PERSUASIVE WRITING:  VOCABULARY LIST WITH DEFINITIONS

*Not all of these terms may come up in class, but students should be familiar with all definitions.*

Antagonistic rhetoric: In antagonistic rhetoric, the rhetor tries to accuse, discredit, indict, convict, defeat, neutralize, eliminate or even bring about the death of the opponent. Sometimes called "polemic" rhetoric. This is the opposite of nonantagonistic (cooperative) rhetoric.  The task of the rhetor is to distinguish between situations in which antagonistic rhetoric is necessary, and those in which nonantagonistic rhetoric is appropriate.   

Antithesis: The opposite of your own standpoint or thesis; your opponent's standpoint. In the classical arrangement, this is part of the "division," the 3th paragraph or part of the text: a brief summary of the opponent's standpoint, presented in a manner favorable to your standpoint, but which the opponent cannot deny. (Antithesis also refers to a specific parallel structure in writing, where contrasting words or ideas are presented in parallel).

Argument: Appeal or verbal persuasion from reason (facts), emotion or reputation.  In Rhetoric, unlike everyday English, "argument" does not mean fighting (i.e., "having an argument") or fussing. As one textbook says, "Everything is an argument."

Aristotle: Ancient Greek philosopher, 4th century BC.  Wrote The Art of Rhetoric.

Arrangement: The order or format of your writing. In this class, all persuasive papers should be written in the six-part classical arrangement, unless I ask you to do otherwise. Other common arrangements include the various four and five-part essay formats (the three-point essay, SWOT, SOAP, IMRAD, IPPPC, etc.) that are expected and used to construct knowledge in different academic and professional disciplines, and which you may have learned already elsewhere.  You, the rhetor, are the builder, and the arrangement is the schematic, framework or blueprint. The arrangement serves you and the audience, you do not serve the arrangement.

Artistic persuasion: Verbal persuasion by means of reason (logic), emotion or reputation, the function of Rhetoric. "Persuasion" by force, bribery or threat is "inartistic."

Audience: Writing works only when it meets the needs of a definable collective of readers--the audience--and serves them obsessively. One of the first tasks of the writer is to decide who the intended audience is, and what distinguishes them from other groups. Failing to carefully define an audience, writing for those who are not audience, or trying to please different conflicting, irreconcilable audiences means trouble. (ref: Albert, Tim. A-Z of Medical Writing. London: BMJ Bks, 2000. 40.) [See also "Universal Audience."]

Classical Arrangement:  A six-part essay. Goes back to Cicero, ancient Rome's greatest rhetorician, who lived more than 2000 years ago.

Content: What is being communicated in a text (also "Message").

Conclusion (Peroratio): The last part of the text. In the classical arrangement this is the 6th paragraph or section. Conclusions can take various forms; Aristotle suggests using appeals from pathos. Modern academic conclusions often include a discussion of exceptions and unanswered questions remaining for further study, implications and practical consequences of your standpoint, and an explicit statement of what you want the audience to do. In a conclusion, sum up and discuss, never repeat, what you said in the text. Never begin any conclusion with "In conclusion" or similar phrases. To do so is the sure mark of an immature writer. In written rhetoric you do not have to tell the audience you are concluding, just conclude. However, never simply stop writing when you run out of things to say!  Give your audience closure.

Delivery: Originally, the way in which oratory (speechmaking) is spoken. In contemporary written rhetoric, "delivery" means the method and media used to get the rhetoric into the hands or before the eyes of the intended audience, and the form in which it arrives to the audience.  More generally, the presentation of rhetoric.  Delivery is critical for the persuasiveness of rhetoric--if a very persuasive message arrives in an unattractive, sloppy or disreputable form, or if never arrives before the audience's eyes at all, it cannot persuade, and it is an absolute failure.

Dialectic: Generally, the art of logical argument, the simple recognition that every question has two sides. Sometimes (as in Plato's philosophy) "dialectic" also refers to the eternal clash of opposites in the world of ideas, or in the real world.

