb). These tools can be highly effective in achieving an author's purpose.

A symbol is a word, picture, or idea that stands for something other than itself. It is used as an expressive way to depict an idea. The symbol generally conveys an emotional response far beyond what the word, idea, or image itself dictates.

Foreshadowing: This is when the author drops clues about what is to come in a story, which builds tension and the reader's suspense throughout the book.

Imagery: This is when the author invokes sensory details. Often, this is simply to draw a reader more deeply into a story by helping the reader visualize what is being described. However, imagery may also symbolize important ideas in a story.

narrative – a story involving events, characters, and what the characters say and do

narrator – the teller of the story, also a character

narratee – the explicit or implied or audience addressed by the narrative – the “ideal reader”

narrative perspective/point of view

first person – “I” – perhaps more subjective, personal and emotionally driven

second person – “you” – who? – the reader or narrator/character?

third person – “he/she” – perhaps more objective and rational

omniscient – all-seeing/knowing – has privileged access

limited – only for some characters

Define: Close Reading.

Close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they are read.

How to Do a Close Reading?

The process of writing an essay usually begins with the close reading of a text. Of course, the writer's personal experience may occasionally come into the essay, and all essays depend on the writer's own observations and knowledge. But most essays, especially academic essays, begin with a close reading of some kind of text—a painting, a movie, an event—and usually with that of a written text.

Discover

When you close read, you observe facts and details about the text. You may focus on a particular passage, or on the text as a whole. Your aim may be to notice all striking features of the text, including rhetorical features, structural elements, cultural references; or, your aim may be to notice only selected features of the text—for instance, oppositions and correspondences, or particular historical references. Either way, making these observations constitutes the first step in the process of close reading.

Interpret
The second step is interpreting your observations. What we're basically talking about here is inductive reasoning: moving from the observation of particular facts and details to a conclusion, or interpretation, based on those observations. And, as with inductive reasoning, close reading requires careful gathering of data (your observations) and careful thinking about what these data add up to.
How to Begin:

1. Read with a pencil in hand, and annotate the text.
"Annotating" means underlining or highlighting key words and phrases—anything that strikes you as surprising or significant, or that raises questions—as well as making notes in the margins. When we respond to a text in this way, we not only force ourselves to pay close attention, but we also begin to think with the author about the evidence—the first step in moving from reader to writer.

2. Look for patterns in the things you've noticed about the text—repetitions, contradictions, similarities.
What do we notice in the previous passage?
But so what?

3. Ask questions about the patterns you've noticed—especially how and why.
To answer some of our own questions, we have to look back at the text and see what else is going on.

SOURCE: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html

Close reading example: “Ecocide and Globalization”