RHETORIC
Representative Student
Answers*
RHETORIC MIDTERM 2003: Part C (Short-Answer Questions)
1.* "Speaking in the most general terms," says
the author of our text in Chapter One, "we can say that rhetoric seeks persuasion by
employing various resources of symbol systems such as language. Four resources of symbols
have long been recognized as assisting the goal of persuasion." Identify three
of these four resources and briefly explain each one.
Answer
See History & Theory of Rhetoric, pages 12-15.
2.* In the following extract from St. Paul's First Epistle
to the Corinthians, clearly identify (no need to define or, for this question,
discuss the effects of) the following devices: polyptoton, erotesis, and parison.
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality; then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Answer
polyptoton: "trump . . . trumpet": "corruptible . . .
incorruption"; "mortal . . . immortality"
erotesis: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
parison: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed"
"So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality"
"O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
3. Identify and briefly discuss the conventional
metaphors that convey the meaning of Christina Rossetti’s allegorical poem
"Up-Hill":
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
Answer
Conventional metaphor of life as a journey, with references to
"road" (of life), passage of a "whole long day" (metaphorical
equivalent of a life, from birth to death), "door" (of heaven), and
"beds" (comfort in the afterlife).
4.* Offer brief yet specific examples of how Gary Hart
employed appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos (i.e., the Aristotelian
artistic proofs) in his 1988 speech announcing his withdrawal from the presidential
campaign.
Answer
(See definitions at TERMS
page.)
Ethos: self-characterizations as "no ordinary politician" and "not a broken
man."
Pathos: references to his family's support (for him) and anger (at media).
Logos: leaving the race because focus had shifted from issues to personality.
5. In Chapter Two of our text, we learn that, in addition
to training their students to memorize speeches, the "Sophists employed the method of
dialectic." Who were the Sophists, what is the dialectical method that
they employed, and why did they advocate this (controversial) method?
Answer
See History & Theory of Rhetoric, pages 34-35. (Note that
the dialectical method of the Sophists included the invention of arguments for both sides
of a case--"argument met counterargument."
6. Who (according to Plutarch and Plato) was Aspasia of Miletus, and what well-known
method is said (by some historians and rhetoricians) to have been invented by Aspasia?
Answer
See History & Theory of Rhetoric, pages 45-46.
7.* What were Plato’s main objections in Gorgias to rhetoric as practiced by the Sophists?
8. Define enthymeme (according to Aristotle), and
briefly explain Marc Antony’s use of a series of enthymemes in the following
passage from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
[Caesar] hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
9. What new technology was coming into play in Greece
during the time of Socrates (a technology that Plato employed prolifically–and that
Socrates employed not at all), and why (as expressed in Plato’s Phaedrus)
did Socrates disapprove of this "elixir"?
Answer
Socrates disapproved of this new technology of writing because once
people came to rely on writing, he believed, their memories would begin to atrophy.
Also, because writing could not "speak back" or correct itself (as in dialectic)
writing could not serve as the vehicle for true wisdom. (See also
excerpts from Phaedrus [handout] and NOTES [both preview and postscript]
for January 28 and 30.)
10. Examples and maxims, according to Aristotle, are common types of rhetorical reasoning (logos). Briefly, discuss the respective limitations of examples and maxims as vehicles for well-reasoned arguments.
11.* Aristotle (in Book One, Chapter Three, of Rhetoric) defined three "species" or "branches" of rhetoric, suggesting three kinds of orations for different audiences and occasions. Identify and briefly define these three kinds of orations.
12. Identify and briefly explain the multiple metaphors
that lace the third stanza of Emily Dickinson’s poem "Because I could not stop
for death":
We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess--in the Ring--
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--
We passed the Setting Sun--
Answer
13. Define (and offer a brief example of) each of the following terms: denotation, connotation, and euphemism (all of which are basic to our understanding of the rhetoric of the word).
14.* Identify Cicero’s five canons (or "offices") of rhetoric (a division that Cicero adapted–like so much else–from the Greeks)..
15. According to the handout on "Grammatical Person," "The choice of grammatical person is the most influential element in establishing voice and distance." Briefly, explain how the use of the first-person pronoun (both singular and plural) may either increase the sense of intimacy (between rhetor and audience) or heighten the sense of distance, depending on a variety of factors.
16. Define the terms tenor and vehicle, and point out clearly how and where each is embodied in the William Stafford poem "Recoil":
The bow bent remembers home long,
the years of its tree, the whine
of wind all night conditioning
it, and its answer--Twang!
