DP Eng A: Language and Literature

Part 1: Language in cultural context

Literary Analysis

Critically approaching any specimen of text or communicative piece requires some basic questions to be
asked. The big five is a rubric grouping these questions into five categories on the basis of their nature
and area of target in such investigations.

Analysis of Rhetoric
• Rhetoric is the art of discourse, wherein a writer or speaker strives to inform, persuade or motivate
an audience in a specific situation.
• Aristotle famously stated that rhetoric is “an ability, in each particular case, to see the available means
of persuasion.” In other words, rhetoric is about finding all communicative options in a given situation
and carefully choosing which of them will most likely persuade your audience.
• If we are rhetorically savvy, we have the ability to choose the appropriate words, phrases, images,
icons, colors, tone, organizational structure, and so forth that will most likely persuade the person or
people listening to us to agree with what we have to say. This is true of simple face-to-face
conversations or of large-scale marketing campaigns. In any communication, rhetoric is at play.
• So, what are your “available means” in any given situation? Obviously, it will change depending on
who your audience is and what do you want to achieve through it (purpose) and what are the main
ideas you want to focus on (content and theme), how do you want to make the audience feel and
make them receptive of your content and theme (mood and tone) and the play of words to achieve
that (stylistic features). Finally, all the ideas expressed through the language are arranged in a
framework provided by the structure.
• Imagine you own a small consultancy firm and you need to send out a mailer to your current
customers. What might your available means be? Here’s a small list of what you have to play with in
order to be more persuasive: diction (word choice), grammatical sentence structure, organization of
content, punctuation usage, document format (like a letter or memo), color scheme, consistency with
other communications, design layout, images, graphics, data, anecdotes, paper weight and color,
 toner, and even the timing and location of the mailer. If you give a presentation, other available
means affect your persuasiveness, including the fluctuation of your voice, your confidence, the
technology you use to present your message, and even the way you dress. Failures in any of these
areas may be the slow demise of your persuasiveness in that situation.
• It can be overwhelming to think about all your options, but it’s the minutia. Add all the little tiny details
up and that counts. Every nuance in a communicative piece changes perception.
• With that in mind, you’ll want to take note of the five canons of rhetoric. They provide an analysis of
a rhetorical piece from the vantage point of its life cycle. These are the various stages, described as
the canons of rhetoric: Inventio or invention —the method used for the discovery of arguments,
dispositio or arrangement—organization of the arguments concerning the structure, elocutio or
style—mastery of stylistic elements and organisation of thought into content which is decided to
match the basic style of the subject matter and audience, memoria or memory, and pronuntiatio or
delivery.
• Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are modes of persuasion used to convince audiences. They are also referred
to as the three artistic proofs (Aristotle coined the terms) or Aristotle's three persuasive audience
appeals, and are all represented by Greek words. Some scholars also add kairos, and topos as
concepts central to an effective persuasion technique.

Ethos:
o An author would use ethos to show to his audience that he is a credible source and is worth
listening to. Ethos is the Greek word for “character.” The word “ethic” is derived from ethos.
o To improve your ethos, you always need to be cognizant of what you use as credible sources. Do
you use a personal anecdote? Do you cite a celebrity? A scientist? In other words, who is the
expert in the subject matter and why should the audience believe them? The more your audience
trusts your sources (no matter who that source may be), the more they will trust you.
o Ethos can be developed by choosing language that is appropriate for the audience and topic (also
means choosing proper level of vocabulary), making yourself sound fair or unbiased, introducing
your expertise or pedigree, and by using correct grammar and syntax.
Pathos:
o It is the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions.
o Pathos can be developed by using meaningful language, emotional tone, emotion evoking
examples, stories of emotional events, and implied meanings.
Logos:
o It the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason.
o To use logos would be to cite facts and statistics, historical and literal analogies, and citing certain
authorities on a subject.
o Logos can be developed by using advanced, theoretical or abstract language, citing facts (very
important), using historical and literal analogies, and by constructing logical arguments.
Kairos:
o Timing is everything as they say! Kairos refers to the opportune moment. People are often more
persuaded at different moments in time than others.
o Think about when you were a child; did you ask your parents for things when you knew they were
in a bad mood to begin with? Most likely, you waited for the right moment to ask.
Topos:
o Topos refers to a theme or convention.
o Do you need to change the way you talk with your friends versus the way you talk with your
employer? Do you use traditional formatting on a résumé, or do you get creative? Topos is all
 about framing your communication within a situation that meets expectations or is more clearly
understood because of how it is couched.

