Rhetorical%20Modes

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Rhetorical Modes
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What are Rhetorical Modes?

• Different methods of writing which an author
  incorporates into her/his writing to make it more
  effective
• Writers utilize various modes to their advantage
  (to make an essay stronger) and for their
  readers (to help them better connect with the
  essay)
• Modes work together in a text however, a primary
  mode is always present. For example, a narrative
  essay (primary mode) will always utilize
  description (secondary).

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Rhetorical Modes

• Narration
• Description
• Definition
• Comparison/Contrast
• Cause/Effect
• Division/Classification
• Argumentation/Persuasion
• Process Analysis

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Narration

• Tells the story or several related stories of
  what happened, the specific events that happened,
  and the people who were involved
• The story can be a means to an end, the dominant
  pattern of development, or can provide support
  for a claim or thesis
• Provides organized facts and details, utilizing
  chronological (time) order
• Flashback disrupts the chronology of a story,
  returns to an earlier moment in time to make the
  present more clear
• Flash-forward disrupts the chronology of a
  story, moves forward in time
• May employ first, second or third person
  point-of-view

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Narration

• Purposes
• To introduce or illustrate a complicated subject
  (personal anecdote)
• To analyze an issue or theme (an entire essay)
• To report the actions and describe the feelings
  of people in a situation (autobiography, history,
  fiction)
• Audience
• How much information do they need
  (details/summaries/both)
• What do they know?
• What do they expect?

• Strategies
• Order
• Conflict
• Plot
• Pace
• Details
• Point of view

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Narration

• Strategies (HOW)

• Purpose and Rationale (WHY)

• To express and reflect, the writer
• Articulates or contemplates her/ his own life and
  experiences
• Often looks backward in order to look forward

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Description

• Describes a person, a place, an object or an idea
• Expressed in vivid language so the audience can
  imagine/visualize/sense it
• Uses the senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste,
  and touch) to convey an image or represent an
  idea

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Description

• A richly rendered description freezes a subject
  in time, evoking sights, smells, sounds,
  textures, and tastes in such a way that readers
  become one with the writers world.
• Description can either be a supportive technique
  that develops part of an essay or it can be the
  dominant technique used throughout an essay.

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description

• Strategies (HOW)

• Purpose and Rationale (WHY)

• Objective description
• provides a detailed experience without emotional
  bias
• factual, scientific
• Subjective description
• conveys a highly personal view of the subject
• seeks to elicit a strong, emotional response from
  the audience

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Comparison/contrast

• Comparison examines the ways in which two
  persons, places, objects or ideas are similar
• Contrast examines the ways in which they are
  different
• Helps the reader understand the one in relation
  to the other
• Many times the goal of a comparison is for
  evaluation
• Example If an author compares various fast food
  restaurants, she/he will want to reach a
  conclusion about which restaurant is the best.
  Therefore, the author will need specific criteria
  (price, healthiness, etc.) on which to base the
  comparison.

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Comparison/Contrast

• Dividing Pattern
• Divide the two subjects into two different
  sections of the essay, discussing all aspects of
  subject A before discussing B.
• Subject A (Apples)
• Shape Color
• Nutritional Value
• Growth Climate, Season, etc.
• Subject B (Bananas)
• Shape Color
• Nutritional Value
• Growth Climate, Season, etc.

• Alternating Pattern
• Group the two subjects together throughout the
  essay, discussing each aspect of subject A and B
  in the same section.
• Shape Color
• Subject A (Apples)
• Subject B (Bananas)
• Nutritional Value
• Subject A (Apples)
• Subject B (Bananas)
• Growth Climate, Season, etc.
• Subject A (Apples)
• Subject B (Bananas)

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Comparison/Contrast

• Strategies (HOW)

• Purpose and Rationale (WHY)