Division: In classical arrangement, this is the 3rd paragraph or section of a text.  The Division is a discussion of the stasis, or point at issue in the question at hand--underlining precisely how and at what point you stop agreeing and start to differ with your opponent.  In this section, you may include the Antithesis (a brief statement of your opponent's standpoint, stated in terms that the opponent could not deny).  See also Stasis.

Ethos: Persuasive appeal from personal character or reputation (your own or someone else's).  Also refers to a person, collective or organization's reputation in the eyes of a given audience.

Form: How the content is being communicated. Includes style (tone) and delivery.

Introduction:  The first part or paragraph of a persuasive text.  Use this to present your thesis statement and to establish your ethos, your "right to write" on your subject.  In contemporary rhetoric, this must contain a clear thesis statement, which ordinarily is at the very beginning of your introduction.  In persuasive writing, DO NOT begin your writing with a bland, inoffensive statement (e.g., "All humans must eat.") unless your audience is totally hostile to your standpoint.

Invention: Brainstorming; methods for discovering or inventing the best available arguments and means of persuasion.

Kairos: The rhetorical moment (the "when" and the "where," the time, the place and the social and personal circumstances in which pesuasion takes place).  The Kairos changes like the weather.

KISS: The KISS principle is "Keep It Short and Simple" (or, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!"). Follow this principle in ALL persuasive writing by eliminating any words or sentences that are not necessary or to the point. Imagine you are being charged by the word for your writing.

Logos: Persuasive appeal from logic or reason. Logos may involve using facts, figures, numbers, graphs, examples, and different forms of reasoning from evidence. deduction or induction. This is very useful for persuading intelligent, educated and mature audiences. 

Narration (narratio): Telling a story. In classical arrangement, this is the 2nd paragraph or section of the text, telling the background, facts, characteristics and events of the issue at hand in a way that your opponent cannot disagree with.

Nonantagonistic Rhetoric: Rhetoric that tries to smooth over disagreements and to find cooperative ways to reach a common goal, even if rhetor and opponents have differences of opinion. This is the opposite of "Antagonistic" rhetoric ("polemic") that seeks to defeat, convict, neutralize or even bring about the death of the opponent.

Nonartistic persuasion (also "Inartistic persuasion): So-called "persuasion" by force, threat or bribery. The opposite of Rhetoric, which deals with purely verbal, "artistic persuasion."  In some situations, argument from "the facts and nothing but the facts" is inartistic argument, even though the arrangement and manner in which the facts are presented constitutes artistic argument.

Passive Voice: The English verb form, in which the actor (the person, place or thing doing the action described in the verb) is the object of the sentence (e.g., "He was eaten by a shark.") Strongly prefer active verb forms over passive in persuasive writing, because audiences almost always perceive passive verb forms as "weak" and even "sneaky" or "deceptive." However, in some instances (e.g., scientific writing), passive voice is preferred.

Pathos: Emotion. In rhetoric, "pathos" refers to a persuasive appeal from emotion (yours, the audience's, or someone else's).  Even though sometimes condemned as "playing on the emotions of the audience," this is a very persuasive appeal.

Persuasion: Convincing an audience, by means of reason, emotion or character, to agree with your standpoint. Rhetoric is the process of artistic persuasion.

Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher, 5th-4th century BC.  Emphasized Dialectic over Rhetoric.  Author of The Allegory of the Cave.

Polemic: Warlike or conflictive rhetoric. See Antagonistic Rhetoric.

Power: All writing takes place within situations of power (either cooperative or antagonistic). In this class it is vitally important to understand the relationships among language, knowledge, and power. Writing with power (successfully using rhetoric) means writing to persuade in order to further goals that you or your audience want or need to accomplish. "Power" does not necessarily mean forcing or tricking other people to do what you want--it simply means being able to do anything or achieve any results at all!  Rhetoric is a powerful nonviolent method of achieving desirable personal and social goals.

Proof (Confirmatio): In classical arrangement this is the 4th paragraph or section of the text, in which you offer reasoned proofs for your own standpoint. These proofs can be facts, logic or evidence. Opinion, as such, does not belong in this section (although, of course, ALL rhetoric is opinionated!).

