USING THE RHETORICAL TRIANGLE TO COMMUNICATE ELECTRONICALLY

Outcomes

At the end of this mini lesson, you will:

-Have a better understanding of the rhetorical situation (look at the image to your left).

-Consider audience, speaker, and context in writing, electronic, and visual communication.

-Understand the 3 rhetorical appeals.

Subject

Speaker

Audience

The Author/SpeakerThe author or speaker can

be you!What are some of the different ways you

author/write communications? Think about your everyday lives.

Email (personal and professional)

Twitter/Facebook

Academic papers/essays

Blogs

Resume/Job Correspondence

Text messaging

Letters

The author, though, could

be anyone creating a

communication

The Audience and Subject

The receiver of the communication.

What you write, how you write it, the words you use, etc. should all depend on who your audience is and what is the purpose or context for which you are writing.

Speaker

Audience Subject

Case Scenario:

Meet our author, Jason-he missed

class today and must email his instructor.

The subject is Jason’s email to his professor.

Here is his email: OMG ur not gonna believe it!!! I’ve been sick & need

the homework 4 class. TTYL

Meet our audience, Mr. Smith. He will provide

Jason with the homework, but he

wants Jason to rewrite the email.

Rhetorical Appeals

There are 3 primary persuasion appeals to incorporate into your writing:

Logos = logic

Pathos = sympathy

Ethos = credibility

• Logos means logic and is achieved through facts, data, statistics.

• When you read an article and the author is citing a particular data, fact, graph, etc, that author or speak is appealing to the logic and rationality of the speaker.

Can you think of specific examples of logos from the media ?

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• Pathos means sympathy/empathy.• Pathos is achieved through real-life

stories and events that are emotionally compelling for the audience.

• For example, when a politician is discussing the economy and relates a real-life story of a single, unemployed mother of three struggling to get by, the politician is appealing to pathos.

• Ethos means credibility. • Ethos is an appeal to the credibility

of the speaker.• For example, when you watch a

commercial about a medication and a doctor is endorsing the medication, that can be considered an appeal to ethos.

• Can you think of additional examples?