16 Rhetorical Strategies
Introduction
If you look into classical or scholarly names for rhetorical strategies, you’ll find tremendous detail and a rather alienating naming system — that is, if you don’t know Latin or Greek! Don’t worry about all this. Your job is to see what the author is doing and then describe it in your own terms. If the 16 categories help, great. If not, find another term or category.
Once you’ve identified appeals or strategies, you need to show how they tie into the author’s overall aim or point. You need to show how one appeal or strategy is linked to another. Writers and directors don’t think in lists; rather, they create pieces that are integrated and unified. When you’re analyzing, you need to keep this integrity and unity in mind all the time.
An essay that merely lists appeals or strategies and shows how each strategy works in a piece, without showing how they are linked, generally won’t get higher than a B. I suggest that instead of isolating appeals or strategies and then figuring out how they fit together, first think about how the whole piece works. Then isolate some of the strategies involved, and pick the most important strategy (or two or three of the most important strategies if you can see how they are related). Doing an analysis this way will allow you to arrive at a unified or integrated thesis more easily.
In exploring a rhetorical strategy, feel free to include subsidiary strategies. If you can show how strategies overlap and reinforce each other, then you are getting closer to explaining the nature of good writing, which is generally complex and integrated (the same applies to high quality audio-visual material). In good writing, strategies tend to thread through a text in a seamless way. The trick is to show how these threads flow: to show where one colour contrasts with another, and to show how the threads create minor and major patterns.
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From 1. Space to 16. Narration
1. Space or Setting
From a practical point of view (rather than from a philosophical or theological point of view), the three dimensions of space, along with the fourth dimension of time, constitute the world that exists around us. One might argue that an author’s attempt to make us see space in a certain light is thus an attempt to make us see the world around us in a certain light.
Almost all types of narrative (16) need a setting — for example, “Last night in my apartment…”, “On a dark and stormy night,” etc. Setting tells the reader or listener where things take place, and often sets up the theme or argument. For example, if the author of an environmental argument sets the scene with a perfect clear blue lake, then he can shock us with the polluting of this lake. Or, if he begins by describing scenes of industrial carnage, he could go more directly into an argument against pollution.
In literature, film and TV, space and time are often seen in terms of setting and plot. Writers often arrange the structure of their narrative in flashbacks and flash-forwards, which in film can be accompanied by voice-overs.
For other angles on the analysis of space, see 1. Space.
2. Time or Chronology
Time is (from a philosophical angle) a seamless sequence of spaces (1), and in most writing time is a fundamental element. You can always give the basic spatial and temporal setup in your introduction — as in The text was written in France in 2005, the year of the car-burnings. Then, if applicable, you could in the body of your essay go into more detail — about, for instance, how the author shifts backward in time, from Paris in 2005 to Paris in 1789, the year of the French Revolution, and then forward in time to the more recent Paris of 1968, when students took to the streets to change education and society. What would be the effect of this arrangement of time? Is the author using the issues of earlier times (peasant and bourgeois revolt in 1789, and student revolt in 1968) to imply parallels to a more recent time (immigrant unrest in 2005)? This example could also be analyzed in terms of three examples (11) of revolt, or in terms of comparison (12) of three revolts.
The following poem is by Ariwara Narihira, from the 10th C. collection The Kokinshu.
Scatter at random, / O blossoms of the cherry, / and cloud the heavens, / so that you conceal the path / old age is said to follow.
Note how space and time intertwine: the falling of the blossoms suggests the progression of time; the randomness of their falling suggests the hazards of time and chance; the mention of clouds suggests some greater, later destination; and the path hidden by the falling blossoms suggests the more difficult movement of time which leads toward old age and death. The poet suggests that he wants the blossoms of the moment to cover up the future so that he doesn’t have to think about it.
For other angles on the analysis of time, see 2. Time.
