This document discusses different rhetorical strategies for emotional argumentation, including appeals to emotion, framing, and rhetorical figures. It provides examples of different types of appeals to emotion such as appeals to hope, fear, pity, guilt, ridicule, disgust, consequences, flattery, and spite. It also discusses conceptual metaphors, framing devices, and rhetorical figures like repetition figures, antithesis, tricolon, chiasmus, and paralipsis that can be used to emotionally engage an audience.
11. Imagine…you want to
convince an audience to
support extra funding for
the park system.What
framing device would you
use to convince Shoreline
taxpayers?
12. Always ask:
WHAT is being compared to What?
Why? What characteristics does
the writer want the frame to
borrow? Which to avoid?
20. Tax Relief Tax Cuts
Government
takeover
Government-
run
Inheritance Tax Death Tax
Exploring for
Energy
Drilling for oil
-vs-
-vs-
-vs-
-vs-
Hardworking
taxpayers
-vs-
Rich People
25. Alliteration
"Somewhere at this very moment a child is
being born in America. Let it be our cause
to give that child a happy home, a healthy
family, and a hopeful future."
-- Bill Clinton, 1992 Democratic National
Convention Acceptance Address
Repetition Figures
26. Anaphora
Repeating the first word
With malice toward none;
with charity for all;
with firmness in the right,...
— Abraham Lincoln, Second
Inaugural Address
Repetition Figures
27. Anadiplosis
Repeating the last part and the first part
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. I sense
much fear in you."
(Yoda in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menance)
Repetition Figures
28. Epistrophe
Repeating the last word
"Don't you ever talk about my friends!
You don't know any of my friends. You
don't look at any of my friends. And you
certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to
any of my friends."
(Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club)
Repetition Figures
29. Polysyndeton/Asyndeton
More Conjunctions/No Conjunctions
"He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a
maniac."
(Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957)
"[I]t is respectable to have no illusions--and safe--and
profitable--and dull."
(Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, 1900)
30. Symploce
Repeating the first and last words
"Much of what I say might sound bitter, but it's the
truth. Much of what I say might sound like it's stirring
up trouble, but it's the truth. Much of what I say might
sound like it is hate, but it's the truth."
-- Malcolm X
Repetition Figures
32. Antithesis
Balanced opposites
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that
my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it
should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb
meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a
sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of
man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in
trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
(Jack London)
33. Tricolon
Three items in a series
"You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face
of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at
catastrophe."
(The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
34. Tricolon
Three items in a series
"I require three things in a man. He must be handsome,
ruthless, and stupid."
(Dorothy Parker)
35. Chiasmus
The X-figure
"I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction's
job was to comfort the disturbed and
disturb the comfortable."
(David Foster Wallace)
37. Paralipsis
Saying/not-saying
(about Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina) "I
promised I would not say that she ran Hewlett-Packard
into the ground, that she laid off tens of thousands of
people and she got viciously fired. I said I will not say
it, so I will not say it."
(Donald Trump)
aka apophasis
38. Paralipsis
I’m not saying I’m responsible for this country’s
longest run of uninterrupted peace in 35 years! I’m not
saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a
Phoenix metaphor been more personified! I’m not
saying Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair,
sipping on an iced tea, because I haven’t come across
any one man enough to go toe to toe with me on my
best day!”
(Iron Man 2 by Justin Theroux)
aka apophasis
39. Horismus
Offering a definition often by making a distinction
between two things
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the
right things.” -- Peter Drucker
45. fear
If you don’t graduate from high school, you
will end up a ditch-digger.
46. Appeals to pity
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, look at
this miserable man, in a wheelchair, unable to
use his legs. Could such a man really be
guilty of embezzlement?"
47. Appeals to guilt
“While we are snug in our beds, the poor
citizens of ____ are suffering from the
aftermath of horrible floods and the spread
of disease.”
48. Appeal to ridicule
Oh sure! Of course, evolution makes sense!
It’s perfectly obvious that people are related
to gorillas!
49. Appeal to disgust
Oh sure! Of course, evolution makes sense!
It’s perfectly obvious that people are related
to gorillas!
54. How about this one?
The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board to join him "in
supporting Australian-style gun control." (In 1996,Australia
rounded up all the firearms and destroyed them.) I suppose that
"Australian-style gun control" sounds a lot better than "Nazi-
style gun control," although they are one and the same.
55. How about this one?
Students should never be given homework. Can we not see that
our students need a real childhood, not a enforced slog through
worksheets and word problems that obliterate any possibility
that their remember their younger years with anything but pain
and suffering?
56. ALWAYS ASK
What emotion do I want my audience to feel?
How do I get them to feel this emotion?
How will feeling this emotion help me
convince them?
