Terms : Hide Images
| 10757759780 | audience | The listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple. | 0 | |
| 10757759781 | concession | an acknowledgement that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. | 1 | |
| 10757759782 | connotation | Meanings or associations that readers have with a word beyond its dictionary definition, or denotation. | 2 | |
| 10757759783 | context | The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text. | 3 | |
| 10757759784 | counterargument | an opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward. | 4 | |
| 10757759785 | ethos | Greek for "character." Speakers appeal to this to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. It is established by both who you are and what you say. | 5 | |
| 10757759786 | logos | Greek for "embodied thought." Speakers appeal to this by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up. | 6 | |
| 10757759787 | occasion | the time and place a speech is given or a piece is written | 7 | |
| 10757759788 | pathos | Greek for "suffering" or "experience." Speakers appeal to this to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to this might play on the audience's values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other. | 8 | |
| 10757759789 | persona | Greek for "mask." The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience. | 9 | |
| 10757759790 | polemic | Greek for "hostile." An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others. Polemics generally do not concede that opposing opinions have any merit. | 10 | |
| 10757759791 | propaganda | The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, it is the use of rumors, lies, disinformation, and scare tactics in order to damage or promote a cause. | 11 | |
| 10757759792 | purpose | the goal the speaker wants to achieve. | 12 | |
| 10757759793 | refutation | A denial of the validity of an opposing argument. In order to sound reasonable, these often follow a concession that acknowledges that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. | 13 | |
| 10757759794 | rhetoric | As Aristotle defined the term, "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." In other words, it is the art of finding ways to persuade an audience. | 14 | |
| 10757759795 | rhetorical appeals | Rhetorical techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling. The three major appeals are to ethos (character), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion). | 15 | |
| 10757759796 | rhetorical triangle | A diagram that illustrates the interrelationship among the speaker, audience, and subject in determining a text. Also known as the Aristotelian triangle. | 16 | |
| 10757759797 | SOAPS | A mnemonic device that stands for Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, and Speaker. It is a handy way to remember the various elements that make up the rhetorical situation. | 17 | |
| 10757759798 | speaker | The person or group who creates a text. This might be a politician who delivers a speech, a commentator who writes an article, an artist who draws a political cartoon, or even a company that commissions an advertisement. | 18 | |
| 10757759799 | subject | The topic of a text. What the text is about. | 19 | |
| 10757759800 | text | While this term generally means the written word, in the humanities it has come to mean any cultural product that can be "read" - meaning not just consumed and comprehended, but investigated. This includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, political cartoons, fine art, photography, performances, fashion, cultural trends, and much more. | 20 |