3. Ethos (moral character or authority)
Authors appeal to their own authority, reputation, fairness, reasonableness, status, or trustworthiness: “As a broker, I can tell you which stocks you ought to buy”; “Since I was a quarterback, let me sell you a bar of soap”; “In all my time in the U.S. Senate, I have never seen such a ridiculous plan”; “Having considered the plan very carefully, I suggest we invest two billion dollars in the Betamax video format”; “As a mother of three boys and three girls, I can tell you that boys are more difficult to control.” American directors often make use of ethos or authority when they show the status of politicians (a man walks up to the podium and is introduced as “The President of the United States”), mafia bosses (a man in a finely tailored suit is introduced as “Carlo Gambino”), technology wizards (such as “the Warlock” in Die Hard 4.0), powerful businessmen, scientists, priests, etc.
4. Pathos (emotion)
Authors appeal to your emotions — your fears, sympathies, compassion, frustrations, prejudices, etc. For example: “How can you refuse to help this poor baby dying of AIDS in a shantytown?”; “If you loved me you would do this for me”; “Are you really going to let homosexuals run in elections?”; “All people who love their country must hunt down all subversive or dissenting elements within it”; “Since the Calgary Flames are the best hockey team in Canadian history, the city of Calgary should be given a special sports grant from the federal government.”
5. Logos (logic and reasoning)
Authors appeal to your logic or reason: “Since expensive drugs are the problem, we must lower the cost of drugs”; “If we fund heroin use, then we are giving tacit approval to its use”; “The only rational solution to the AIDS problem is a combination of health and economic measures.” Logic in often the main element in courtroom scenes. For instance, in Good Night and Good Luck (2005) the director George Clooney uses all three appeals when he redefines the patriotism of the press during the McCarthy hearings in 1953.
Note: Ethos, pathos, and logos are very large categories that overlap with many of the other categories in this list. For instance, cause and effect (9) provides a logical structure to events in time (2). Categories overlap because we are a complex mix of thinking and emotion, and because we all have different ways of perceiving the complex world around and within us. Don't worry if you stray from one category to another; analyze the relation between the two categories, and then come back to your main category. The closer you get to explaining the intricate nature of rhetoric, the closer you get to explaining the complexity of communication and representation.
6. Definition
Is the author urging you to re-think the meaning of a term or idea — such as democracy, freedom, meaning, responsibility, honesty, corruption, peer pressure, self-image, addiction, or love? Does the definition predispose you to think about the topic in a certain way, or is it a standard dictionary definition? For example, if the author defines love as the spiritual communion between a man and a woman, how would this facilitate a discussion of celibacy? On the other hand, if love is defined as an irrepressible urge to be with a particular person, how might this facilitate a discussion of safe sex?
For a detailed definition of feminism, see Definition.
7. Categorization
Is the author dividing up the topic in a way that makes you include or exclude certain things? What are the relationships between the categories? Think of other possible ways the topic might be divided up. This will make you see more clearly the way the author has done it. For instance, if the author divides the topic of crime into 1) crime and 2) punishment, and then you think about the way you would add 3) rehabilitation, this helps you see more clearly the binary or dualistic approach the author takes. Remember that you aren’t evaluating the way the author divides the topic (that you’ll do in evaluation); you’re examining how and why the author constructs categories.
8. Process and sequence
Sequences often link categories (7) and often work chronologically (2), although you can also have an analysis that works backwards in time -- often from effect to cause. For example, an essay could give the history of Hastings and Main — how it changed from being the centre of town to being a rougher area with many alcoholics and drug addicts (this would follow a chronological sequence). Or, an essay could start by describing Hasting and Main today, and then may go back to the causes of its present state (this would invert the chronological sequence).
Many manuals use process and sequence in order to describe the operation of machines, systems, and appliances. We won’t be going into these descriptions, as they’re the subject of technical writing. Scientific disciplines such as Physics and Chemistry also make great use of process and sequence, as the scientific method, experiments, and procedures require repeatable and verifiable steps that need to be clearly delineated in ordered sequences.
Directors often give sequences of events, as in a montage (see Team America for a funny take on the montage). Sequences can imply rather than state cause and effect (9)
9. Cause and effect
Sometimes there’s an implied cause and effect, as when an author describes a series of events so that you can’t help but infer that the earlier event caused the later one. The following is from the structural analysis of the opening credits to the film Lord of War.
