Rhetorical Devices & Stylistic Choices

Identify two specific rhetorical devices in the extract. Name each device, quote the example, and explain its intended effect.

Which of Aristotle's three appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) is most dominant in this extract? Justify your answer with evidence.

Who do you think the intended audience is, and how do the rhetorical choices reflect that audience?

Identify three rhetorical devices in this extract. For each: name the device, quote the example, and explain the effect.

Who is the implied audience? How do the rhetorical choices position this audience?

Which appeal (ethos, pathos, logos) dominates? Is this appropriate for the context?

Your persuasive paragraph:

Label the rhetorical devices you used and explain the effect you intended for each.

Copy or paste the extract here:

List every rhetorical device you can identify, with quotation and effect for each:

Write a 150-word rhetorical analysis of the extract as a whole:

Describe two specific ways a speaker can build ethos in a speech or piece of writing.

Describe two ways an opponent might attempt to undermine or attack a speaker's ethos.

Find a real example of a public figure whose ethos was significantly damaged. How did this affect the reception of their arguments?

Define each of the following fallacies and give an original example of each: ad hominem, slippery slope, false dichotomy, appeal to authority (misused), straw man.

Find one example of a logical fallacy in a real text (a speech, article or advertisement). Quote the example and explain the fallacy.

Name the two speeches and briefly describe their context:

Compare how each speaker constructs ethos. What specific strategies do they use?

Where do the rhetorical strategies of the two speeches diverge most significantly? What does this reveal about their different contexts?

Describe the advertisement: what product, what images, what text?

Identify the primary appeal (ethos, pathos, logos). Quote or describe specific evidence from the advertisement.

Identify at least two rhetorical devices used in the advertisement. Explain their intended effect.

Who is the target audience and how do the rhetorical choices reflect that audience?

Find a news article on a topic you find interesting. Identify two rhetorical choices the journalist makes (these could be word choice, framing, selection of sources, or use of images described in captions). Explain the effect.

Who is positioned as the authority in this article? How is their credibility established?

Rewrite one paragraph of the article with a different rhetorical approach. What changes?

Choose a debatable topic and write your central claim:

Write a paragraph that concedes one valid counterargument and then refutes it with specific evidence:

Reflect: does the concession make your argument feel stronger or weaker? Why?

Find a historical speech that you think was especially powerful partly because of its timing. Explain the historical context.

How might the same speech have been received differently if delivered at a different moment in history?

Can you think of a contemporary moment where kairos is shaping political rhetoric? Describe it.

Choose one form of digital communication (e.g. Twitter/X, TikTok, a podcast). What rhetorical strategies does this form favour? What constraints does it impose?

How does the affordances of the platform shape the rhetoric? (For example: character limits force brevity; video allows tone and body language to supplement words.)

Analyse one specific example of effective digital rhetoric. What makes it persuasive in its medium?

Your speech:

Annotate your speech: circle and label every rhetorical device and appeal you used.

Reflect: which devices felt most natural to use? Which were challenging? Why?

Your rhetorical analysis:

Find one example of a speech that used rhetoric to challenge an unjust power structure. Identify two specific rhetorical strategies and explain how they served the speaker's purpose.

Find one example of rhetoric used to maintain or advance an unjust cause. What rhetorical devices were used? How did they work?

What does this comparison suggest about the ethics of rhetorical skill?

Choose a speech delivered by a fictional character (from a play, novel or film). Name the text and describe the context of the speech.

Analyse the speech using rhetorical frameworks: identify at least three devices, the dominant appeal, and the intended effect on the fictional audience.

How does the author's use of rhetoric in this speech reveal something about the character's motives or the text's themes?

Name the speech and describe its rhetorical situation (speaker, audience, purpose, occasion):

Evaluate the effectiveness of the speaker's appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. For each: what strategy was used, and did it work for this specific audience?

If you were advising this speaker, what would you change about their rhetorical choices, and why?

Choose a speech or persuasive text. Identify two significant omissions — things a critical audience might expect to be addressed that the speaker does not mention.

