Letter from a Birmingham Jail

For two classes from now, I’d like you to highlight and annotate your copy of “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” with a focus on rhetoric.

Color-code the major Greek rhetorical strategies.

Point out other examples of good rhetoric.

This PowerPoint will provide a basic review of some terms you could consider.

Dad, I know you’re going to say I shouldn’t be able to borrow the car again – because last time I drove into that house and all – but next time I promise I’ll be more careful.

One of the basic Greek rhetorical strategies

Use of emotional appealFor only 15 cents a day, you too can

save a starving animal.

One of the basic Greek rhetorical strategies

Use of an appeal to authorityYou can’t tell me I can’t eat in class –

Mr. Ross said it was OK!Considering I am an Eagle Scout, I

probably would know how to tie knots.

According to the Bible…

One of the basic Greek rhetorical strategies

Use of an appeal to logicThink facts and figures and logical if-

then statements

A form of reasoning that proceeds by juxtaposing contradictory ideas and synthesizing or finding areas of agreement between them.

Sort of like a Venn diagram does, right?

To move off track from the main subject.

Did I ever tell you about the time that I went snowtubing on an active volcano? Ah, but I digress.

Repetition of words at the beginning of phrases.

“I have a dream…I have a dream…I have a dream…” – MLK

Repetition of words at the end of phrases.

It’s like anaphora at the end of a sentence.

You work hard in school because you’re a great student. You do all of your homework because you’re a great student. You’ll ace this test because you’re a great student.

A sentence that delays the introduction of the subject or the verb until the end.

Just when you thought he couldn’t get nerdier, Mr. Ambrose brought back the rat tail.

Repetition of a clause of the word that appeared at the beginning of the clause.

“To each the boulders that have fallen to each.” – Robert Frost

The correspondence of words within successive sentences or clauses.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

You might also note this as epanalepsis, or as parallel structure – and you’d be right!