Rhetorical Device

or Argumentation
Tactic
Example What Its Generally Used For
and Why it Works

Ethos

Definition
1. The credibility of the
speaker
2. The speakers appeal to
values s/he shares with
the audience (which, of
course, helps the speakers
credibility)
Friends, Romans, countrymen,
lend me your ears / I come to
bury Caesar, not to praise him.

When speaking to a hostile
audience, ethos MUST be used
first. Unless the speaker can
appeal to values they both share,
or establish why s/he is a credible
and believable person, the
audience will not care at all about
what the speaker has to say.

Ethos works because it says,
Look, we have values in
common; we care about the same
things. Therefore, you should
listen to me because Im actually
on your side.


Pathos

Definition
The manipulation of the
audiences emotions. This
can be any emotion
desire, fear, guilt, joy,
anger, frustration, et
cetera.

Do this FOR THE
CHILDREN!

Pathos is used a great deal in
advertisements and in public
awareness campaigns, especially
using music as a cue.
Logos

1. Devices of language, e.g.
imagery, repetition,
parallel structure,
During his speech to the
Roman plebeians, Marc Antony
holds up Caesars bloody
mantle (and then finally shows
the audience Caesars dead
body) as evidence of the
conspirators brutality and
Logos is used a great deal in
student compositions and
analysis of almost any kind,
including in the fields of science
and math and jurisprudence.
figurative language

2. Evidence / Show and
tell / Quotes

3. Common sense

butchery.
Arguing that Caesar was not
ambitious, Antony reminds the
crowd that they all did see
that on the Lupercal, I thrice
presented him a kingly crown
which he did thrice refuse.
This is a logos appeal it not
only provides objective data
they all witnessed, but
common sense suggests that if
Caesar really were ambitious,
he would have taken the crown
that was offered to him three
times.

Frequent Fliers
What follows is a list of some of the most common rhetorical devices and argumentative moves, listed
alphabetically.

Allusion

Definition: Referring to a
well-known event or
person. Can also include
eponym (linking the
subject of the speech with
someone well-known or
famous)

I want your Psycho, your
Vertigo stare
I meditate at the home in
Pompeii / About how I can
build a new Rome in one day
Cleaning his room was a labor
of Hercules.

Makes the speaker seem very
well-educated and may boost her
or his ethos points.

May deliberately be used to make
the audience feel stupid or
uneducated (a risky move)

Like a metaphor or analogy, an
allusion links the subject with a
well-known idea, suggesting that
there is a similarity or connection
between the two.

The allusion can act to divide
us from them. We get the
allusion; they do not. Can add
to the speakers ethos as being a
person who shares our
background and values.




Analogy

Definition: The speaker
is suggesting a similarity
between two unlike
things, or between one
situation and another.

Can include simile and
metaphor.

I am constant as the Northern
Star.
The Romantic poets were
basically like hippies in
corsets.
Makes the audience quickly
understand an unfamiliar idea or
situation by relating it to another
idea they already know and
understand well.

Manipulates audience by
highlighting only certain features
(the ones being compared) and
not others.


Antithesis

Usually done using
parallel structure, an
antithesis sets up two
opposite or strongly
contrasting ideas.

Not Hermia, but Helena I love!
Who would not change a raven
for a dove?

It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times.
Suggests that there is a balance
between light and dark, good and
evil, Heaven and Hell, or that the
good part of the antithesis is
equally balanced by the bad.
Concession

Definition: A speakers
admission that all or part
of the other guys side
may be right or have some
merit to it.
Oh, I definitely agree with my
opponent when he says that
poor grades cause mental
distress. However
Makes the speaker seem like a
generous and fair-minded
person, not some narrow-minded
boor.

Establishes credibility because a
concession says, You were right
about this, which (of course)
your opponent is always ready to
believe.

A concession takes away an
argument from the other guy
because it says, Yeah, even
though you said it, and I agree
with you about it, it isnt
convincing enough to matter.



Diction and Diction Shifts

Definition: At its most
basic, diction means
words, but its not that
simple. Diction can imply
levels of social class and
appropriateness to
audience (e.g., formal
register, casual register) or
specific setting or
profession (e.g., medical
diction).

He stated, I am not claiming
that his actions are motivated
solely by pecuniary concerns;
in other words, Im not saying
hes a gold-digger.
Diction that is appropriate to the
audience (e.g., formal register in
a formal setting, casual register in
a casual setting) shows respect
for the audience and situation
and can add to a speakers ethos.

