Lists of Common Questions

To Help Begin Rhetorical Analysis

What is the rhetorical situation?

What occasion gives rise to the need or opportunity for persuasion?

What is the historical occasion that would give rise to the composition of this text?

Who is the author/speaker?

How does he or she establish ethos (personal credibility)?

Does he/she come across as knowledgeable? fair?
Does the speaker's reputation convey a certain authority?

What is his/her intention in speaking?

To attack or defend?
To exhort or dissuade from certain action?
To praise or blame?
To teach, to delight, or to persuade?

Who make up the audience?

Who is the intended audience?

What values does the audience hold that the author or speaker appeals to?
Who have been or might be secondary audiences?
If this is a work of fiction, what is the nature of the audience within the fiction?

What is the content of the message?

Can you summarize the main idea?

What are the principal lines of reasoning or kinds of arguments used?
What topics of invention are employed?
How does the author or speaker appeal to reason? to emotion?

What is the form in which it is conveyed?

What is the structure of the communication; how is it arranged?

What oral or literary genre is it following?
What figures of speech (schemes and tropes) are used?
What kind of style and tone is used and for what purpose?

How do form and content correspond?

 Does the form complement the content?
What effect could the form have, and does this aid or hinder the author's intention?

Does the message/speech/text succeed in fulfilling the author's or speaker's

intentions?

For whom?
Does the author/speaker effectively fit his/her message to the circumstances, times, and
audience?
Can you identify the responses of historical or contemporary audiences?

What does the nature of the communication reveal about the culture that
produced it?

What kinds of values or customs would the people have that would produce this?
How do the allusions, historical references, or kinds of words used place this in a certain
time and location?
 A Short Glossary of Rhetorical Devices

Allusion - a brief reference to a person, place, event, or passage in a work of

literature or a religious text assumed to be sufficiently well known to
be recognized by the reader
Anecdote - a short, sometimes entertaining account of some happening, frequently
personal or biographical
Aphorism - a concise statement of principle or a precept given in concise words
Appeal to authority - citation of information from people recognized for their
special knowledge of a subject, for the purpose of strengthening a
speakers or writers argument
Appeal to fear - an emotional appeal; uses information likely to frighten the
audience
Appeal to patriotism - an emotional appeal; appeals to the audiences love of
country, persuading them to agree with the speaker by implying they
are disloyal or treasonous if they choose not to
Appeal to pride - an emotional appeal; used to convince the audience that they
must act in order to maintain dignity, good character, or self-respect
(see also appeal to patriotism)
Anticipation of objection predicting possible objections the audience may have
to an argument, and pointing out the error in their objections in
advance (see correction of erroneous views)
Appeal to traditional or historical authority an attempt to convince the
audience that an important individual, organization, historical figure,
real-life or mythical hero, fictional character, or set of doctrines
(religious, political or otherwise) is on the side of the speaker or
writer; also frequently paired with claiming that if the audience fails
to side with the speakers or writers argument, the audience will be
disrespecting or disgracing that tradition or authority
Bandwagon - an attempt to convince the audience that accepting the writers or
speakers view will put them on a popular side with an apparently
winning attitude
Conceit - an extended metaphor or analogy of two strikingly different things
Contrast - to compare as to point out striking differences
Correction of erroneous views or assumptions attemption to point out flaws in
fact or logic held by the audience or another speaker, and offering a
competing view or a more valid set of facts/evidence
Concession - an acknowledgment of objections or opposing viewpoints to a
proposal (similar to anticipation of objection)
Extended metaphor an elaborate comparison which makes a series of parallel
connections between two or more seemingly dissimilar events, things,
or situations (see conceit) (e.g.: The heart is a pump); Also related
Mixed metaphor a (typically illogical, ridiculous) comparison
between two dissimilar events or situations in which the speaker loses
track of the parallel comparison s/he began with. For example: When
you open that Pandoras box, youll find it full of Trojan horses; and
Theyve put all their eggs in one basket, and its misfired. (etc
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/books/features/the-top-ten-mixed-metaphors-
9191302.html )
False Choice when discussing a problem or a decision, a speaker presents a
limited set of choices (often only 2, some of all of which may be
imaginary or impossible) to an audience, in an attempt to persuade
them to ignore or find unpalatable a set of other possible solutions
with which the speaker disagrees. For example: In relation to the
2015 executive agreement with Iran by the USA and other nations,
regarding nuclear disarmament/limitations, those opposing the deal
frequently claimed, Its a bad deal. I wouldve gotten a better deal.
Flattery - Using excessive, untrue, or insincere praise in an attempt to ingratiate
oneself with the audience
Hyperbole - an extravagant exaggeration, used whether for serious or comic effect
Imagery - lively descriptions which impress concrete, sensory images of ideas or
situations/locations/things upon the mind; Analogies, including
metaphors, are frequently used to generate imagery
Irony - a method of humorous or sarcastic expression in which the intended
meaning of the words is the opposite of their usual meaning;
situational irony is created when a situation arises that is the opposite
of (or very different from) the situation expected by an audience
Last resort - a logical argument (often a fallacy) that attempts to convince the
audience that they have no other choice but to accept a certain
conclusion or set of ideas, or choice of action (see also: false choice)
Logical reasoning arguing according to the principles of correct reasoning,
clearly and correctly linking observations or data to claims or
conclusions without the incorporation of bias, misinformation,
exaggeration, or any other fallacious tactics
Metonymy - using a part to name the whole, or using the name of one thing for
that of another associated with it (e.g. calling the king the throne or
the crown; referring to the President as The White House)
Ad hominem attacks the use of disparaging or abusive names, labels, or unfair
(untrue) associations, to attack those who oppose a speaker or writer
Parallelism using the same part of speech or syntactic structure in (1) each
element of a series, (2) before and after coordinating conjunctions
(and, but, yet, or, for, nor), or (3) after each of a pair of correlative
conjunctions (not onlybut also, neithernor, bothand, etc.). This
technique, when effective, can increase clarity and memorability for
the reader.
Rhetorical question - to ask a question of an audience (or of oneself, when
speaking or writing) that might have a persuasive effect without
demanding a response