| A | B |
|---|
| Audience | One’s listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed |
| automatic ethos | credibility that comes with a person's position of power |
| Concession | An acknowledgment that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable. |
| Connotation | That which is implied by a word, as opposed to its literal meaning |
| Context | Words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning |
| Counterargument | A challenge to a position; an opposing argument |
| Ethos | A Greek term referring to the character of a person; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals |
| Logos | A Greek term that means “word”; an appeal to logic; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals |
| Occasion | the time and place a speech is given or a piece is written |
| Pathos | A Greek term originally referring to suffering but which now has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals |
| Persona | The speaker, voice or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing |
| Polemic | An aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion of all others |
| Propaganda | The spread of ideas and information to further a cause. In its negative sense, it is the use of rumors, lies, disinformation, and scare tactics in order to damage or promote a cause |
| Purpose | One’s intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing |
| Refutation | A denial of the validity of an opposing argument; often follows concession |
| Rhetoric | The study of effective, persuasive language use; according to Aristotle, use of the “available means of persuasion” |
| rhetorical appeals | Techniques used to persuade an audience by emphasizing what they find most important or compelling |
| Rhetorical triangle | The relationship among the speaker, the subject, and the audience |
| Satiric | Describes a piece of writing that is ironic, sarcastic or witty and that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it |
| SOAPS | subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker |
| Speaker | Term for the author, speech-maker, or person whose perspective is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing |
| Subject | In rhetoric, the topic addressed in a piece of writing |
| text | any cultural product that can be "read" -- not just consumed and comprehended, but investigated. |