Purpose (exigency): WHY you are writing what you write, the need, purpose or demand for your writing.  Writing with no purpose (or writing whose only purpose is "because it is assigned," which is the same thing) is bad, useless writing.  This class teaches "real world writing," and all writing in this class should be for a purpose beyond that of simply getting a grade.  The purpose of good writing is to serve  your own and your audience's needs.

Questions: Do not start your text with a question, unless you answer it immediately. A thesis statement normally cannot be a question, although sometimes a "rhetorical" question that is immediately answered can be a thesis statement.

Quotes and references: Using someone else's words in your own text to support what you have written.  Scholars (you are one!) constantly quote one another!  Doing this is good scholarship, particularly when you are a beginning scholar, since quoting adds the strength of the other writer's ethos to your own.  Quoting without quotation marks or without giving credit in the text is cheating (plagiarism). 

Refutation: Disproving or attempting to attack the credibility of an opposing view. In classical arrangement, this is the 5th paragraph or section of the text. Refutation has to do mainly with your opponent's standpoint, not your own standpoint or beliefs. Refutation overcomes your opponent's main arguments (or potential arguments), one by one.

Rhetor: Someone who creates rhetoric. In this class, this means you.  "Know yourself, know your enemy; a hundred battles fought, a hundred battles won" (Anon. Chinese saying).

Rhetoric: The art of verbal or written argumentation and persuasion. Rhetoric is not simple logical argumentation; how, where, when and why one says something, and who is saying it are all just as important in rhetoric as what one says. Rhetoric always has to do with the controversial, the unsure and the probable, rather than with the sure and certain (which is the realm of either mathematics or faith).  Rhetoric is the nonviolent language of power.  

Rhetorical analysis: Analyzing the rhetorical characteristics (style, content, arguments, kairos, pathos, ethos, delivery, etc.) of a given piece of writing.

Standpoint: Point of view, opinion or viewpoint (yours or someone else's).  This can be stated (thesis) or unstated (hypothesis).

Stasis (Also, Point of Stasis, Division): Generally, the point at issue in a debate or disagreement; the first point at which you stop agreeing and start disagreeing with your opponent. Stasis is examined in the Division section of your essay.

Style (tone): In English, can be High, Medium, or Low.   According to Hermogenes of Tarsus, good style can be judged on the degree of clarity, grandeur, beauty, rapidity, character, sincerity and force. According to the Rhetorica ad Herrenium, defective styles include "swollen," "slack or drifting," and "meagre" [starved].

Text: Any piece of writing, not just the textbook.

Thesis statement: Statement of your standpoint, usually found in the introduction. Thesis statements must be specific, opinionated and deniable, and must (like all writing!) be addressed to a very specific audience.  A thesis statement cannot be either an unquestioned fact (2+2=4) or an open question ("What is to be done?"), but should take the form of a "should-statement."  This can be either explicit ("We should drill for oil...") or implicit, in the form of a controversial statement that you want to convince your audience of ("Beautiful Bangladesh is a tourist's dream").  

Tone: See "style."

Topic sentence: In contemporary writing, a sentence determining the topic of a paragraph. A topic sentence is to a paragraph what a thesis statement is to an essay. Topic sentences branch from the thesis statement like branches on a tree.  

Universal Audience: An imaginary audience consisting of all humanity. Audiences are always specific.  Unless you are writing Holy Scripture, never write (intentionally or by default) for a "universal audience"--writing for "everybody" means writing for nobody, and writing for a universal audience (or for nobody in particular) is almost always bad writing.

Voice: The rhetor's presence in a text.  Texts do not fall from the sky, and to pretend they do in your writing is deceptive. Persuasive texts must always have "voice" in them (yours), in some way or another.

"Who cares?" Test: When you are done writing a text, if you cannot answer the question "Who cares?," it is bad writing.  Either fix it up or toss it out and start over, but never turn in anything that does not pass the "'Who cares?' test."

Source for links: http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm

Revised 10/05.  O.W.

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