Compare Contrast
Alike Unlike
Equal Opposite
Relate Unrelated
Resembles Differs
Same Different
Similar Dissimilar
Synonym Antonym
To analyze and interpret, the writer States a main point and purpose Tries to present the information in a surprising way
To evaluate and judge, the writer Focuses on the worth of person, object, idea, or other phenomenon Usually specifies the criteria for the object to be seen as good or bad
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(No Transcript)
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Process Analysis

• Clarifies the steps or sequence involved in
  executing a task
• Describes how a particular event occurs or how
  something works
• Explains how to solve a problem
• A Process Analysis essay is similar to
  instructions
• Self-help books are process analysis
• Cookbooks are process analysis

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Process Analysis

• Strategies (HOW)
• Process Analysis
• (Organize) (Analyze)

• Purpose and Rationale (WHY)

• To inform and explain, the writer
• Reveals the how or the why of a process or
  event
• Present the information in a sequential order
  with analysis throughout the text

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Division/Classification

• gathers items, ideas, or information into types,
  kinds, or categories according to a single basis
  of division
• Division/Classification essays often also use
  Definition
• Example You might start with a paper about
  sports and divide it up into three particular
  sports baseball, football, and basketball. You
  could then classify these sports by their
  popularity in the American culture.

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Division-Classification

• a way of thinking that allows us to make sense of
  a complex world using systems, categories, or
  sorting mechanisms
• Division and Classification are separate
  processes, but they complement each other

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Division-Classification

• Classification- brings two or more related items
  together and categorizes them according to type
  or kind.

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Division-Classification

• Division- taking a single unit or concept and
  breaking it down into parts, and then analyzing
  the connection among the parts and between the
  parts and the whole.

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Division

• Division, or analysis, breaks a thing down into
  parts so that (typically in a later essay like
  the argument/position paper), they can be
  restructured to form something new, or a
  synthesis (can you spot an important six-letter
  word hiding within synthesis?).
• Every time you outline, you do a division,
  breaking the essay down into all of its
  constituent parts (as in classification, failure
  to discuss all the parts results in an incomplete
  division paper, stocked only with isolated
  examples).
• While classifications are separate, even
  disparate items brought together under some
  common denominator, divisions are much more
  explicitly parts of a single whole
• Example Discussing the key components of a
  championship sports team, for instance, would be
  a division for that matter, discussing the
  components of a successful division essay is also
  division.

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Division

• Division Structure
• I. Introduction
• States thesis (idea or object to be analyzed,
  and to what end)
• II. Body
• Renders the parts, in separate paragraphs, with
  examples and with transitional materials to
  provide a sense of their inter-relatedness
• III. Conclusion
• Restates the parts of the thesis and (the
  significancesee Classification outline, part
  III) attempts a synthesis or new understanding of
  the constituent parts

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Definition

• Explains the meaning of a word, object, concept,
  type of person, place, or phenomenon
• Clarity, complex, controversial
• Beyond synonyms or brief dictionary definitions

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Why the definition essay? Purpose

• To establish meaning and provide common
  understanding
• To motivate people to accept a particular point
  of view

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Types of Definitions

• Standard
• Regulatory
• Evolving
• Qualifying
• Cultural
• Personal

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Definition-Standard

• Universal meaning and rarely subject to change
• mammal
• virus
• tornado

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Definition-Regulatory

• Officially designated terms that are subject to
  change
• Companies, organizations, courts can
  change/interpret/define meanings
• full-time student
• work place injury
• experimental procedure

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Definition-Evolving

• Change over time due to cultural values,
  community standards, government policies, or
  scientific research.
• Child abuse
• Mental retardation

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Definition-Qualifying

• Limits the meaning of abstract subjects
• slander vs. witty remark
• heavy vs. obese
• crude, inappropriate comments vs. sexual
  harassment

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Definition-Cultural

• Shaped by history, values, experiences, attitudes
  of a national, ethnic, or religious group

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Definition-Personal

• Expresses an individuals viewpoints or attitudes

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Definition-Ideas on approaches

• Challenge a widely accepted definition
• Qualities and/or attributes of a subject
• Establish boundaries
• Distinguish between closely related ideas

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Strategies for establishing definitions

• Use synonyms
• Provide descriptions
• Give examples
• Draw comparisons to more familiar ideas
• Provide a revised meaning
• Linguistic origin
• Negation-what it is not
• Stipulative-special restrictions on it

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Cause/effect

• Examines why something happened or what its
  consequences were or will be
• Refers to a direct relationship between events
• Answers the question "why did something happen,
  and/or what results did it have?"

