11 Text Elements & Rhetorical Devices
In this chapter, students will:
- practice identifying specific multimodal text elements and how they make appeals
- learn and begin to recognize rhetorical devices speakers create through text components
- think about how elements, appeals, and strategies work together to evoke a response
Identifying Text Elements/Components
In the previous chapter, we talked about how texts are made of manifold elements and how different media forms influence the kinds of components speakers (can) use. In this chapter, we’re going to begin to break down and out these components that, individually and collectively, make meaning, make messages, make appeals, and engender affects. Remember, a text is made of choices the speaker had and the decisions and selections they, consciously or unconsciously, made. Remember, too, that medium and genre are always at play, delimiting the choices speakers can make if they want to be legible and recognizable to particular communities and audiences.
We can feel overwhelmed when we start thinking about all the things of which a text is made and all the things from which we can make a text. You can break down text components in the following ways in order to see and think about your work and the work of others more clearly:
- Content: What claims, information, and evidence did the speaker choose to include to reach their audience? What information or evidence did they choose NOT to include?
- Arrangement: How has the speaker has put their content together to align with their purpose? In what order is it presented to their reader and why? What content have they made more important or less important?
- Style and form: What kinds of words, media, colors, tone, images, description, syntax, grammar, and formats did the writer choose to engender particular appeals and affects? What rhetorical devices did the speaker choose to leverage? What decisions have they made regarding genre?
Text components across media forms
Text components look different across different media forms. You are still thinking about content, arrangement, and style, but you have to be able to see these pieces across diverse texts. The following chart is intended to help you start seeing components across media.
Speech |
Written |
Image |
Film |
| Presentations, public addresses, radio shows, podcasts, conversations, interviews, | Articles, books, tweets/posts, blogs, comments sections, journals, textbooks, reports, editorials, newspapers | photographs, illustrations, paintings, cartoons, charts, graphs, Instagram, data visualization, sculpture, | commercials, movies, news broadcasts, TV shows, TikTok, YouTube, |
| Words, statements, sounds, voice intonations, diction, descriptions, questions, repetition, rhythm, colloquialisms, slang, sensory language, tone, jargon, syllable stress, syllable articulation, accent, language, loudness, softness, sound effects, white noise, background noise, music, vocal tics or fillers, pauses, silences, hand gestures, body movements, laughter, snorts, throat clearing, etc. | letters, punctuation, grammar, diction, language, perspective, tone, word choice, rhythm, sensory language, paragraph breaks, headers, footers, margins, columns, typeface, fonts, letter spacing, line spacing, negative space, order, visual hierarchy, headline, title, byline, subtitles, lists, narrative, exposition, facts, data, statistics, claims, testimony, dialogue, introductions, conclusions, document length, letter size, word count, etc. | color, contrast, hue, brightness, saturation, line thickness, shapes, frame, representation, subjects, angle, perspective, objects, vanishing point, horizon, blur, transparency, resolution, quality, caption, title, labels, size, composition, negative space, visual hierarchy, layout, foreground, background, focus, shadows, light, etc. | panning, zoom, frame, angle, perspective, color, contrast, hue, brightness, saturation, shapes, frame, representation, subjects, objects, vanishing point, horizon, blur, transparency, resolution, quality, caption, title, size, composition, negative space, visual hierarchy, layout, foreground, background, focus, shadows, light, sound effects, white noise, background noise, music, silence, gestures, movement, etc. |
Remember, most media today is, in fact, mixed media. For example, print newspaper articles are primarily written but they also often contain image elements like photographs or charts. News websites, meanwhile, contain multiple layers of writing, images, sounds, and videos. How do these shifts in media and format impact the viewer? Do you think media form changes the way audiences read the news? The ways they respond to it? The way they interpret it? How do you think demographics like age impact which form audiences choose? How do demographics like class shift who has access to print or digital subscriptions and who, therefore, has access to certain types of news?
Considering the multimodality of media
The modality of communication refers to the basic sensory means by which communication happens. All of the above media components reach audiences differently and influence them differently. Thinking about multimodality helps us think about how different text components are designed to appeal and how they actually affect.
- The verbal modality refers to words spoken or sung or typed or handwritten on a piece of paper or screen.
