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NOTES Chapter 3 EVERYDAY USE

Five Traditional Canons of Rhetoric: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory and Delivery

ARRANGEMENT

1)   Order and structure the parts of a piece of writing

2)   Support the different parts

As a writer the goal is to discover ideas and take inventory of everything that could be said to make an argument clear and compelling

·      Beginning of a composition usually sets out the central question and hints at development (how)

·      Middle – supports with examples, illustrations, details and reasons

·      End – the “SO WHAT?” question.

Aristotle – argument introduced in the beginning and synthesized at the end.

Principles of Arrangement:

Exordium – the web that draws listeners into the speech

Narration – background material on the case at hand

Partition – divides the case and makes clear which parts will be addressed and spoken about and which will be left out

Confirmation – provides reasons, details, illustrations and examples in support of these points

Refutation – considers possible objections to the argument and tries to counter these objections

Peroration – conclusion – “SO WHAT?” call to action.  

Functional parts – what reading and analyzing, questions to ask

1)   Is there some section that lets the reader know the subject and purpose

2)   Background information?

3)   Themes?  Attention to some particular issue?

4)   Support?  Types of support?

5)   Refutation?  Is there any?

6)   Section that answers the “So What?” question

Questions about the parts

Subject directly stated or implied?

Some angle consciously foregrounded and other material downplayed?

Statement that suggest to the reader the course the reminder of the essay will take?

Does the writer provide transitional words or phrases that connect sentences or paragraphs?

Are there words or sentences that map out the direction like first, second, third, last

Anecdotes, scenes evoking sensory images, defining terms and concepts, dividing whole into parts, classifying the parts, cause and effect reasoning

Language that suggests that the writer wants to counter or concede arguments

STYLE

Choices the writer makes concerning words, phrases, sentences

(Difference between style and jargon)

Active: DOER – ACTION- RECEIVER

Passive: RECEIVER – ACTION (by Doer)

Style: Sentences, words, figures

Simple sentence (simple with compound subject or compound verb)

Compound sentence

Complex sentence

Compound-complex sentence

FUNCTION GROWS OUT OF FORM (FORM = IDEA)

Ethos can be found or assumed by the reader by looking at sentence structure and types of sentences

Reasons to use various sentences: 1) succinct points – short simple sentences; 2) trying to show how ideas are balanced and related in terms of equal importance = compound sentence; 3) show more complicated relationships between ideas – complex or compound-complex sentences

Loose sentence – details added immediately at the end

Periodic sentences – details added before the main clause

REASONS TO USE: A loose sentence moves quickly and can make a piece of prose gallop along; A periodic sentence works with delay – it postpones, slows done.

Parallelisms – a passes, a paragraph or a sentence contains two or more ideas that are fulfilling a similar function a writer who wants to sound measured, deliberate, and balanced will express those ideas in the same grammatical form

(noun phrases, element clauses, clauses)

“THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS” – by Lincoln

Words = diction (choice of words).  What is my purpose?  Words change in different situations.

LADDER OF ABSTRACTION (handout)

Formal vs. Informal

Latinate vs. Anglo-Saxon

Slang vs. Jargon

Denotation vs. Connotation

Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word

Connotation refers to the implied meaning of a word

Schemes and Tropes

Scheme = artful variation from typical arrangement of words in a sentence

Tropes = artful variation from typical way a word or idea is express

SCHEMES:

Parallelism

Zeugma

Antithesis

Antimetabole

Parenthesis

Appositive

Alliteration

Assonance

Anaphora

Epistrophe

Anadiplosis

Climax

TROPES:

Metaphor, simile, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, periphrasis, pun, overstatement (hyperbole), understatement (litotes), irony, oxymoron, rhetorical question