{"id":12486,"date":"2026-02-02T15:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=12486"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:38:30","slug":"dominantrhetappeals","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/topicstoanalyze\/dominantrhetappeals\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Overview of this Page<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p>This webpage will be used for several different classes assigned a rhetorical analysis. Here are its main topics:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals<\/li>\r\n<li>Extended Metaphors<\/li>\r\n<li>Rhetoric of Fear<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><strong>Dominant rhetorical appeal:<\/strong>\u00a0Consider the author\u2019s intent for the selection of writing. An effective way to set up your introduction would be to explain the dominant rhetorical appeal of the piece. For instance, imagine you\u2019re analyzing an application letter (not a good choice for this assignment, but it&#8217;s instructive). The dominant appeal will be\u00a0<strong><em>of ethos<\/em><\/strong>; the author is convincing the audience they are the ideal candidate for a job. Their credentials, past experiences, attention to detail exhibited in a well-written letter, etc. will convince (or fail to convince) the audience that they are credible, having the necessary qualifications for employment.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Additionally, consider an environmental warning from a well-known scientist. Although the scientist\u2019s credentials will be an appeal of ethos, the facts and logic used\u2013<strong>appeals to logos<\/strong>\u2013will or should be more dominant in order to convince readers of the environmental danger.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>And another thing\u2026consider a message from an organization like the ASPCA (first paragraph of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspca.org\/news\/breaking-bad-news-slaughter-bound-birds\">\u201cBreaking: Bad News for Slaughter-Bound Birds\u201d<\/a>). Obviously, their images are entirely used as\u00a0<strong>emotional appeals (pathos)<\/strong>\u00a0to invoke shame and sympathy in an audience, moving them to take action to protect animals. Of course, you\u2019ll focus on the words in your rhetorical analyses. Although the ASPCA uses celebrity endorsements (ethos) along with facts and statistics (logos) about animal cruelty, it\u2019s their emotional appeals (pathos) that really drive home their messages.<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p>From Rachel Carson&#8217;s <em>Silent Spring<\/em> (1962)<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">The whole process of spraying seems caught up in an endless spiral. Since DDT was released for civilian use, a process of escalation has been going on in which ever more toxic materials must be found. This has happened because insects, in a triumphant vindication of Darwin&#8217;s principle of the survival of the fittest, have evolved super races immune to the particular insecticide used, hence a deadlier one has always to be developed\u2014and then a deadlier one than that&#8230;.<\/p>\r\n<p>From Paul E. Ehrlich&#8217;s <em>Population Bomb<\/em> (1968)<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">Of course, population growth is not occurring uniformly over the face of the Earth. Indeed, countries are divided rather neatly into two groups: those with rapid growth rates, and those with relatively slow growth rates. The first group, making up about two-thirds of the world population, coincides closely with what are known as the &#8220;underdeveloped countries&#8221; (UDCs). The UDCs are not industrialized, tend to have inefficient agriculture, very small gross national products, high illiteracy rates and related problems. That&#8217;s what UDCs are technically, but a short definition of underdeveloped is &#8220;hungry.&#8221; Most Latin American, African, and Asian countries fall into this category. The second group consists of the &#8220;overdeveloped countries&#8221; (ODCs). ODCs are modern industrial nations, such as the United States, Canada, most European countries, Israel, the USSR, Japan, and Australia. They consume a disproportionate amount of the world&#8217;s resources and are the major polluters. Most, but by no means all, people in these countries are adequately nourished.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">Doubling times in the UDCs range around 20 to 35 years. Examples of these times (from the 1970 figures released by the Population Reference Bureau) are: Kenya, 23 years; Nigeria, 27; Turkey, 26; Indonesia, 24; Philippines, 21; Brazil, 25; Costa Rica, 19; and El Salvador, 21. Think of what it means for the population of a country to double in 25 years. In order just to keep living standards at the present inadequate level, the food available for the people must be doubled. Every structure and road must be duplicated. The amount of power must be doubled. The capacity of the transport system must be doubled. The number of trained doctors, nurses, teachers, and administrators must be doubled. This would be a fantastically difficult job in the United States a rich country with a fine agricultural system, immense industries, and access to abundant resources. Think of what it means to a country with none of these.