- The visual modality refers to live images, still images, or images moving on a screen
- The auditory modality refers to spoken words, sung words, sounds, music tracks, laugh tracks, and noise
- The haptic modality refers to touch and what we can feel with our hands and skin like keyboards, screens, paper, packaging, clothing, etc.
If you think about it, ALL forms of communication involve multiple modalities. Jodie Nicotra points out in Becoming Rhetorical that:
“A speech, for instance, includes the verbal modality (spoken words), the auditory modality (the pitch and tone of a speaker’s voice), and visual modalities (the speaker’s appearance, gestures, facial expressions, and perhaps slides). Video games use haptic, auditory, and visual modalities. Even reading the printed page encompasses verbal (words), visual (typefaces, formatting, punctuation, etc.), auditory (page turns), and haptic (the feel of paper, of book binding) modalities.”
Understanding these layers helps us understand speakers,’ and our own, appeal and affects.
Discussion: Visual Rhetoric
What is visual rhetoric? To briefly answer this question, let’s first unpack these two terms. Rhetoric, as we defined earlier in this unit, is the art of persuasion; we use it every day to communicate in ways aimed at convincing other people to go along with our ideas (or at least to consider them). By “visual,” we mean “the cultural practices of seeing and looking, as well as the artifacts produced in diverse communicative forms and mediums” (Olsen et al, p. 3). In other words, “visual” refers not just to what we see (“artifacts” such as cartoons, memes, movies, photographs, posters, fonts, symbols, icons, and colors), but how we see (for example, we may or may not associate red-white-and-blue with the U.S. flag and patriotism, depending on our cultural background and beliefs). By visual rhetoric, then, we mean the many ways imagery is used to communicate, create meaning, and compel us to think, feel, know, and act.
Let’s carry this thought a little further. In the study of visual rhetoric, we acknowledge that “images have power” (Sheffield), and we ask, “How do images act rhetorically upon viewers?” (Helmers and Hill 1). We explore the influence that visuals have on us and our audiences, and we recognize that visuals produce rhetorical effects; they use ethos, logos, and pathos appeals to influence an audience.
Visual rhetoric scholars Helmers and Hill, for example, mention a wide variety of examples: cave art, Egyptian hieroglyphics, stained-glass windows in churches, World War II posters, editorial cartoons, motion pictures, charts, graphs, and so much more. They point out the power or influence of some of these visuals, like Thomas E. Franklin’s 2001 photo, Firefighters at Ground Zero, taken the day after the World Trade Center collapsed. The photo shows firefighters raising a fallen flag on the rubble-strewn site. Helmers and Hill point out how such visuals communicate to us culturally and intertextually; that is, Franklin’s photo reminded some viewers of a now-iconic photograph and sculpture of the U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II; even if some viewers did not “get” the reference, the centrality of the flag in the photo and the firefighters’ upward gaze communicated what the photographer called “the strength of the American people” (7). That emotional effect, Helmers and Hill explain, was reinforced by widespread distribution of the photo by news media as well as its cultural context (i.e., how many viewers connected it to the war-time, Iwo Jima photo).
Of course, visual rhetorics draw our attention to more than emotional responses and cultural contexts. In “Breaking Down an Image,” for example, Jenna Pack Sheffield outlines how such elements as fonts, arrangement, colors, and more relate to purpose, audience, and context—the rhetorical situation, in other words. To illustrate, Sheffield displays an advertisement for a men’s watch:
She points out such key visual elements as the arrangement, color, fonts, and scale of images and text in relation to one another. The ad displays a close-up view of the watch in the bottom-right corner, the brand label in the upper-right corner, and, in the background, the blurred image of a man running. Look closely, and you can see the faint outline of a watch on his wrist. Each detail creates meaning and in some way creates an overall impression while also supporting the ultimate purpose (to sell a watch). For example, Sheffield says of the font choice in the company logo:
A “silly or playful font” might be more suitable for a kid’s watch, but such a choice would not support the overall purpose of the ad, its likely adult audience, or the ethos (character) of the company (or at least, the character it is trying to convey by choosing a strong, bolded, ALL-CAPS font); nor would it support the intended pathos (the “strong, serious, font type,” which Sheffield points out, playfully).