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Cause and Effect

• Causal analysis- point out reasons and results
• i.e.- analyzing the outcome of an election,
  report that links poor nutrition to low academic
  achievement, analyze impact of a proposed tax cut
  or hike.

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Cause and Effect

• Done well, these uncover the subtle and
  surprising connections between events or
  phenomena. By rooting out causes and projecting
  effects, causal analysis enables us to make sense
  of our experiences, revealing a world that is
  somewhat less arbitrary and chaotic.

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Cause and Effect

• In this kind of essay, the aim is to explain the
  causes (reasons) or the effects (results) of an
  event or situation.
• e.g. Causes of air pollution (multiple factors
  leading to air pollution).
• e.g. Effects of watching too much TV (many
  effects of a situation).
• Sometimes an event causes something to happen,
  and that situation leads to another event, and it
  causes another event to happen. This is called
  the causal chain or domino effect.
• e.g. Use of deodorants will bring the end of the
  world.

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Cause and Effect

• Organization
• Depending on the topic, there may be three
  patterns of organization
• 1. Multiple causes--gteffect
• In this pattern, the organization is as follows
•  
• thesis statement Air pollution is caused by the
  following factors exhaust gases from cars,
  uncontrolled factory releases, and burning of
  low-quality coal for heating.
• I. exhaust gases from cars
•     A. government does not have enough control
•     B. citizens are not conscientious
• II. uncontrolled factory gases
•     A. no regular checks on gases released
•     B. factories are inside the borders of
  residential areas
• III. burning of low-quality coal for heating
•     A. no governmental control
•     B. other forms of energy too expensive
• Each developmental paragraph is devoted to one of
  the causes of air pollution. Each cause is
  supported by two minor supports. While writing,
  these major and minor ideas should be adequately
  explained and exemplified as well.

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Cause and Effect

• 2. Cause--gtMultiple effects
• In this pattern, the effects of a certain
  situation  are explained in separate paragraphs,
  with the following organization
•  
• thesis statement Watching too much TV is one of
  the major sociological issues of this century,
  which has many effects on the physiology and
  psychology of people.
• I. eating disorders
•     A. TV meals
•     B. obesity
• II. communication problems
•     A. more violence
•     B. no interpersonal talk
•    
• Again, we have grouped related effects under two
  main points physiological and psychological.
  Then, we have supported each effect with two
  minor supports (A and B). While writing, we
  should explain these major and minor supports by
  giving examples and/or defining what we mean, as
  well.

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Cause and Effect

• 3. Causal chain / Domino
• In this pattern, the events lead to one another,
  as in the following organization
•  
• thesis statement Using deodorants with
  chlorofluorocarbon gas will bring the end of
  world.
• I. Chlorofluorocarbon gases are contained in most
  deodorants  and released by  some factories  into
  the air.
• II. This gas causes the ozone layer  to become
  thinner and finally disappear in patches.
• III. The unfiltered ultraviolet rays of the sun
  cause overheating in the poles of the earth,
  where the icebergs start to melt.
• IV. The huge amount of water released from the
  poles leads to a rise in the sea-level.
• V. The sea will cover the land and this will be
  the end of the world.
•  
• Again, each major point should be supported with
  examples, statistics that show that there are
  some factories and deodorants that release
  chlorofluorocarbons, that there is a rise in the
  sea-level, etc.

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Argumentation

• Also known as Persuasion
• Involves the development of the writer's own
  argument
• Sometimes involves using outside sources and
  references to other writers
• The primary function of Argumentation is for the
  writer to articulate his/her opinion about the
  issue being discussed.