What is the rhetorical effect of these omissions? Who benefits from them, and who might be misled?

Write a 'missing paragraph' that addresses one of the omissions. How does adding it change the overall argument?

Define 'post-truth politics'. How does it relate to the classical relationship between rhetoric and truth?

Find one example of rhetoric that uses emotionally compelling language to communicate a claim that lacks factual support. Analyse the rhetorical strategies used.

What responsibility does a rhetorically skilled speaker have to the truth? What happens to public discourse when that responsibility is abandoned?

Speech 1 (Position A): 150-200 words, using at least three rhetorical devices:

Speech 2 (Position B): 150-200 words, using at least three rhetorical devices:

Reflect: which side was harder to argue? What does that difficulty reveal about your own assumptions?

Your essay:

Watch a great speech and pay attention to where the speaker pauses. Choose three specific pauses and describe what effect they create.

In written rhetoric, how can a writer create the equivalent of the spoken pause? Give two examples from texts you have studied.

Write a short paragraph (5-7 sentences) that deliberately uses fragmentation, ellipsis or short sentences to create rhetorical pauses.

Select two pieces of your writing from this worksheet that you are proudest of. Explain why you chose each one and what it demonstrates about your rhetorical skill.

Identify one specific area where your rhetorical analysis has improved over the course of this worksheet. What changed?

Write a 150-word self-set challenge: what rhetorical skill do you want to develop next, and how will you practise it?

Your rhetorical analysis (35-minute timed response):

Self-evaluation: what did you do well? What would you add with more time?

Find an editorial or opinion piece from a quality newspaper or magazine. Identify three specific rhetorical devices used and explain the effect of each.

Who is the intended audience for this piece? How do the rhetorical choices reflect the writer's assumptions about their audience?

Do you find this piece persuasive? Why or why not? Is your response affected by your existing views on the topic?

Choose a topic you feel strongly about. Write a 200-word persuasive paragraph that naturally incorporates at least three rhetorical devices. Do not make the devices feel forced or artificial — let them serve your argument.

Now annotate your paragraph: underline each rhetorical device and note its effect. Did any devices appear that you had not planned to use?

Think of a political speech, advertisement, or public statement that was delivered at a particularly significant moment (e.g. in response to a crisis, on an anniversary, at a turning point). How did the timing of the message contribute to its impact?

Can you think of an example where a message failed because its timing was poor? What can this teach us about the role of kairos in persuasion?

Find a historical or contemporary example of propaganda. What rhetorical techniques does it use? How do these techniques work to create an emotional or ideological effect?

What distinguishes propaganda from legitimate persuasion? Is the distinction always clear? Where does it become blurry?

How do you protect yourself from being manipulated by propaganda? What critical reading or thinking habits help?

Choose three advertisements (print, online, or TV). For each, identify the primary rhetorical appeal used (ethos, pathos, logos) and one specific rhetorical device. Explain how each device serves the advertisement's purpose.

Which advertisement do you find most rhetorically effective? Which do you find most manipulative? Is there a difference?

Think about a time you successfully persuaded someone of something (in a conversation, in writing, or in a different context). What rhetorical strategies did you use, consciously or unconsciously?

Think about a time your persuasion failed. What went wrong? Which rhetorical element (ethos, pathos, or logos) was weakest? What would you do differently?

Write three 'rhetorical intentions' for yourself as a writer and speaker: specific habits or strategies you want to develop in your own communication.

Write a 200-word personal reflection: how has your understanding of rhetoric changed through this worksheet? What do you now notice in texts — written, spoken, visual — that you did not notice before?

Identify the three rhetorical techniques you now understand most deeply. For each: give a definition, an example from any text, and an explanation of why it works.

Set one specific goal for how you will use rhetorical awareness in your writing or speaking over the next month.

Find three social media posts or comments that are attempting to persuade (on any platform). For each, identify: the main claim, the rhetorical appeal used (ethos/pathos/logos), and any specific rhetorical devices. Evaluate how effective each is.

