Rhetorical Analysis Flashcards
Grade 9 · English · Flashcards
Essential vocabulary and concepts for analyzing persuasive writing and speaking.
Flashcards
- Rhetoric
- The art of using language effectively and persuasively; studied since ancient Greece as the craft of argumentation.
- Ethos
- Appeal to credibility or character; the author establishes trustworthiness, expertise, or shared values.
- Pathos
- Appeal to emotion; uses imagery, narrative, or charged language to evoke feelings that support the argument.
- Logos
- Appeal to logic; uses evidence, statistics, examples, and rational reasoning.
- Kairos
- Timeliness; the concept that the right moment to deliver a message is crucial to its persuasive power.
- Rhetorical situation
- The full context of a rhetorical act: speaker, audience, purpose, occasion, subject, and medium.
- Anaphora
- Repetition of the same word(s) at the beginning of successive clauses for emphasis and emotional effect.
- Antithesis
- Placing contrasting ideas in parallel grammatical structures to highlight their opposition sharply.
- Chiasmus
- A rhetorical device where the second half of a phrase reverses the structure of the first (ABBA pattern): 'Ask not what your country can do for you...'.
- Rhetorical question
- A question posed for persuasive effect that does not require or expect a direct answer.
- Diction
- Word choice; analyzing diction means examining why an author selects specific words and what connotations they carry.
- Tone
- The author's attitude toward the subject and/or audience, revealed through diction, syntax, and rhetorical choices.
- Audience
- The specific group a text is aimed at; effective rhetoric is always shaped by the values, knowledge, and needs of the intended audience.
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