Exam 1 (9/1/23)

what are the two different types of audiences? define both.

-addressed audience: the people who actually receive a text and interact with it. -invoked audience: those imagined by the author.

what are the four means of communication?

modality, medium, genre, circulation (they are always working together in any given act)

what is historical context?

patterns or trends in history by which a specific occurrence is understood, and its meaning within history is made clear (everything exists in time, so all rhetorical actions have a history!)

what is citational context?

refers to a rhetorical action's location within a medium

what are the different types of purposes?

-purpose of INFORMING -purpose of PERSUASION -AESTHETIC AND LITERARY purposes (to make the audience laugh, appeal to sense of wonder/fantasy, etc.) -purposes of SCHOLARLY INQUIRY (to challenge established views, to present new knowledge of a certain topic)

what is modality? what are the different kinds of modality?

-the basic sensory means by which communication happens The VERBAL modality (words spoken, sung, handwritten, or typed) The AUDITORY modality (spoken language, song, music, or ambient noise) The VISUAL modality (still and moving images, color, written text, gestures, or facial expressions) The HAPTIC modality (involves a sense of touch and where/how the body is positioned in relation to the communication; think of how you interact with videogames, for instance)

What is rhetorical action? Why is it important?

-the deliberate shaping of messages for an audience -Developing skills in rhetorical analysis helps provide a richer, more nuanced sense of the possibilities for responding to situations that involve communication. BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR!!! Here, "rhetorical practice" means producing a skillful response to any situation that requires or invites communication. "Skillful" is the operative word here.

What is Rhetorical Analysis? Why is it important?

-the effort to understand how communication creates particular effects on people. -To be more grounded and attentive thinkers, it's vital to be able to slow down our attention and patiently notice the particulars of how messages are attempting to work on us.

what 3 factors must a communicator display

1. practical intelligence 2. a virtuous character 3. good will

What is pathos?

Appeal to emotion; arousing the emotions of the audience

what is logos?

Appeal to logic; it does not have to be "good" logic!

how does an author build ethos?

Ethos in rhetorical acts comes from two places: from sources external to the message, and from the message itself.

what is kairos?

The timeliness or proper moment for communication. Ex.) For instance, rhetorically savvy children everywhere know to wait until Mom is in a good mood before asking for favors.

what can help determine a communicator's purpose?

analysis

what are the different levels of context?

citational context, geographical context, historical context, sociocultural context

what is included on the traditional rhetorical triangle? why is this not a good resource when it comes to analysis of a given situation?

communicator, message, audience the triangle leaves a lot out-- like a vacuum of the total information

what is a message?

content of the communication; what is the audience supposed to take away?

what goes alongside the communicator, message, and audience in delivering a message?

context for the communication, exigence that prompts the communication, purpose for the communication, and the means of the communication (modality, medium, genre, and circulation)

How do communicators convince us of their relevance?

convinced through rhetorical appeals; ethos, pathos, logos. we need to think about the communicator's relation to the topic, we also need to consider how the communicator creates ethos.

What is a communicator?

defined most basically as the person or entity responsible for the act of communication.

what are the three rhetorical appeals?

ethos, pathos, and logos

what is the most important rhetorical appeal? why?

ethos- as aristotle mentioned, if the source of a message is not credible or well-trusted, it will probably fail to persuade an audience.

what is ethos from sources external to a message?

everything that an audience may already know about a communicator, the topic, and the means by which the audi-ence received the message.

true or false: all of the contexts are equally important in every situation

false; some may be stronger than others in a rhetorical situation

what is geographical context?

he physical location of the rhetorical action

What is rhetorical training?

honing your ability to recognize, analyze, and respond appropriately to any situation that involves commu-nication—whether verbal, visual, auditory, or a more complex mix of all of these (a form of composition called multimodal).

what is ethos?

how messages persuade (or "appeal" to an audience) as a result of the communicator's character. credibility of the speaker

what is ethos from the message itself?

how the content of the message convinces you that it's trustworthy. This could include things like the tone and style of the message

What is a transfer of knowledge?

the ability to take understanding, knowledge, skills, or concepts from one field of knowledge and apply it in a different situation (Researchers argue that for knowledge and skills to become transferable, learners must know what they know: to apply lessons from one situation to another, they must first recognize those lessons.)

what is context?

the circumstances of communication/which something occurs

what is an audience?

the intended recipients of an act of communication

what is sociocultural context?

the state of public feeling about or energy around a particular issue or topic.

What is rhetoric?

the wide array of communicative devices humans have at their disposal to create effects on each other

what is purpose in communcation?

what the communicator hopes to achieve with any particular rhetorical action. thinking about not just the content of the piece, but what it is doing. Ex.) the color scheme of a website, or the length of the paragraphs in a textbook—you first need to understand what the communicator ultimately wants this piece of communication to do for and/or to its intended audience.

what is exigence?

whatever prompted a rhetorical action Ex.) Receiving a gift provides the exigence for a thank-you card, for instance.