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The Rhetorical Triangle

Rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion, involving effective language use and ethical reading strategies. The Rhetorical Triangle, established by Aristotle, consists of three appeals: credibility (ethos), evidence and logical argumentation (logos), and emotional appeals (pathos), all of which are essential for persuading an audience. Additionally, the rhetorical situation encompasses factors such as audience, author, purpose, medium, context, claim, support, and warrant, which influence how messages are created and communicated.

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7 views3 pages

The Rhetorical Triangle

Rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion, involving effective language use and ethical reading strategies. The Rhetorical Triangle, established by Aristotle, consists of three appeals: credibility (ethos), evidence and logical argumentation (logos), and emotional appeals (pathos), all of which are essential for persuading an audience. Additionally, the rhetorical situation encompasses factors such as audience, author, purpose, medium, context, claim, support, and warrant, which influence how messages are created and communicated.

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catbear050
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Rhetorical Triangle

What is Rhetoric?
Rhetoric is “the art of persuasion” and not just excessive or empty
language. Studying rhetoric teaches you to use language effectively, to
create ethical reading strategies and to respond to your world of
information.

The Rhetorical Triangle


The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE) identified three
tools or appeals that a speaker, and by extension a writer, can use to
persuade their audience: credibility (ethos), evidence and logical
argumentation (logos), and appeals to emotion (pathos).

1. Credibility (Ethos). This is the author’s authority or credibility and


can include any of the following: demonstrated or evident
qualifications and expertise; the actual character of the writer or
speaker; the author’s character as presented in a text; or the set of
rules or customs negotiated between speaker and audience, or those
that are conventional. Speakers and authors must convince the
audience of their credibility through the language they use and
through the delivery, or embodied performance, of their speech.

2. Evidence & Logical Argumentation (Logos). In classical rhetoric,


logos is persuasion by demonstration of the truth--real or apparent,
the reasons or evidence used to support a claim, the use of logic or
reason, and effective organization in making an argument. Logos can
be:
a. Quantitative: numerical data, statistics
b. Qualitative: information that cannot be quantified or counted,
including
i. Facts from disciplines such as history, anthropology, etc.
ii. Ideas, concepts, theories
iii. Personal anecdotes, interviews, case studies
iv. Creative expressions—literature, art, music
c. Contextual: Background information that frames for your reader
what you need them to know about a specific topic and gives a
broader understanding of what you are arguing. It can include:
i. Dates, times, places
ii. Historical periods
iii. Political and cultural events
d. Counterarguments: Evidence should also consider alternative or
counterarguments and demonstrate convincingly with rebuttals
why these do not invalidate, but may modify, the writer’s or
speaker’s argument.

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3. Appeals to Emotion (Pathos). Emotional appeals to the audience
can evoke feelings of pity, curiosity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow.
The speaker may also want the audience to feel anger, fear, courage,
love, happiness, sadness, etc. Such emotional appeals can be highly
effective gaining the confidence, trust, and support of the audience, or
win over a new audience. Conversely, a failure to “connect” with an
audience at the emotional level may affect the reception of an
otherwise excellent argument. Always observe your own emotional
reactions to a piece you are reading or hearing. What images come to
mind? Are these reactions disposing you favorably or unfavorably to
what you’re reading?

Timeliness (Kairos).
Any message or communication must bear some relevance to the moment. It
must be kairotic. Kairos refers to how timely a text or speech is, not simply
whether it’s the right time to speak or write. It is also a question of whether
it’s the most advantageous window during which action is most effective.
Cicero’s “Catiline Orations”, Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me
Death”, Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India”, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I
Have a Dream” were timely and galvanizing.
Frederick Douglass’s famous, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” used
the “inappropriate” occasion to condemn ongoing slavery and create a
sense of heightened urgency around one of the most pressing issues of the
time.
Here are some elements that you should consider whenever reading a text
and when performing a rhetorical analysis.

The Rhetorical Situation

An author or speaker’s choices in using elements of the rhetorical triangle


depends upon the specifics of the rhetorical situation—a set of factors and
circumstances that affect the creation and communication of a message.
These factors include the audience, author (rhetor), purpose, medium,
context, and content.
Audience. Audience may include spectators or listeners at a live or
recorded event, or readers of a performance, a speech, or other printed
material. Depending on the author’s/writer’s perception, an audience may
be listening or reading in real time, invoked and addressed directly by the
writer, or imagined (those who the writer believes will read/hear her work).
An audience may or may not be expected to have specialized knowledge of a
particular issue or field of study.

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Author or Speaker. The person or group of people who composed or wrote
the text.
Purpose. The reason for communicating; the expected or intended
outcome.
Medium. The delivery method, which varies by type of text:
 Alphabetic Text. Examples include written speeches, tweets,
newspaper editorials, essays, texts, emails, passages from a novel,
poetry.
 Images. Examples include TV commercials, posters, advertisements in
magazines or on websites.
 Sound. Examples include radio or TV commercials, a website
advertisement, speeches, music and song.
 Multimodal texts incorporate various of the text forms above into a
single product: YouTube videos, performances, digital stories.

Context. The time, place, public conversations surrounding the text during
its original creation and delivery; the text may also be analyzed within a
different context such as how an historical text would be received by its
audience today.
Claim. The main idea, thesis, opinion, or belief of an argument that the
author must prove. The claim should be debatable and answer the question,
"What’s the point?"
Support. The statements given to back up the claim. These can take the
form of facts, data, personal experience, expert opinion, evidence from
other texts or sources, emotional appeals, or other means. The more
reliable and comprehensive the support, the more likely the audience is to
accept the claim.
Warrant. Warrants are the beliefs, values, inferences and/or experiences
that the writers/speakers assume they share with the audience. If the
audience doesn’t share the writers'/speakers' assumptions within the text,
the argument will not be effective. The warrant is the assumption that
makes the claim seem plausible.

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