<\/p>\r\n<p>From Simon &amp; Schuster&#8217;s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/Selp-Helf\/Miranda-Sings\/9781501117947\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blurb<\/a><\/strong> about Miranda Sings&#8217;s <em>Self-Help<\/em> (2015)<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">In this decidedly unhelpful, candid, hilarious \u201chow-to\u201d guide, YouTube personality Miranda Sings offers life lessons and tutorials with her signature sassy attitude. Over six million social media fans can\u2019t be wrong: Miranda Sings is one of the funniest faces on YouTube. As a bumbling, ironically talentless, self-absorbed personality (a young Gilda Radner, if you will), she offers up a vlog of helpful advice every week on her widely popular YouTube channel. For the first time ever, Miranda is putting her advice to paper in this easy-to-follow guide, illustrated by Miranda herself. In it, you\u2019ll find instructions on everything: how to get a boyfriend (wear all black and carry a fishing net), to dressing for a date (sequins and an orange tutu), to performing magic (\u201cMagic is Lying\u201d), and much, much more! Miranda-isms abound in these self-declared lifesaving pages, and if you don\u2019t like it\u2026well, as Miranda would say\u2026\u201c<em>Haters, back off!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>*********************************************************<\/p>\r\n<h1><strong>Extended Metaphor<\/strong><\/h1>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Another technique you may find in a prose selection is &#8220;extended metaphor.&#8221; Just as metaphors make comparisons, this technique extends the metaphor over several sentences or paragraphs; it might even weave throughout an entire work like a book.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Below is a selection of prose from the second paragraph of Montagu &amp; Matson&#8217;s &#8220;Preface&#8221; to <em>The Dehumanization of Man<\/em>. This sentence introduces an extended metaphor, which will weave through the rest of the paragraph. The authors metaphorically relate their study to an infrastructure. I&#8217;ve highlighted the street words:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:quote -->\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">The decision to stay off the common <span style=\"background-color: #ffff00\">thoroughfares<\/span> where possible, and to go instead through certain half-deserted <span style=\"background-color: #ffff00\">streets<\/span>, is of course partly expedient\u2014it cuts down the <span style=\"background-color: #ffff00\">mileage<\/span>\u2014but it is also a choice based on our sense of the imbalance of contemporary social analysis and commentary, with its preponderant (and wholly justified) attention to political derelictions and other clear and present dangers. <cite> <em>The Dehumanization of Man<\/em> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983: xi) by Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>They compare their study to the way we travel on roads; they will \u201cstay off the common thoroughfares\u201d and focus on the \u201chalf-deserted streets.\u201d And, in the image of \u201chalf-deserted streets,\u201d readers see the bleakness of the world. The streets are not full of life but abandoned, forgotten. The streets and thoroughfares not only reinforce that the authors&#8217; study does not repeat what others have done (they are going down the road less traveled), but using <em>streets<\/em> and city imagery helps readers understand the subject by presenting it in light of a familiar topic; in this case, it is urban decay. They even explain the boundaries of their project, why they&#8217;ll focus on a particular area, through travel language: &#8220;mileage.&#8221;<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>The extended metaphor of streets continues in the next sentence:<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:quote -->\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">Although we do not presume, like Captain Kirk of the Starship <em>Enterprise<\/em>, to go boldly where no man has gone before, we have attempted to go where too few explorers have gone before; or where, in our opinion, they have not gone quite far enough or brought back sufficient hard evidence of the dangers and demons that lurk out there\u2014beyond the circle of light, behind the cool facades and beneath the <span style=\"background-color: #ffff00\">paved streets<\/span> of the social order, in the <span style=\"background-color: #ffff00\">widening cracks<\/span> of civilization: at the modern heart of darkness. <cite> <em>The Dehumanization of Man<\/em> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983: xi) by Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Streets are a metaphor for civilization and eventually link societal degradation to potholes as the \u201cdemons\u201d and \u201cdangers\u201d of dehumanization lie \u201cbeneath the paved streets\u201d and \u201cin the widening cracks of civilization.