EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers

Glossary 484 revision the iterative process of changing a piece of writing. Literally, re-vision: seeing your writing with “fresh eyes” in order to improve it. Includes changes on Global, Local, and Proofreading levels. Changes might include: • rewriting (trying again, perhaps from a different angle or with a different focus) • adding (new information, new ideas, new evidence) • subtracting (unrelated ideas, redundant information, fluff) • rearranging (finding more effective vectors or sequences of organization) • switching out (changing words or phrases, substituting different evidence) • mechanical clean-up (standardizing punctuation, grammar, or formatting) rhetoric a combination of textual strategies designed* to do something to someone. In other words, ‘rhetoric’ refers to language, video, images, or other symbols (or some combination of these) that informs, entertains, persuades, compels, or otherwise impacts an audience. * Note: whether or not a text is deliberately designed to achieve a purpose, it will still have an impact. See authorial intent. rhetorical appeal a means by which a writer or speaker connects with their audience to achieve their purpose. Most commonly refers to logos , pathos , and ethos . rhetorical situation the circumstances in which rhetoric is produced, understood using the constituent elements of subject, occasion, audience, and purpose. Each element of the rhetorical situation carries assumptions and imperatives about the kind of rhetoric that will be well received. Rhetorical situation will also influence mode and medium. Rogerian argument a mode of argument by which an author seeks compromise by bringing different perspectives on an issue into conversation. Acknowledges that no one perspective is absolutely and exclusively ‘right’; values disagreement in order to make moral, political, and practical decisions.