Example of Ethos:
"I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in
Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough,
direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian
aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and
nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our
moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the
cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future."
Democratic Presidential Candidate Acceptance Speech by Barack Obama. August 28th, 2008.

Example of Pathos:
"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of
you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your
quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the
winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with
the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go
back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos
of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."
I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. August 28th, 1963.

Example of Logos:
"However, although private final demand, output, and employment have indeed been growing for
more than a year, the pace of that growth recently appears somewhat less vigorous than we
expected. Notably, since stabilizing in mid-2009, real household spending in the United States has
grown in the range of 1 to 2 percent at annual rates, a relatively modest pace. Households' caution
is understandable. Importantly, the painfully slow recovery in the labor market has restrained
growth in labor income, raised uncertainty about job security and prospects, and damped
confidence. Also, although consumer credit shows some signs of thawing, responses to our Senior
Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices suggest that lending standards to
households generally remain tight."
The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy by Ben Bernanke. August 27th, 2010.
Some literary devices:
Alliteration
Alliteration is a literary device where words are used in quick succession and begin with letters belonging
to the same sound group. Whether it is the consonant sound or a specific vowel group, the alliteration
involves creating a repetition of similar sounds in the sentence.

Assonance
Assonance refers to repetition of sounds produced by vowels within a sentence or phrase.
Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech whereby the author refers to a subject matter such as a place, event, or
literary work by way of a passing reference.
Anaphora
the deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence in order to achieve an artistic effect is known as
Anaphora.

Hypophora
Here the speaker or writer raises a question and then immediately answers it himself.

Irony
The use of irony in literature refers to playing around with words such that the meaning implied by a
sentence or word is actually different from the literal meaning.

Extended Metaphor
An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is developed over several lines of text, over an entire poem, or
throughout an entire text.

Metonymy
It refers to the practice of not using the formal word for an object or subject and instead referring to it by
using another word that is intricately linked to the formal name or word.

Anthropomorphism and Personification

Both words convey the idea of attributing human characteristics to something not human. Here's the
difference — with anthropomorphism, the object or animal is actually doing something human. With
personification, the object or animal just seems like it's doing something human. Anthropomorphism can
also be called extended personifications; they can exist through the whole text. E.g. Mickey Mouse, Goofy,
etc. They also extend longer than just a word attributing a human characteristics to a non-human entity.
E.g. The fog waltzed through the hills. [Personification]
The fog grew legs, grabbed a partner, and waltzed through the hills to the tune of 'Piano Man'".
[Anthropomorphism]

Antithesis
It is used when the writer employs two sentences of contrasting meanings in close proximity to one
another.

Parallelism
Parallelism is invoked by giving two or more parts of one or more sentences a similar form to create a
definite pattern. In other words, it would mean stacking parallel grammatical structures.

Polysyndeton
It is the use of conjunctions or connecting words frequently in a sentence, placed very close to one
another, opposed to the usual norm of using them sparsely, only where they are technically needed.
E.g. Marge and Susan and Anne and Daisy and Barry all planned to go for a picnic.

Juxtaposition
Here the author places a person, concept, place, idea or theme parallel to another. The purpose of
juxtaposing two directly or indirectly related entities close together in literature is to highlight the
contrast between the two and compare them.