Jim Roth’s Website

 

AN OVERVIEW OF RHETORICAL STRATEGIES

 

A rhetorical strategy is simply a way of organizing your essay.  Remember that the thesis sentence sets the essay's overall structure, but once the thesis is established, writers use a blend of the following strategies to develop the essay. For example, a writer might contrast two jobs by narrating an on-the-job experience for each, or persuade the reader to adopt a position on a controversial issue by first defining key terms.

 

TYPES OF STRATEGIES

 

NARRATION

Types:

Entertainment, Instructive

General Purpose:

To tell a story

Organization:

Chronological

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when event, location, time, speaker changes.

 

 

General Hints:

Use dialog sparingly; spend words on the key event in the sequence; use past tense.

 

DESCRIPTION

Types:

Objective, Subjective

General Purpose:

To paint a word picture for the reader.

Organization:

Spatial

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when location, part, or position changes.

 

 

General Hints:            

Spatial logic includes left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, etc.

 

DEFINITION

Types:

Various

General Purpose:

To explain the meaning(s) of a term.

Organization:

Usually emphatic—most important last

Paragraphing Advice:          

Change paragraphs when quality/attribute changes or when switching from description of quality/attribute to example.

 

 

General Hints:            

Remember: First classify the term. Next determine what makes it unique from other members of its class (the differentiation).  Then focus the essay on the term's unique qualities (its differentiation).

 

CLASSIFICATION/DIVISION

Types: 

Individual members into sub-groups (classification); a single unit into component parts (division).

General Purpose:           

To show diversity of large group; to show by inference similarities and differences among sub-groups; to show how component parts relate to each other to form the whole object.

Organization:

Inclusivity, Exclusivity,

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when sub-groups or parts change.

 

 

General Hints:            

Be sure to apply both logic tests (inclusivity and exclusivity) to your outline before beginning the draft.

 

 

PROCESS ANALYSIS

Types:

Informational, Directional

General Purpose:           

To tell how something happens or works; To give step-by step directions to the reader.

Organization:

Chronological

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when steps in the process change.

 

 

General Hints:

The tendency is to assume the reader knows more about the process you're describing than he/she really does.

 

COMPARISON/CONTRAST

Types:

Comparison, contrast, combination of the two.

General Purpose:

 

To clearly show specific similarities and/or differences between subjects.

Organization:

Divided by subject (“block”), Alternating (point-by-point)

Paragraphing Advice:          

Change paragraphs when subject or point of C/C changes. A similarity between subjects often can be covered in a single paragraph or section.

 

 

General Hints:            

If subjects are basically alike, work with differences. If subjects are basically different, work with likenesses. Limit your outline to two or three points of comparison/contrast.

 

CAUSE-EFFECT or CAUSAL (not casual) ANALYSIS

Types:                          Causes or effects of an event, casual chain.

General Purpose:             

To tell what caused an event or situation to occur (causes). To present possible outcomes of an event or situation (effects).  To show a progression of events (a causal chain—like dominos).

Organization:

Most often emphatic

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when events change.

 

 

General Hints:

DO NOT confuse this with process. Process tells HOW; Cause-Effect tells WHY. If you feel you might write a process essay by mistake, do not present your causes/effects in chronological order.

 

 

 

The three types of causes are CONTRIBUTORY, NECESSARY, and SUFFICIENT. Avoid assigning too much importance to a particular cause by confusing these.

 

 

 

Avoid the POST HOC error.

 

PERSUASION (ARGUMENTATION)

Types:

Develop your reasons; Refute your opponent's.

General Purpose:

To lead the reader to adopt your position on a controversial issue.

Organization:

Emphatic; refute then develop.

Paragraphing Advice:

Change paragraphs when points of evidence or argument change.

 

 

 

 

General Hints:            

Argumentation often is considered more formal and less emotional, relying more heavily on research, statistics, and expert corroboration.  Persuasion tends to be less formal and more emotional, relying on common sense reasoning.