In Lord of War cause and effect turns into a chain of causes and effects, which turns into a cycle: 1. the arms dealer encourages a demand for weapons, 2. the demand creates a production of guns and bullets, and 3. violent conflicts use and deplete the products, which 1. the arms dealer then orders more of, which 2. are then produced in a factory, etc. I’ve put the key elements of each topic sentence in bold:
Niccol’s use of puzzling contrast and wry humour draw us into the first part of his arms cycle, which is economic motivation, regardless of the cost in destruction.
Shifting from contrast to parallelism, Niccol uses time and space (historically-driven musical cues and the unconventional journey of a bullet) to urge us to question the second part of the arms cycle — production and distribution.
Niccol continues and concludes the journey of the bullet so as to underscore a pathos-laden image that no one can even wryly laugh about: a bullet entering a child’s forehead.
10. Description
This refers to giving details and using very specific language. It can include using comparative and stylistic devices such as analogy or tone (12, 14) and often delineates space and time (1, 2). Ask yourself if the description is designed to make you picture the subject mentally (if so, why?) or make your respond emotionally (if so, why?). In TV and film, description is basically done by the camera, but can also be done by voice-overs, lyrics in songs, and dialogue. In Gandhi, Attenborough gives detail of the massacre in Amritsar to make us see British control less as a matter of policy than of killing people, and to set up certain visual images that he’ll return to—the well where the baby and her mother are shot, and the field of shoes. The crying baby and the shoes are details that provide specificity so that we can see the way that the larger political landscape applies to the practical, physical lives of real people.
11. Examples
Examples are indispensable, because if you want people to believe you when you say that something happens, you need to show where and when this thing happens. How many examples does the author use, and how do they help make the point? In TV and film, examples can be seen in the range of characters, personality traits, or scenarios the director explores.
In “Stillbirth of the American Dream” (full text here), Heather Havrilesky uses examples to suggest what advertisers sell Americans and what effect this has on their definitions of the American Dream:
Having been told repeated stories about the fairest in the land, the most powerful, the richest, the most heroic (Snow White, Pokémon, Ronald McDonald, Lady Gaga), eventually we buy into these creation myths and concede their overwhelming importance in the universe. [….] Slowly we come to view our own lives as inconsequential, grubby, even intolerable. Meanwhile, the American dream itself — a house, a job, a car, a family, a little lawn for the kids to frolic on — has expanded into something far broader and less attainable than ever.
How do these examples make us think about the nature, directions, and aspirations of Americans? What other examples might she have used? If she had used other types of examples, could she have made her point as easily?
12. Comparison and Contrast
This category is often an extension of examples (7), except that the writer is usually asking you to compare two related or differing examples. A comparison can also be made through analogies, metaphors (13), and other stylistic devices (14). In TV and film, comparison is often made by switching back and forth between scenes or settings. Imagine a shift from a quiet suburban home where everyone is happy to the van where the killers are approaching the happy home...
In the following famous 1912 poem by Ezra Pound, industrial settings are contrasted with natural ones: “In a Station of the Metro / The apparition of these faces in a crowd; / Petals on a wet black bough.” How does Pound structure this comparison? Where is the industrial, where is the natural, and what lies between the two? What do you think he’s suggesting by this comparison? For more on this poem, see States of Mind.
13. Metaphor
This is a very specific type of comparison in which one sees a complex situation in terms of a simpler one. In this way it’s like an analogy. The difference is that with metaphor the comparison is implicit, that is, it’s not stressed or made openly. For this reason it’s a very powerful way of using language, since it’s often affecting the way we think without our necessarily being aware of it.
If we talk of ‘fields of study,’ we are using a metaphor based on space or geography, one which suggests discreet or separate domains, like a wheat field next to a rye field. If we said ‘overlapping spectra of study’ we would think more in terms of overlap, which is appropriate given that life doesn’t come to us in discreet zones. Chemistry overlaps with biology, which overlaps with ecology, which overlaps with politics, which overlaps with human geography, etc.
If the comparison is unusual, the writer may be trying to shock us into an awareness. If it’s common, the writer may be trying to make his or her point conform to an idea we’re already familiar with.
Metaphor is also discussed under “Stylistic Devices” (14).
