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1.4: Rhetoric and Critical Thinking

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    Rhetoric and Critical Thinking

    Rhetoric and critical thinking are intertwined concepts essential for effective communication, particularly in college-level reading and writing. Understanding and applying rhetorical strategies can enhance your ability to analyze texts and construct persuasive arguments. This section explores the foundational elements of rhetoric and critical thinking, providing practical strategies for their application.

    Learning Objectives

    • Use words, images, and specific rhetorical terminology to understand, discuss, and analyze a variety of texts.
    • Determine how genre conventions are shaped by audience, purpose, language, culture, and expectation.
    • Distinguish among different types of rhetorical situations and communicate effectively within them.

    Understanding Rhetoric

    Rhetoric involves the art of using language effectively to communicate and persuade. Everyday situations often require rhetorical thinking, where the goal is to convince others of your perspective and prompt action. Effective rhetoric can be achieved through both words and images.

    Words and Images

    • Words: Written sequentially and can be augmented with headlines, titles, subtitles, boldface, italics, and other formatting to guide readers. Critical reading involves evaluating the logic of the text and asking questions such as: Is it fair? Does it provide credible evidence? Is it plausible?
    • Images: Present information simultaneously, allowing for quick general understanding but requiring deeper analysis for nuanced meanings. Cultural identity and personal experiences influence how we interpret images. For example, the optical illusion "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" demonstrates how perspective can change our interpretation.

    Words and images convey information differently but can complement each other to enhance communication.

    Young woman looking away from the viewer or old woman in profile

    Figure: Young woman looking away from the viewer or old woman in profile? (credit: "My wife and my mother-in-law" by W.E. (William Ely) Hill/Public Domain)

    Light up sign that said " No Smoking"

    Figure: Information, attitudes, laws, and acceptance of smoking changed dramatically over time. More recently, vaping and related practices have rekindled debates and launched new research into safety. (Credit: Satish Krishnamurthy / Flickr / Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC-BY 2.0))

    Definition: Rhetorical Terms

    Key Rhetorical Terms

    • Analysis: A detailed breakdown of a text to help readers understand its meaning.
    • Authority: The credibility of a source.
    • Context: The setting (time and place) of the rhetorical situation.
    • Culture: A group sharing common beliefs and experiences.
    • Evaluation: Systematic assessment based on specific criteria.
    • Evidence: Support for a fact, opinion, or statement.
    • Media Literacy: Ability to understand and evaluate various types of media.
    • Meme: An image with text that calls for a response.
    • Paraphrase: Rewording original text to make it clearer.
    • Rhetoric: Effective communication in various forms.
    • Rhetorical Situation: Conditions and agents of a communication instance.
    • Social Media: Digital tools for public expression.
    • Summary: Condensed account of a text.
    • Tone: The author’s attitude toward the subject and audience.

    Critical Thinking in Rhetoric

    Critical thinking is crucial for evaluating and constructing rhetorical arguments. It involves questioning assumptions, assessing evidence, and analyzing the logic of arguments.

    Evaluating Information with Critical Thinking

    1. Read for Understanding Using Text Coding: Mark important arguments and key facts, note agreements and disagreements, and record questions.
    2. Examine Arguments: Identify main claims, evaluate supporting evidence, and assess logical flow.
    3. Clarify Thinking: Ask probing questions to ensure thorough understanding.
    4. Cultivate “Habits of Mind”: Develop intellectual habits like open-mindedness, intellectual flexibility, and an inquiring attitude.

    Practical Application: Rhetorical Analysis

    A rhetorical analysis involves examining how a text persuades its audience by considering the rhetorical situation—subject, author, purpose, context, audience, and culture—and the strategies used.

    Steps for a Rhetorical Analysis:

    1. Identify the Subject: Determine what the piece is about.
    2. Understand the Author: Know the author’s background and potential biases.
    3. Analyze the Audience: Understand who the readers are and what they might expect.
    4. Determine the Purpose: Identify what the author aims to achieve.
    5. Consider the Context: Reflect on the time, place, and circumstances of the writing.
    6. Evaluate Techniques: Assess the effectiveness of the author’s strategies.

    Example Activity: Read an opinion piece or editorial. Reflect on how the author uses language to persuade the audience and analyze the effectiveness of the rhetorical strategies used.

    Rhetorical Appeals

    To persuade readers, writers use three types of rhetorical appeals: logos (logical appeal), pathos (emotional appeal), and ethos (ethical appeal). An additional appeal, kairos, refers to the timeliness of the message.

    • Pathos: Uses emotional appeal to sway opinions. Example: Anti-smoking ads often use emotional stories to encourage quitting.
    • Ethos: Establishes the author’s credibility. Example: Celebrities endorsing products leverage their popularity, while doctors in ads rely on professional credibility.
    • Logos: Appeals to logic through evidence and reasoning. Example: Using statistics and facts to support an argument about climate change.
    • Kairos: Focuses on the timeliness of the argument. Example: Highlighting the urgency of a health crisis to prompt immediate action.

    Using Rhetorical Appeals in Writing

    Identifying and employing rhetorical appeals in your writing enhances your ability to persuade effectively.

    Tips for Using Rhetorical Appeals:

    • Logos: Use facts, figures, and logical progression.
    • Pathos: Incorporate emotionally compelling stories and statistics.
    • Ethos: Establish credibility through relevant experience and careful research.
    • Kairos: Leverage the urgency and relevance of your argument to the current context.

    The Rhetorical Triangle

    A Rhetorical Triangle chart

    Source: St. Edward's University

    Conclusion

    Understanding rhetoric and applying critical thinking in reading and writing enhances your ability to analyze texts and construct persuasive arguments. By questioning assumptions, evaluating evidence, and analyzing logic, you become a more effective communicator and critical thinker. These foundational strategies will help you navigate and excel in rhetorical situations in academic settings and beyond.

    Examples of critical thinking skills are interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, explaining, sequencing, reasoning, comparing, questioning, inferring, hypothesizing, appraising, testing, and generalizing.

    Creative thinking requires one to generate and apply new ideas in specific contexts. It involves viewing situations in new ways and identifying alternative explanations.

    View the video: Why is Critical Thinking Important?Opens in a new window, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpHynfps_Vc&feature=youtu.be

    Concept formation is the mental activity that helps us compare, contrast and classify ideas, objects, and events. Concept learning can be concrete or abstract.

    Being inquisitive, reasonable, intellectually flexible, and open-mindedness. Consider some of the latest research on critical and creative thinking capacities and how the brain uses these techniques to make sense of the world.

    Consider the following videos…

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    Attributions

    The above section was remixed from

    1.4: Rhetoric and Critical Thinking is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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