\u201d The cracks are like potholes\u2014a common problem for roads and a major clue that a city is decaying\u2014but they are also like the fissures created by earthquakes, ready to swallow humankind. The authors don&#8217;t state &#8220;human civilization decays the way streets decay and have potholes.&#8221; That would be a stupid, unartful sentence. By having the extended street metaphor in readers&#8217; minds, our analysis can easily suggest the rhetorical effect is to compare dehumanization to the (possible) common neglect of cities, which was a definite issue in the early 1980s when the authors published this book.<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>*********************************************************<\/p>\r\n<h2><strong>Rhetoric of Fear<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>How about &#8220;The Rhetoric of Fear&#8221; for a course title? I think it&#8217;s catchy. Below is a paragraph that, I argue, has a prevailing or dominant rhetorical appeal of pathos&#8211;specifically, the emotion of fear.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson\u2019s Preface to <em>The Dehumanization of Man<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>The preface to Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson\u2019s book The Dehumanization of Man uses fear appeals as the dominant persuasive element of the preface. Below is an analysis of the first two paragraphs of the preface. Through the rhetoric of fear, Montagu and Matson effectively position readers to accept the argument that dehumanization is everywhere before the audience finishes the preface.<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>The Prose Sample Analyzed<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">The following passage is taken from <em>The Dehumanization of Man<\/em> by Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson. McGraw-Hill, 1983, p. xi.<\/p>\r\n<p>This book is concerned with an invisible dis-ease, an affliction of the spirit, which has been ravaging humanity in recent times without surcease and virtually without resistance, and which has now reached epidemic proportions in the Western World. The contagion is unknown to science and unrecognized by medicine (psychiatry aside); yet its wasting symptoms are plain for all to see and its lethal effects are everywhere on display. It neither kills outright nor inflicts apparent physical harm, yet the extent of its destructive toll is already greater than that of any war, plague, famine, or natural calamity on record\u2014and its potential damage to the quality of human life and the fabric of civilized society is beyond calculation. For that reason this sickness of the soul might well be called the \u201cFifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.\u201d Its more conventional name, of course, is <em>dehumanization<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p>Pretty grim stuff, huh? Let&#8217;s get the obvious out of the way. What&#8217;s this paragraph trying to claim, warn, or mention? Also, what&#8217;s the dramatic climax of this paragraph?<\/p>\r\n<h2><strong>Word Choice for Effect<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p>Pick out the words associated with fear, danger, and destruction. What words contribute to the authors extended metaphor of sickness? Remember, it will be helpful if you define a prevailing rhetorical appeal in your prose selection.<\/p>\r\n<h2><strong>Sentence-by-Sentence Look<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>This book is concerned with an invisible dis-ease, an affliction of the spirit, which has been ravaging humanity in recent times without surcease and virtually without resistance, and which has now reached epidemic proportions in the Western World.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Commas come after the following words: dis-ease, spirit, and resistance. However, notice the parallel structure of &#8220;without surcease and virtually without resistance.&#8221; What effect does that rhythm create?<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>The contagion is unknown to science and unrecognized by medicine (psychiatry aside); yet its wasting symptoms are plain for all to see and its lethal effects are everywhere on display.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>This sentence has another parallel structure, which reinforces the fear of the &#8220;invisible dis-ease.&#8221; The authors use two words beginning with &#8220;un-&#8221; that have prepositional phrases following: &#8220;<em>un<\/em>known to science and <em>un<\/em>recognized by medicine.&#8221; They argue that dehumanization has largely gone unnoticed by scientific, medical communities with the exception of psychiatry. Even though they want to cover their bases and not fall victim to an absolute fallacy, they mitigate the impact the field of psychology has by using parentheses to recognize psychiatry as an aside. (Word Count: 85)<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>It neither kills outright nor inflicts apparent physical harm, yet the extent of its destructive toll is already greater than that of any war, plague, famine, or natural calamity on record\u2014and its potential damage to the quality of human life and the fabric of civilized society is beyond calculation.