14. Stylistic Devices
These include sound, tone, repetition, juxtaposition, image, symbol, etc. This category also includes comparative devices such as analogies, similes, metaphors, and conceits. Ask yourself, How does one device work with the other strategies? For example, a certain tone (foreboding, dark, gloomy) can lead to a certain image (a dead bird on a seashore spilled with oil), both of which can help the author make an elegiac point (about environmentalism). Because students often confuse basic stylistic terms, I’ll provide some definitions and examples.
Image and imagery. An image is a visual impression — as in E.J. Pratt’s seagulls “etched upon the horizon” (from his poem, “Seagulls”). Here we see seagulls against the sky in our mind. The images are of birds in flight—small, sharp living things against a wide inanimate space.
Symbol and symbolism. An image can remain a simple description, or it can be developed into a symbol. For example, a dove could simply be a bird a character sees on a path, next to a blue jay, and this may interest the character because he is an ornithologist. Or, the dove could be seen next to a hawk, and come to represent peace as opposed to aggression, as in ‘hawks and doves.’
Generally, symbols have either a personal meaning (the seagull may symbolize freedom and beauty to E.J. Pratt) or a public meaning (the dove symbolizes peace to most people). In general, a symbol is an object, not a person.
Irony. Irony occurs when words and meaning are at odds, or when expectations are contradicted. For instance, if we expect a psychopathic serial killer to be punished, yet she is rewarded, then the situation is ironic. Dramatic irony occurs when the expectation or understanding of a character (or group of characters) is contradicted by the expectation or understanding of the reader or audience.
Metaphor. While a simile compares two things explicitly (“Mike works like a horse”), a metaphor compares them implicitly (“Mike is a work horse”). Here is another way to think about the difference: similes are honest because they admit that a comparison is occurring, while a metaphor is a type of lie because it does not admit to being a comparison; rather, it equates two things that are not the same. Metaphor is a very important category, as it shapes our ideas in a great number of ways.
Conceit. A conceit extends or continues a metaphor, taking elements of it and exploring it in new ways.
Often people are confused by literary terms such as metaphor and conceit, as if these came from some obscure realm of academia, rather than from the way people explain their experience. Yet using a metaphor’s a very natural way of explaining — through analogy — things that are often quite difficult to explain. And using a conceit’s merely extending this metaphor so that people can see the way things connect. For an illustration of how this works in the opening scene of the Friends’ episode “The One with the Sonogram at the End” (S1 E2), see 6. Style.
15. Genre Devices
These include categories such as comedy, wit, sarcasm, irony, satire, parody, caricature, spoof, drama, tragedy, period piece, documentary, horror, action, thriller, novel, poem, pastoral, elegy, eulogy, utopia, dystopia, science fiction, cartoon, anime, etc.
Some genre devices — such as parody — are comparative in nature (12) and use a disrespectful or mocking tone (14). Is the author working within a recognizable tradition? For instance, is the author working within the tradition of satire or parody, in which an author is given a certain license to rail against the evils of society? Does the genre shift, and if so, why? For instance, a writer might start off with a humorous depiction of a historical figure, and then shift into a very serious discussion — in which case the humour might be used to draw the audience in to what might otherwise appear too heavy or serious.
TV shows and films are divided into genres yet within one genre you can switch genres momentarily. For example in a very serious film you might have a comic moment to relieve the tension, or in a comic film you might deepen the impact with a serious moment.
16. Narration
Is the text dominated by narrative (in which case the author is probably making a point rather than an argument) or is narrative used as an example? Many writers who are not telling a story will use small stories or anecdotes to keep their readers interested (people have a natural fascination with the stories of other people’s lives, and with the way other people perceive the world). Whose narrative is used, and why? For instance, if the writer were to advance a point by telling a story about Abraham Lincoln, this would mean, first, that the writer’s appeal to ethos is working in conjunction with narrative, and second, that the writer may be targeting the emotions of an American audience. Narrative is almost always rooted in space and time (1, 2), which in narration often takes the form of setting and plot, and narration is often accompanied by genre and stylistic devices (14, 15).