How does the medium (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) constrain or shape the rhetorical choices available? What can a 280-character tweet do rhetorically that a long essay cannot, and vice versa?

Choose a topic you care about. Write a 3-minute persuasive speech (approximately 400–450 words) that uses at least four rhetorical devices and addresses all three appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) at some point.

Annotate your speech: underline each rhetorical device and label it. Identify the moment where you establish ethos, appeal to pathos, and use logos.

Read your speech aloud and time it. What works well when heard rather than read? What would you change?

Find one example of a logical fallacy in any text (an advertisement, a news comment, a political speech, or everyday conversation). Name the fallacy and explain why it is fallacious.

Write a refutation of the fallacious argument — explain why the reasoning does not hold, and what a stronger version of the argument would look like.

Write a 250-word synthesis: what are the three most important things you now understand about how language is used to persuade? How has this understanding changed how you experience the texts and communications around you?

Describe a specific situation — past or future — where rhetorical awareness could make a meaningful difference in your life. How would you approach it differently now than before you studied rhetoric?

Name one rhetorical technique or concept that you want to explore further. How will you do so?

Find two pieces of environmental communication — one from a scientific or advocacy perspective, one from a sceptical or industry perspective. Compare the rhetorical strategies used: appeals, devices, tone, framing. What does the comparison reveal about how rhetoric shapes public debate on complex issues?

What special rhetorical challenges does scientific communication face that political persuasion does not? How do scientists communicate uncertainty persuasively?

Find an example of storytelling used as a rhetorical device in any non-fiction text (a speech, essay, advertisement, or news article). How does the story work rhetorically — what emotional or argumentative work does it do?

Write a short personal story (100 words) that could be used rhetorically to support an argument on any social issue. Identify the argument it supports and explain how the story creates the effect.

What is the single most valuable thing you have learned about rhetoric and how language persuades? Why is it valuable — for your reading, your writing, or your life?

How has studying rhetoric changed the way you experience being an audience — of speeches, advertising, news, social media, or everyday conversation?

What one aspect of rhetoric do you want to explore further in your independent reading or study?

Write a letter (real or imagined) to a person in authority advocating for something you believe in — a policy change, a local issue, an educational decision. Use at least four rhetorical devices and all three appeals. Annotate your choices.

Reflect: which rhetorical choices felt most natural? Which felt forced? What does this tell you about the relationship between rhetoric and authenticity?

Take a piece of persuasive writing you have produced for this worksheet or any other context. Annotate every deliberate rhetorical choice: label each technique, identify the appeal used, and note the intended effect.

What pattern of rhetorical choices do you notice in your own writing? What does this reveal about your communicative strengths and habits?

Write a 200-word statement about what rhetoric means to you now — as a reader, a writer, and a person navigating a world full of persuasive messages. What will you carry forward from this study?

What is one piece of rhetoric — a text, a speech, a campaign, or an argument — that you want to study more deeply as a result of what you have learned here?

Over the next week, keep a brief daily log (2–3 sentences per day) of one rhetorical act you notice in your environment — an advertisement, a news headline, a political statement, a social media post, or an everyday conversation. What pattern emerges across the week?

What does this week of observation reveal about the ubiquity of rhetoric in daily life? How has your awareness changed what you notice?

Identify an aspect of rhetoric — a device, an appeal, a historical period, a particular communicator — that you want to research further. Write a 200-word plan for how you will explore it: what will you read, watch, or practice?

Select one piece of persuasive writing and one example of rhetorical analysis from this worksheet that represent your best work. Write a 200-word reflection on what each piece demonstrates about your current level as a rhetorical thinker and communicator.

Set yourself three specific rhetorical goals for Year 11 — one for reading, one for writing, and one for speaking.

Write a 150-word letter to your Year 8 self, explaining what you now understand about how language is used to persuade — and why it matters.

What is the single most important thing a young person should know about rhetoric in the digital age? How would you explain it to someone who has never studied it?