Modes of Rhetorical Development

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Modes of Rhetorical Development
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Division or Analysis

• Terms are interchangeable
• Allows you to slice a large or complicated
  subject into smaller parts that you can grasp and
  relate to one another
• Allows you to comprehend and communicate the
  structure of things

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Division or Analysis

• Allows you to find in the parts an idea or
  conclusion about the subject that makes it
  clearer, truer, more comprehensive, or more vivid
  than before you started

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Division or Analysis

• Figures in all methods of developing ideas, for
  it is basic to any concerted thought,
  explanation, or evaluation

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Narration

• Tells a story
• Can be used to
• Explain
• Illustrate a point
• Report information
• Argue
• Persuade

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Narration

• Anecdote a short account of a single event can
  be used to illustrate a point
• Narration helps to make an abstract argument
  concrete

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Narration

• When considering telling a story, ask yourself
• What happened?
• Who took part?
• When?
• Where?
• Why did this event take place?
• How did it happen?

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Description

• Reports what you experience (in terms of your
  senses rather than as a story)
• Can be used to
• Convey information without bias or emotion
  (objective description)
• To convey information with feeling (subjective
  description)

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Description

• Description helps to make your argument/story
  concrete for the reader
• Allows the reader to identify with what you are
  writing about

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Example

• Serves to illustrate a generalization
• Gives your reader a for instance
• Allows the reader to identify with what you are
  writing about
• Helps to make an abstract argument concrete

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Compare and Contrast

• Aids in showing your reader why you prefer one
  thing over another
• (such as in your argument essay, where you have
  to choose one side of an issue to support)

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Compare and Contrast

• Compare
• points to similarities
• Contrast
• points to differences
• Purpose of using this method
• Showing each of two subjects distinctly by
  considering both, side by side
• Choosing between two things (evaluating the
  possibilities)

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Compare and Contrast

• Organization
• Subject by subject
• E.g. Cherry Tomatoes
• Size
• Colour
• Texture
• Grape Tomatoes
• Size
• Colour
• Texture

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Compare and Contrast

• Organization
• Point by point
• E.g. Size
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Colour
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Texture
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes

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Compare and Contrast

• Helps to make an abstract argument concrete

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Process Analysis

• Explains step by step how to do something or how
  something is done
• Takes a complex process and divides it into parts
• Tells us what happened first, second, third, and
  so on

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Process Analysis

• Kinds of process analysis
• Directive
• Informative

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Process Analysis

• Directive
• Explains how to do something or make something
• E.g. how to set the timer on the stove
• Informative
• Explains how something is done or how it takes
  place
• E.g. how the Grand Canyon came to be

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Process Analysis

• Needs a thesis
• What is the point of the process analysis? Why
  are you bothering to tell readers about it?
• Be sure to define any technical terms or jargon
• Use time markers to note transitions in the
  process
• I.e. First, . . . Next you add . . .

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Process Analysis

• Helps to make an abstract argument concrete

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Classification

• Makes sense of things by arranging many units
  into more manageable groups
• Sort things into groups or classes based on
  similarities and differences
• Must have a purpose (or why would you do it?) and
  principle of classification (how you form your
  groupings) reflects that purpose

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Classification

• Useful when you want to impose order on a complex
  subject

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Cause and Effect

• Asks why (or what if) something happened and what
  followed (or could follow) as a result
• Considers reasons and results

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Cause and Effect

• To help find causes of actions and events, ask
• What act am I trying to explain? (act)
• What is the character, personality, or mental
  state of whoever acted? (actor)
• In what scene or location did the act take place,
  and in what circumstances? (scene)
• What instruments or means sis the person
  use?(agency)
• For what purposes did the person act? (purpose)

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Cause and Effect

• Be sure to state your purpose of using the cause
  and effect method in your thesis statement
• Helps to make an abstract argument concrete

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Definition

• Short definition
• Used to clarify subject and subject terms for
  reader
• usually gives dictionary definition
• Stipulative definition
• Fuller explanation of a central term that
  stipulates or specifies the particular way you
  are using the term

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Definition

• Extended definition
• Application of a variety of methods already
  mentioned to clarify a purpose
• Tries to show a reader its subject
• Established boundaries by differentiating the
  subject from anything that might be confused with
  it

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Definition

• Helps to make an abstract argument concrete