Rhetorical analysis

started page

• todo:
  • logical fallacies or link to page

• see also Social Studies skills

Rhetorical situation = what the author is trying to say to the reader components purpose argument audience context >> other?

See Rhetorical devices

Logos, Pathos & Ethos

logos: logic, facts, statistics logos = logic ("word" ... "names" = things are what they are)

pathos = emotion, pity

ethos > crediblity

Figurative v. literal

• definitions:
  • analogy
  • figurative
  • literal
  • metaphor
• dual use of figurative & literal language
  • Virginia Woolfe example from "Three Guineas," 1938:

Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames, an admirable vantage ground for us to make a survey. The river flows beneath; barges pass, laden with timber, bursting with corn; there on one side are the domes and spires of the city; on the other, Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. It is a place to stand on by the hour, dreaming. But not now. Now we are pressed for time. Now we are here to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the procession—the procession of the sons of educated men

• see Ogden Nash: Very Like a Whale for criticism of poetical metaphor