To the people here who would fret me down
their way and make me bend:
By remembering hard I could startle for home
and be myself again.
17. Cicero held that eloquence had been separated from some other crucial factor in Roman rhetoric. What is that other factor, and why was he concerned to bring these two qualities together?
18. Define the rhetorical concept of kairos, and briefly explain how, in Act III of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Antony employs the concept both in his first apperance before the crowd (bearing the corpse of Julius Caesar) and in his calculated hesitation to read aloud Caesar’s will.
19. According to the author of our text, what were the three rhetorical arts that characterized the middle and later portions of the Middle Ages?
20. Explain how the following e. e. cummings poem "l(a" contains both a visual and a textual metaphor:
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
21. Following his conversion to Christianity–which he at one point said was a conversion from rhetoric–St. Augustine wrestled with the potential uses of Roman rhetoric in the Christian church. As we learn from Confessions and On Christian Doctrine, what for St. Augustine were the two primary functions of rhetoric within the church?
1.* In Chapter Three of Orality and Literacy (1982), Walter J. Ong lists
several of the distinctive ways in which people in a "primary oral culture"
(such as Homer’s Greece) think and express themselves through narrative. Clearly
identify any three of these distinctive characteristics.
Answer
Communication in oral cultures tends to be (1) aggregative, (2) redundant or
copious, and (3) agonistically toned. [CA]
2. Define dialectic, and briefly describe Socrates’ commanding use
of this communicative strategy in Plato’s Gorgias.
Answer
Dialectic, also known as the Socratic method, is basically when a speaker takes
control of the discourse by asking and answering questions. Socrates, in
Plato’s Gorgias, is able to manipulate Gorgias into limiting his speech so
that he (Socrates) can take over the discussion and discredit his opponent's arguments.
[BB]
3. What new technology was becoming increasingly prevalent in Greece during the time of
Socrates, and why (as expressed in Plato’s Phaedrus, by way of his account of
the legend of Theuth) did Socrates disapprove of this "elixir"?
Answer
Socrates disapproved of this new technology of writing because once people came
to rely on writing, he believed, their memories would begin to atrophy. Also,
because writing could not "speak back" or correct itself (as in dialectic)
writing could not serve as the vehicle for true wisdom. [CA]
4.* Beginning with Aristotle, classical rhetoricians distinguished three kinds of
orations, each of which is (at least broadly) concerned with a distinctive period of
time–past, present, or future. Using either the Latinate terms or their more
common English equivalents, identify these three types of discourse and the
time period (according to Aristotle) about which each is generally concerned.
Answer
deliberative -- future
forensic or judicial -- past
epideictic or ceremonial -- present
5.* By the time Cicero came to write his treatises on rhetoric, the study of rhetoric
was divided (mainly for pedagogical convenience) into five parts. Using either the Latin
terms or their more common English equivalents, identify these five parts or
"canons" or "stages of composition," and briefly explain what each of
these parts was concerned with–according to classical rhetoricians.
Answer
Inventio -- concerned with finding or producing arguments for ones
position and criticism of one's opponents. Also concerned with simple information
gathering.
Dispositio -- finding the best possible arrangement of one's arguments and
rhetorical material.
Elocutio -- rhetorical style, schemes and tropes.
Memoria -- memorization of the speech.
Actio -- way rhetor would deliver his argument through voice and gestures.
6. According to Corbett and Connors, Cicero’s works "played a great part in
mediating the controversy between the ‘Asiatics’ and the
‘Atticists.’" What contrasting stylistic habits and conventions were
espoused by the Asiatics and the Atticists in Cicero’s day, and
in what ways did Cicero’s recommendations and writings suggest a compromise (of
sorts) between the two groups?
Answer
Asiatics wrote with a florid, highly elaborate style. Asiatics wrote
more plainly in an epigrammatic style. Cicero insinuated that both groups could
benefit by adopting characteristics of the other's style--and that the best rhetors suited
their style (high, middle, or low) to the nature of the rhetorical occasion. [AM]
7 . Like earlier rhetoricians, the author of the Institutio Oratoria (translated
as The Institutes of Oratory) regarded the broadly educated individual as the
fittest candidate for a course in rhetoric. Identify the author of the Institutio
Oratoria, and explain what additional qualification he thought the orator
should possess–a qualification that earlier rhetoricians had hinted at but did not
belabor.