Almost all TV shows and films rely on story-telling or narrative as the major mode of operating, as opposed to documentary which can use moments of narrative, yet is not guided by the need for character and conflict — the two crucial features of an engaging story. Narration is often analyzed according to schools of interpretation (historical, mythical, political, etc.) or according to character development, conflict between characters, theme, style (14), genre (15), space or setting (1), and time or plot (2).
In order to grasp complex narrative structures it can be helpful to construct a narrative line, such a this one for the first episode of Mad Men. Colour-coding can help you see quickly the progression of certain characters — blue for Don, green for Peggy, orange for Rachel, etc.
Aladdin Trailer: Sample Scratch Outline & Essay (by a Student)
Superficial Evolution
Scratch Outline
Aladdin’s superficial evolution from a street hoodlum to a “prince” is demonstrated by a change of setting, an apparent cause and effect relationship between money and love, and a contrast between different features of his being, all of which were solely dependent on the use of magic.
The shift of setting from the village streets to the palace demonstrates how Aladdin has seemingly changed his status to appear as if he belongs to the upper class.
A cause and affect relationship between money, obtained by magical means, and love is evident in how Aladdin only confronts Jasmine after making himself appear wealthy.
Having love cast as Aladdin’s end goal plays with people’s emotions, evoking pathos and logos thinking.
The contrast of some past and present parts of Aladdin’s life reveals how he is superficially changing with the help of magic, as he is still the same on the inside. (149 words)
Superficial Evolution
The trailer for Aladdin follows Aladdin on his quest for the love of princess Jasmine. With the help of a genie he finds in a bottle, he acquires three wishes to help him become who he thinks the princess will desire. Aladdin changes the way he looks, the way he acts, and his only goal becomes to impress princess Jasmine. Aladdin’s superficial evolution from a street hoodlum to a “prince” is demonstrated by a change of setting, an apparent cause and effect relationship between money and love, and a contrast between different features of his being, all of which were solely dependent on the use of magic.
The shift of setting from the village streets to the palace demonstrates how Aladdin has seemingly changed his status to appear as if he belongs to the upper class. The beginning scene where Aladdin outwits the people chasing him offers a sense of familiarity, that he has done this before. The ease at which he gets away allows for viewers to assume that this is a regular occurrence and that this may be his natural way of life. Assessing that he lives on the street or is of the lower class automatically excludes him from being expected in the palace or any other fancy places, however, after magic is used, that is exactly where he ends up. The changing setting establishes a progression of status from poor to rich.
A cause and affect relationship between money, obtained by magical means, and love is evident in how Aladdin only confronts Jasmine after making himself appear wealthy. Before Aladdin talks to Jasmine, he speaks to a man who says that he can make Aladdin rich enough to impress a princess. Money is then thought to be needed before he could ever get the attention of a woman of Jasmine’s status. When the trailer begins, it shows Aladdin on a search for the means to become wealthy, by searching for a magic lamp, establishing money as his first goal. The trailer then shifts the goal, once wealth is magically obtained, to impressing Jasmine. The sequence of money to love allows for the clear cause (money) and affect (love) relationship to surface. This relationship helps to explain the purpose for Aladdin’s endeavors in the movie, that is, to eventually gain the love of the princess.
Having love cast as Aladdin’s end goal plays with people’s emotions, evoking pathos and logos thinking. Using love as a goal may entice viewers to justify Aladdin’s artificial means of acquiring love by appealing to their own desires for love. Aladdin is lying to Jasmine and to himself about who he is in order to find love and it does not seem to be an issue, rather a mere means to an end. This exhibits a false change as he is not actually becoming who the princess would love, but only pretending to be someone else to gain her affection.
The contrast of some past and present parts of Aladdin’s life reveals how he is superficially changing with the help of magic, as he is still the same on the inside. On the surface we can see his clothes change from street clothes to high end clothes, showing his appearance conforming to his imitated class change. When Aladdin and Jasmine are riding on the magic carpet the scenes also shift from what he used to be doing, like running through the village, to what he is now participating in, like dancing at balls. These contrasts in activity and clothing choice are both superficial changes, influencing viewers to think that Aladdin is changing when he is solely pretending to be someone he is not, someone he one day wants to be. All in all, the genie says it best when he states that he may look like a prince, but he never really changed anything on the inside.