Why pay attention to details in visual artifacts? Sheffield explains that by noticing each element and understanding its possible individual and combined effects on the target audience, we can “break down” a visual. That is, we can analyze it. In the next chapter, we will discuss analysis, which aims to describe the content of an artifact, identify its key parts, and evaluate it. If we were analyzing the Pro Trek ad for a writing assignment, for example, we would work our way through these steps. We would also ultimately ask critical or evaluative questions such as: What details draw our attention first, and why do we think that is so? Sheffield mentions that in Western cultures, we read left to right, top to bottom; therefore, the order or arrangement of elements makes a significant difference to how we interpret an image.
Other questions we might ask include:
- Does the chosen font communicate something important to the overall purpose?
- What overall effect or effects do the colors create?
- Is it significant that the man’s image is blurred while both the logo and the watch itself are in focus?
- Overall, is the ad effective, and what evidence supports our assessment?
These questions are just a few critical or analytical explorations we might consider. For a full analysis of the ad, we would also likely consider what we know about the company, its products, and its customers. What is the company ethos or character?
By breaking down or analyzing the advertisement in such ways, we move toward synthesis. That is, we start making connections between the visual details, showing how they relate to each other and how they make the advertiser’s case (or not).
Analyzing Multimodal Compositions
- First, identify the rhetorical situation (speaker, audience, purpose, setting, text of the piece as well as its medium, genre, and circulation).
- Then identify the modalities triggered in the piece, thinking about the rhetorical appeals and affects of each. How do the various multimodal components contribute to this effect? Nicotra guides us to ask:
- Does it use spoken or written language? Where and why is language used? What tone do the words create? What rhetorical devices do you notice?
- Does it use still or static images? How are these images arranged?
- Does it use moving images? What sequence do these images follow and why? How are they edited?
- Does it use sound? What kinds: interviews, narration, music without words, music with words, other kinds of sounds? How would you characterize these sounds? How are they layered and edited?
- How do users physically interact with the text? Do they turn pages, do they listen while walking or driving, do they click links, touch a screen use controllers?
- Finally, consider the multimodal composition as a whole: How do the pieces work together to create an overall effect? What do they DO?
Practice: Recipe Blogs
Recipe blogs are a persuasive multimodal genre. As a class, gather three to five examples and analyze each using the steps listed above. Then generate a list of criteria that you might use to evaluate the form of communication. What makes a recipe blog a recipe blog?
Recognizing rhetorical devices
A rhetorical device is typically defined as a technique or word construction that a speaker or writer uses to win an audience to their side, either while trying to persuade them to do something or trying to win an argument. Many of the terms we use to refer to rhetorical devices are in Greek because they were articulated by classical philosophers like Aristotle. There are dozens of rhetorical devices, which you can find on a handout here. Below are five common rhetorical devices, so you can start thinking about how they work.
Please note that some of these devices are also known as literary devices. That means they are primarily instruments of narrative. Since rhetoric deploys narrative, you can find literary devices in arguments and across other forms of communication. You can also check out this video on “Common Rhetorical Devices.”
- anaphora: Repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect. Ex. we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground
- antiphrasis: The usually ironic or humorous use of words in senses opposite to the generally accepted meanings. Ex. this giant of 3 feet 4 inches
- epistrophe: Repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect. Ex. of the people, by the people, for the people
- hyperbole: Extravagant exaggeration. Ex. mile-high ice-cream cones
- litotes: the affirmation of something by negating the opposite. Ex. It’s not rocket science
Identifying claims, reasons, and evidence
Remember, argument in its most basic form consists of three parts: a claim, reasons to support the claim, and evidence to support the reasons. Nearly all texts make some kind of argument. Here are some strategies for identifying claims, reasons, and evidence in texts. We will identify these pieces here for the sake of beginning our analysis and take them up more thoroughly in the “Argumentation” chapter.
Claims
Texts are usually made of a primary claim and multiple secondary or supporting claims. A claim is the main idea or message of the writing around it. Remember, claims present an arguable stance on a topic; they are not statements of fact or topic. Remember, that claims we write and identify in college should be specific. For example, “Peanut butter is the best” is a claim, but it is not a specific claim; “peanut butter is a healthy after-school snack for kids” is specific.
Sometimes, speakers will tell you their claims explicitly using phrases, thesis statements, and topic sentences like:
- “In this piece, I will argue…”
- “It is my contention that we should…”
- “Others might think…, but I believe…
- “I will now explain what __________ is and what should be done about it.”