Answer
The author of the Institutio Oratoria is Quintilian, who advocated
that rhetoricians should also have high moral character in addition to a broad knowledge
of subjects. He emphasized the use of ethos as the primary persuasive device of
rhetoricians. [BB]
8. Who was Saint Augustine, why is he studied in histories of rhetoric,
and what was his contribution to the field of homiletics?
Answer
St. Augustine lived in North Africa in the 5th century A.D.. After his
profound conversion to Christianity, Augustine, who was trained in rhetoric in Carthage,
used his rhetorical skills to encourage Christians to lead holier lives and to explain
Christian doctrine. Since he was so skilled in rhetoric and also a preacher to his
people in Hippo, Augustine all but founded the science of homiletics, the study of
preaching. [EV]
9. In his widely used textbook, the 16th-century rhetorician Erasmus
did something rather remarkable with the sentence "Tuae literae me magnopere
delectarunt" ("Your letter pleased me greatly"). After identifying the
title of Erasmus’s famous textbook (a term that also characterizes what Erasmus was
illustrating in this exercise), explain what Erasmus did with this sentence and what his
purpose was for doing it.
Answer
Erasmus wrote De Copia, emphasizing to students that the best way to
master language is through repetition, variation, and copiousness. He rewrote
"Your letter pleased me greatly" in more than 150 ways to illustrate the spirit
of copiousness--that is, the wide variety of stylistic options available to a writer.
[RC]
10. The rhetorical terms euphemism and euphuism may sound
alike (an example of homoioiteleuton, in fact), but their meanings differ
significantly. Define each of these terms (euphemism and euphuism),
and name the 16th-century English author whose prose work served to christen
one of these terms.
Answer
Euphemism is the word we give when we don’t want to say the
"bad" one, i.e. darn for damn. Ephuism, coined by Lyly in Eupheus,
refers to a comically elaborate style. [MH]
11. In his article on "Shakespeare’s Use of Rhetoric," Brian Vickers
observes that "an awareness of the forms of rhetoric can enlarge our understanding of
the poetry, for in Shakespeare’s time and in Shakespeare’s poetry rhetoric and
feeling were one." Clearly summarize Vickers’ observations regarding Shakespeare’s
stylistic development, noting how "the mature Shakespeare style" can be
broadly distinguished from the style of his early works.
Answer
Rhetorical devices can be seen all through Shakespeare’s works, but his more
mature works are manifestations of the idea that the style is the content.
In other words, the tropes and schemes of Shakespeare’s early works are used mostly
for effect and display, but in his later works, they are so firmly integrated into his
style that they provide insights into character. Vicker’s uses "put out
the light and then put on the light" from Othello as an example of the latter stage,
when form and content are one entity. [MH]
12. Define the rhetorical concept of kairos, and briefly explain how, in
Act III of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony employs the concept both in his first
appearance before the crowd (bearing the corpse of Julius Caesar) and in his calculated
hesitation to read aloud Caesar’s will.
Answer
Kairos is the much-coveted art of doing or saying the right thing in the right
place and at the right time. For example, in bringing out Caesar’s corpse,
Antony draws attention away from Brutus (who is declaiming about the "justice"
that has been carried out) and to himself and the assassinated emperor, thus earning him
an extremely attentive audience. Likewise, his calculated hesitation to read the
will allows him to give the contents away without seeming to do so, and provides a
dramatic pause wherein the greedy tensions of the crowd rise. [MH]
13. Define the terms tenor and vehicle, and point out
clearly how each is embodied in the Ezra Pound poem "In a Station at the
Metro":
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Answer
The "tenor" is the actual metaphorical subject, in this case that the
people's faces resemble petals; the "vehicle" is the image that conveys or
drives the metaphor, in this case the word "petals," which draws attention to
the pale faces. A similar equation could be drawn between the crowd and the bough,
with the bough serving as the vehicle. [MH]
14. Define and distinguish between the concepts of invented ethos and situated ethos, and briefly explain how each form of ethos comes into play in this excerpt from a Publishers Clearing House testimonial (on the reverend’s letterhead) from Father Michael Berner:
As the priest at our small church in Earling, Iowa, I’ve always dreamed of helping anyone who needed it. So being a Publishers Clearing House customer has been perfect for me: I’ve picked up some wonderful products –– and always had a chance to win a lot of money and fulfill my dream. . . . To me and all the people that money will help, winning a million dollars was nothing less than a miracle. The same kind of miracle that can happen to you, if you enter –– and have faith!
