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AP Language Chapter 1 (An introduction to Rhetoric) Flashcards

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10910074121AudienceThe listener, viewer, or reader of a text. Most texts are likely to have multiple audiences.0
10909676093OccasionThe time and place a speech is given or a piece is written.1
10909676094ContextThe circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, and events surrounding a text.2
10909681801PurposeThe goal the speaker wants to achieve.3
10909694203Rhetorical triangleA diagram that illustrates the interrelationship among the speaker, audience, and subject in determining a text.4
10909699516Aristotelian triangle (Aristotle's rhetorical triangle)5
10909699517SpeakerThe person or group who creates a text. This might be a politician who delivers a speech, a commentator who writes and article, an artist who draws a political cartoon, or even a company that commissions an advertisement.6
10910177805PersonaGreek for "mask." The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.7
10910177806SubjectThe topic of a text. What the text is about.8
10910187229SOAPSToneSubject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker, Tone9
10910215872Rhetorical appealsRhetorical 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).10
10910215873EthosGreek for "character." Speakers appeal to ethos to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. Ethos is established by both who you are and what you say.11
10910219910LogosGreek 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.12
10910222397PathosGreek for "suffering" or "experience." Speakers appeal to pathos to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to pathos might play on the audience's values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.13
10916421785ConcessionAn acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. In a strong argument, a concession is usually accompanied by a refutation challenging the validity of the opposing argument.14
10916431306RefutationA denial of the validity of an opposing argument15

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