Other times, claims are implicit. Here are a few ways to find them:
- Look at “important” parts of the text. The most important information is often at the beginning, in the very middle, or at the end of a text. In a print or video ad, the most important elements will often take up the most space or have other visual cues that bring attention to them.
- Think about genre and context. This is easiest with genres and contexts we are familiar with. When the voice at the end of the commercial says, “Nike: Just Do It,” we know their main claim is: “You should buy these running shoes because they will help you do all the things the commercial just showed you through video and images.”
- Look for repetition. Often, the main claim and its buzzwords will be repeated multiple times.
- Think about tone. Authors often use the connotation of words to reveal their purpose in texts. The connotation of a word is how it makes us feel. A rainstorm described as “dreary” has a negative connotation, while a rainstorm described as “refreshing” has a positive connotation. The tone of a text reflects the author’s attitude towards the subject matter and can clue us about their argument.
It can be hard to distinguish between “purpose” and “claim.” Remember, purpose is what the speaker intends to do. Claim is what they say to achieve their ends.
Reasons
Reasoning is the thinking that connects evidence and supports a claim. They are responses to “why.” Without reasons, there is no argument; there is only a claim.
The most effective way to identify reasons in oral or written texts is to look for “reason markers.” These terms include the following: because, since, for, therefore, in light of, assume or assuming, according to, considering, in fact, etc.
In texts like commercials, reasons are often offered as declarative statements without “reason markers” or they must be surmised from the evidence the commercial offers. For example, if an ad shows a Chevy truck flattening thick brush or flying through thick mud, the ad makers are offering evidence that Chevy trucks are tough, rugged, and durable–reasons you should buy one.
Sometimes in film or photographs, reasons are even more subtle. Lighting, for example, can set the mood of an image which can create a reason like “because it will make you happy” or “because you feel sad.” The facial expressions of human actors often work the same way. A political campaign ad might show people frowning or looking depressed to indicate what will happen if their opponent is elected and, therefore, a reason to elect the ad speaker instead.
Evidence
Evidence refers to content the speaker has gathered to prove reasons and, therefore, support claims. It is the speakers’ response to the question: “How do you know that?” Evidence “looks like” many things depending on media form and genre. All of the following can operate as evidence in different discursive contexts:
- data and statistics
- charts and graphs
- quotes and citations
- testimony
- information from primary and secondary sources
- common knowledge
- photographs and other images
- film and other media documentation
- narrative
- laws and certifications
- case studies
Practice: Movie Trailers
Movie trailers are also a persuasive, argumentative multimedia genre. In partners, choose a movie trailer to analyze. Identify the following in a paragraph. Remember, a little research might be necessary to answer your questions.
- Who is speaking? Who do think is their intended audience? What is their goal in relation to their audience?
- What is their primary claim? What reasons do they offer for their claim? What evidence do they use to prove it?
- What kind of appeals does the trailer make? What multimodal components trigger what kind of response in their intended audience?
- Do you think their trailer had the desired affect? Why or why not?
Discussion: Finding Others’ Thesis Statements
- First, read the title. Scholarly articles, essays, books, and studies usually provide very descriptive and detailed titles that identify the topic. Titles often provide a clue to the author’s point of view, position on the topic, direction of the piece, and key argument.
- Second, read the abstract, if there is one. These entries usually give a somewhat detailed overview. Good abstracts clearly identify the topic, outline the study methods used (if any), and clearly state the author’s argument, conclusions, or findings. Quite often, the thesis statement is the last full sentence of the abstract.
- Third, read the first paragraph or — for longer articles and books — the first page or so. The idea is to get the sense of the piece. But, as with the abstract, pay close attention to the first and last sentences. Quite often, the thesis statement is the last full sentence of the first paragraph.
- As you read, look for sentences that use words like “argue,” “claim,” “conclude,” “contend,” “will,” “in this …,” “should.” There are a few other key words that are common, but these will get you started.
- Finally, ask yourself if the steps above have helped you identify what the essay or article is about, what the author’s position is, and what argument they’re making (or what conclusions they are presenting). Is there one sentence that sums up these details? If so, that’s a candidate for the thesis statement.
- If you’re not sure, repeat or revisit one of the steps above.