Answer
Invented ethos is the persona that a rhetor creates during the course of a
message; situated ethos is the reputation of the rhetor that precedes the actual
address. Father Berner uses invented ethos as he describes himself as a humble
priest from a small church out in the Midwest: such a decent man of the cloth must be
trustworthy (or so we're expected to believe). The situated ethos is evoked by the
letterhead and the ministerial references in the letter (" and have faith!"),
which again are intended to suggest trust. [BB]
15. In Chapter Six of Analyzing Prose, Richard Lanham offers the following examples
from the New Testament to illustrate the concept of tacit persuasion patterns:
The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Identify the rhetorical device (derived from Greek letter X) common to all three of
these examples, and briefly explain what Lanham means by characterizing this device as a tacit
persuasion pattern.
Answer
All of these statements rely on chiasmus and seem to teach by negation –
i.e., it seems fair that you should be nice to other people if you want them to be nice to
you. Through the chiasmus, we perceive that the argument makes sense by reversing
sense--thus, a tacit (or implied) persuasion pattern. [MH]
16. Explain how the following e. e. cummings’ poem "l(a" contains both a visual and a textual metaphor:
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
Answer
Cummings' poem is a visual metaphor for isolation because each line apparently
stands alone and apparently contains no meaning by itself. It is also a verbal
metaphor because loneliness is compared to the falling of a solitary leaf. [JW]
17.* In the following stanza from Dylan Thomas's villanelle "Do not go gentle into that good night," clearly identify (i.e., indicate exactly which words illustrate which device; no need to define or, for this question, discuss the effects of) his particular use of these devices: paranomasia, oxymoron, assonance, simile, epizeuxis, and polyptoton.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Answer
paranomasia: "Grave men"
oxymoron: "blinding sight"
assonance: "blind eyes"
simile: "blaze like meteors"
epizeuxis: "Rage, rage"
polyptoton: "see" and "sight"
18. The rhetorical concept of identification, introduced by 20th-century
rhetorician Kenneth Burke, is related to the classical notion of ethopoeia.
Briefly yet specifically, explain how essayist E. B. White employs the strategy of identification
in two of these essays: "Death of a Pig," "Once More to the
Lake," "The Ring of Time."
Answer
White's reliance on identification in "Death of a Pig"
strategically allows the narrator to see things from the pig's point of view and thus
identify with the suffering and the prospect of mortality. In "Once More to the
Lake," he identifies with both his son (recalling himself doing the same things his
son is currently doing) and his father--thereby participating in the cycle of life
(elsewhere referred to as "the ring of time"). [RC]
19. Following Richard Lanham’s explanations, define and distinguish between the periodic style and the running style, and briefly explain which of the two styles is employed by Lincoln in the conclusion to the "The Gettysburg Address":
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Answer
The periodic style relies on a prolonged, delayed syntax
which leaves the sense of the sentence (or larger unit) open or uncertain until its close.
It usually employs clauses and conjunctions to create this suspension of sense.
Running style is that which follows the rapid flow of thoughts as they
appear to be occurring and which connects them as quickly as possible.
Periodic style is the thought-out, reflective style. Running style is the presently
thinking and reacting style. Clearly Lincoln is writing in periodic style. [EV]
20. Define the term trope (as contrasted to "scheme"), identify
any one trope besides metaphor, and finally provide a brief example (either
a remembered quotation or your own creation) of that trope.
Answer
A trope is a change in the meaning of a word, whereas a scheme is a
change in the
structure of a phrase or sentence. Synechdoche (i.e., "a pair of ragged
claws") is an
example of a trope. [MH]
21. According to Corbett and Connors, "the ethical appeal is the ‘hidden
persuader.’ In our world, such enterprises as public relations, motivational
psychology, market research, and advertising are engaged in searching for effective
stimuli and in creating the proper ‘image.’" Explain how the ethical
appeal of Mr. Collins’ marriage proposal to Elizabeth Bennet (in Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, discussed by Corbett and Connors) serves to
discredit the speaker and undermine his persuasive intentions.
Answer
Mr. Collins inadvertently presents himself as condescending, overly logical,
greedy, and obsequious. He believes that he is giving a persuasive appeal that is
logically compelling and flattering, but it is too logical--too unemotional--to be a
convincing marriage proposal and too full of self-abasement to be true. [EV]
22.* Provide a succinct definition of any three of the following terms: sprezzatura,
connotation, ploce, phatic communion, bdelygmia.
Answer
sprezzatura, ploce, phatic communion, bdelygmia
____________
*Answers provided by Becky Bennetch, Melissa Hill, Eric
Verhine, Ryan Clark, Cecilia Arango, Justin Weilacher, and Amy Murphy