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Rhetorical Modes
Rhetorical Modes
A rhetorical mode is an organizational pattern/or strategy—a way or method of presenting a subject—through writing or speech. Some of the better known rhetorical modes are, for example, "argument" and "cause and effect." There are literally dozens, perhaps hundreds, of strategies or methods for presenting subjects; however, the modes are among the most basic. Instructors have used rhetorical modes to teach writing or public speaking since ancient Greek times over two thousand years ago, perhaps longer. Knowing the modes can help us understand the organization--the methodology--of most kinds of writings or other presentations.
Below are the main modes.
Description
The act of capturing people, places, events, objects, and feelings in words so that a reader can visualize and respond to them. The writer uses the senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, sound) to place the reader in the “environment” of the essay. The writing can be objective (simply discussing the situation) or subjective (attempting to persuade the reader by the impact of the described situation).
Narration
The act of telling a story, usually based on personal experience. It must have some purpose, as it usually incorporates descriptive elements--senses, metaphors, and similes. Narration is used to get the reader to "identify" with the writer on some level, and thereby ultimately agree with the writer. *Narration often aims at evoking an emotional response in the reader/audience. (Pathos)
Illustration/Example
Provides concrete and/or specific details to support abstract ideas or generalizations. Good examples help the writer "show" rather than "tell," and strong essays use good examples as support for the thesis to convince or persuade the reader.
Definition
The process of explaining a word, object, or idea in such a way that the reader knows precisely what the writer means. A good definition focuses on the special qualities of a word or phrase that set it apart. It gives the reader and writer a mutual starting point.
Process Analysis
This mode involves writing about a "process," following a series of steps or stages, and then taking apart the subject and explaining those parts. This is used to explain an action, a mechanism, or an event from beginning to end. It can be directive (giving directions step by step) or informative (giving information about how or why something happened).
Division/Classification
Division takes a general concept or topic and creates smaller subcategories. Classification takes individual examples and groups them based on common traits. Division is important because it breaks a complex subject into parts that are easy for a reader to grasp. Classification is important because it organizes a large amount of material for the reader.
Comparison/Contrast
Comparison discovers likenesses between two things, and Contrast discovers differences between two things. They work hand-in-hand, allowing the reader and writer to understand one subject by putting it next to another. The skill of finding similarities and differences is important because it enhances a writer's ability to create accurate descriptions, cite proper examples, or classify and label subjects.
Cause/Effect
This mode looks for connections between different elements and analyzes the reasons for those connections. In working with Causes, the writer searches for any circumstances from the past that may have caused a single event. In looking for Effects, the writer seeks occurrences that took place after a particular event and resulted from that event. This mode requires the ability to analyze.
Argument/Persuasion
An "argument" is, simply, an educated guess or opinion, not a simple fact. It is something debatable: "Men have walked on the moon" is a fact, but "People will walk on Venus in the next ten years" is an opinion. Anything that reasonably can be debated is an argument. As with all the other modes, argument is a thinking pattern or skill that is used in a number of types of college papers in shorter form. You will find it in any sentence, paragraph, or section of a paper in which an opinion is expressed, especially when one or more supporting reasons are given for the opinion. Argument is one of the most basic forms of human thinking. When you use argument, you rise above the mere offering of a personal opinion precisely because an argument requires supporting reasons, preferably with specific supporting details, to justify the position you are taking.
I would argue that most articles, essays, speeches, TV commercials, ect. – all pieces of writing – are argument. And that often, the other modes are used by writers to support/develop an argument.
Resources
Resources
Overview of several rhetorical modes and their corresponding transitions.
Learning Activity
Learning Activity
Rhetorical Modes
Rhetorical modes are the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language, or a set of tools writers can use to effective persuade or communicate ideas. Many texts highlight the following nine modes:
Narration
Illustration
Description
Classification
Process Analysis
Definition
Comparison and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Persuasion /Argument
The above list, while organized as separate from one another, seldom occur alone in any single piece of writing. In fact, good writing often mixes the modes. For example, if you were to write a letter to your local governing city mayor and council asking for sidewalks to be installed on your street, you might begin your letter with a story about how your neighborhood children are at risk every morning of being run over by cars as they walk past your house on their way to school. You might describe the physical scene where the story takes place. You might explain how many children in the neighborhood would be impacted by new sidewalks. And, you might analyze the costs of building sideways. Ultimately, you might also incorporate other modes—or tools—to persuade your governing officials to bite the costs and build a sidewalk.
Below are three excerpts from Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” an autobiographical text that demonstrates how the author finds her identity shaped by multiple language practices as Chicana. Read through the excerpts below, and label any rhetorical modes you see the writer using.
Excerpt 1 - from the beginning of the essay:
I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess—that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”
“I want you to speak English. Pa’ hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu educacion si todavia hablas ingles con un ‘accent,’” my mother would say, mortified that I spoke English like a Mexican. At Pan American University, I and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.
Attacks on one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment. El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arranco la lengua.
Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.
Excerpt 2 - later in the essay she writes:
Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicanos' need to identify ourselves as a distinct people. We needed a language with which we could communicate with ourselves, a secret language. For some of us, language is a homeland closer than the Southwest for many Chicanos today live in the Midwest and the East. And because we are a complex, heterogeneous people, we speak many languages. Some of the languages we speak are:
1. Standard English
2. Working class and slang English
3. Standard Spanish
4. Standard Mexican Spanish
5. North Mexican Spanish dialect
6. Chicano Spanish (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California have regional variations)
7. Tex-Mex
8. Pachuco (called calo)
My "home" tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends. They are the last five listed, with 6 and 7 being closest to my heart. From school, the media, and job situations, I've picked up standard and working class English.
From Mamagrande Locha and from reading Spanish and Mexican literature, I've picked up Standard Spanish and Standard Mexican Spanish. From los recien llegados, Mexican immigrants, and braceros, I learned the North Mexican dialect. With Mexicans I'll try to speak either Standard Mexican Spanish or the North Mexican dialect.
From my parents and Chicanos living in the Valley, I picked up Chicano Texas Spanish, and I speak it with mymom, younger brother (who married a Mexican and who rarely mixes Spanish with English), aunts, and older relatives.
Excerpt 3 - further in the essay she writes:
Chicanos, after 250 years of Spanish/Anglo colonization, have developed significant differences in the Spanish we speak. We collapse two adjacent vowels into a single syllable and sometimes shift the stress in certain words such as maíz/maiz, cohete/cuete. We leave out certain consonants when they appear between vowels:lado/lao, mojado/mojao. Chicanos from South Texas pronounce f as j as in jue (fue). Chicanos use "archaisms," words that are no longer in the Spanish language, words that have been evolved out. We saysemos, truje, haiga, ansina, and naiden. We retain the "archaic" j, as in jalar, that derives from an earlier h, (the French halar or the Germanic halon which was lost to standard Spanish in the 16th century), but which is still found in several regional dialects such as the one spoken in South Texas.
Your Turn!
Describe in the space below where/how you might use the following modes:
Narration
Illustration
Description
Classification
Process Analysis
Definition
Comparison and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Persuasion /Argument
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