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>The obvious addition is the use of an &#8220;em&#8221; dash. What are the effects of the punctuation?<\/p>\r\n<p>The phrase that mentions \u201cwar, plague, famine, or natural calamity\u201d links well to the Fifth Horseman concept in the fourth sentence, because, when readers hear that dehumanization is the fifth, the Biblical allusion of the Horseman is anticipated.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Its more conventional name, of course, is <em>dehumanization<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\u201cDehumanization\u201d is the last word at the end of this paragraph: \u201cIts more conventional name, of course, is dehumanization.\u201d Since the last sentence is short, the point comes faster and emphatically. Besides the emphasis from end focus the last word of a sentence has, short sentences can also \u201cstrike a note of urgency\u201d (Williams 225).\u00a0Usually, \u201cof course\u201d should be at the beginning of the sentence. Since it is not in the expected place, it is a stylistic tool, slowing readers down and making them focus on \u201cof course\u201d. The effect might also be to imply that we&#8211;readers included&#8211;already know the name <em>dehumanization<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<h2><strong>Discussing Prose<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<p>Below is a paragraph that explains and proves the claim that dehumanization is the main topic the authors want readers not to just know, but to feel.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">Having <em>dehumanization<\/em> as the last word of a sentence gives it great emphasis. The flow of the English language naturally focuses on the end of a sentence. It is the last thing read before the necessary pause a period invokes. As Martha Kolln points out, writers should \u201csave important information for the end of the sentence, the point of main stress\u201d (27).* And since <em>dehumanization<\/em> is the final word of a paragraph, the focus is even greater.<\/p>\r\n<p>*This is from Kolln&#8217;s 3rd edition of <em>Rhetorical Grammar<\/em>. The 8th edition has a similar quote on the bottom of p. 159.<\/p>\r\n<p>This next paragraph discusses the known-new contract in the paragraph:<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">The ailment reference in the first sentence (<em>affliction<\/em>) is repeated in the next sentence&#8217;s subject, the <em>contagion<\/em>. That upholds the known-new contract, because <em>contagion<\/em> and <em>affliction<\/em>\u2014as shown in the pathology section\u2014are related to sicknesses. The known-new contract is the act of placing already presented information at the beginning of the next sentence. Martha Kolln claims that this fulfills readers\u2019 expectations, because they are reminded of the information of the previous sentence as they begin the next one (43-4).* Joseph Williams notes that the known-new contract creates cohesion in sentences; without it, a writer&#8217;s &#8220;sentences will add up to no coherent cumulative meaning&#8221; (104). And cohesion helps readers understand how the different ideas or arguments in an entire work are related to the authors&#8217; overall message (Williams 106). For Montagu and Matson, the known-new contract creates a cohesion between <em>affliction<\/em> and <em>contagion<\/em>. Now readers are aware that the ailment is like a cancer, but a cancer unknown to science and medicine.<\/p>\r\n<p>*This is from Kolln&#8217;s 3rd edition of <em>Rhetorical Grammar<\/em>. The 8th edition discusses the known-new contract on pp. 143-146.<\/p>\r\n<p>Later in the paragraph:<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">However, they claim that psychiatry has some knowledge of dehumanization by using parentheses: \u201cthe contagion is unknown to science and unrecognized by medicine (psychiatry aside); yet its wasting symptoms are plain for all to see and its lethal effects are everywhere on display.\u201d Writers use parentheses to mention a point in passing without slowing sentence rhythm by adding too much information (Kolln 93).*<\/p>\r\n<p>*This is from Kolln&#8217;s 3rd edition of <em>Rhetorical Grammar<\/em>. The 8th edition discusses the parentheses on p. 235.<\/p>\r\n<p>When you do a rhetorical analysis, I expect you to cite, obviously, where the passage you use comes from, but you also need to cite Kolln &amp; Gray (or other sources) that offer expert guidance. This also shows that you&#8217;ve been reading.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview of this Page This webpage will be used for several different classes assigned a rhetorical analysis. Here are its main topics: Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals Extended Metaphors Rhetoric of Fear Dominant rhetorical appeal:\u00a0Consider the author\u2019s intent for the selection of writing. An effective way to set up your introduction would be to explain the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":2019,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12486","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-3fo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12491,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12486\/revisions\/12491"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}