Diction that is inappropriate to
the setting, or diction that
abruptly shifts from one register
to another can have several
effects: it can be offensive; it can
be humorous; it can be
scandalous; it can reach out to
audiences of widely different
social classes and backgrounds.


Examples

Definition: Showing
examples to back up a
claim is often a logos
technique. It can include
enumeratio (giving the
audience a long list of
details to provide proof)

I hope this will help illustrate
why Instagram will turn us all
into zombies. For instance, let
me share with you one
example
An example takes an abstract
idea (the theme or claim) and
gives it concrete reality. Even if
the example is made up, it still
makes it real for the audience
and often gives them data or a
test case to understand why the
claim is valid.
Humor

Definition: Usually a
subset of pathos, humor is
any form of comedy or
attempt to get the
audience to laugh at (or
with) the speaker or the
subject of the speech.
I can see Russia from my
house! (Tina Fey imitating
Sarah Palin)
All of Jonathan Swifts A
Modest Proposal.
Humor is an extremely powerful
tool for establishing pathos and
ethos it gets the audience on
the speakers side because if the
humor works, the audience is
obviously seeing the situation as
the speaker does (or they would
not laugh).

Humor can also be used passive-
aggressively as a form of attack,
usually under the cover of It was
just a joke or I was just
kidding.

Humor often allows a speaker to
express a socially taboo idea or
notion, one that, if said
straight, would be subject to
rejection and criticism. The
humor acts as an invisibility
cloak of sorts, disguising a
dangerous idea under the cloak
of something trivial and
humorous.

Irony

Definition: In literature,
irony has a variety of
definitions; in rhetoric, it
mostly means a
discrepancy between
content and tone; that is,
between the meaning of
the words and the
emotional intent or
content of those words.

Every time Marc Antony utters
the phrase, But Brutus is an
honorable man, he increases
the irony. By the time he is
done, he says he fears the
honorable men whose daggers
have stabbed Caesar,
completely abandoning even
the pretense that hes being
sincere when he calls them
honorable.
If the audience gets the joke,
irony is a very powerful tool
because its flattering to the
audience: it says, Look, Im
talking in code, but its in a secret
language we both understand.
Because irony often uses humor
(and vice versa), the abyss that
opens between surface meaning
and actual meaning can be a
powerful persuasive tool.


Parallelism, Parallel Structure

Definition: Parallelism is
the repetition of structure,
not (just) the repetition of
words. It is the repetition
of the same grammatical
elements in a sentence,
usually done three or
more times.

Faith, hope, charity, but the
greatest of these is charity.
(Parallelism at the level of the
word)

I came, I saw, I conquered.
(Parallelism at the level of the
phrase/clause)

Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people.
(Parallelism at the level of the
clause/sentence)

Parallelism sets up ideas so that
they are parallel that is, equal
in form, equal in emphasis, and
equal in value. It says, These are
equal, these ideas are equivalent.
X is as important as Y, which is as
important as Z, and in fact, they
may be compared with each
other.


Repetition

Definition: Restating the
same words or phrases
two times or more.

NOTE: Parallelism may be
set up by a repetition of
the same phrase, as in
some of the examples.
It was the best of times, it
was the worst of times, it was
the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair.

NOTE: The It was the is
repeated. The phrases that
follow use parallel structure.

For Brutus is an honourable
man / So are they all, all
honourable menBut Brutus
says he was ambitious / And
Brutus is an honourable
man./ Yet Brutus says he was
ambitious / And Brutus is an
honourable man. / You all did
see that on the Lupercal / I
thrice presented him a kingly
crown / Which he did thrice
refuse: was this ambition? / Yet
Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable
man.

Emphasizes key ideas that the
speaker wants the audience to
remember

Helps focus the audience on the
key idea throughout the speech.

The speakers tone can radically
change each time he or she
repeats the idea or the phrase.
Be on the lookout for irony
here.
Rhetorical Question

Definition: A question
the speaker asks, but does
not expect the audience to
answer. The question is
not actually seeking new
information.


Mom: How many times have I
asked you to keep your room clean?

To get the audience themselves to
supply the answer theyre doing the
work for you. One extremely
powerful tool of manipulation is to
make the audience believe they are
actually making a choice.
Tricolon

Definition: A figure of
speech in which a
sentence contains three
parts which are parallel or
equivalent in structure,
length, and rhythm.



Lincoln: With malice toward
none, with charity toward all,
with firmness in the right..."

Caesar: Veni, vidi, vici.
(I came, I saw, I conquered.)

The tricolon puts ideas in ascending
order of importance, like walking up
a staircase. It highlights the
importance of the third item and
provides a degree of suspense as the
speaker walks up the ladder.