Lesson video

- Hello, Ms. Howard here, welcome to the first lesson in our Writing Using Rhetoric unit.

Now, what we'll do over the course of this unit, is have a look at various different ways of writing where, using rhetorical language can come in handy.

It's a little bit like a secret way of convincing or persuading your reader, without them necessarily being aware of it.

So it's quite nifty.

In this lesson, we'll explore a particular framework that we can use in order to ensure that our argument or our point of view is being put over in the most convincing way possible.

We'll draw on the inspiration of several key speakers throughout history, and use their ideas to form our own framework, which will help us when writing using rhetoric.

We'll put that framework into action by creating our own piece of writing, which is really exciting.

And then we'll close this by thinking about why a framework is so important, particularly when we're talking about using rhetoric.

For now, I'll need you to close down any apps or conversations that you might have running in the background.

For today's lesson you'll need a pen and something to write on, find yourself a quiet space where you know that you're not going to be disturbed, and then we'll get started.

So in the lesson, we're going to explore key uses of rhetoric and apply their principles for creating our own framework for rhetoric that can be used in different scenarios.

We're going to use this framework as a solid starting point for our own writing using rhetoric, and return to it over and again throughout the entire unit.

We'll think about why it's particularly important to have a framework, to make sure that you make an impact on your reader or your audience.

I'll be showing you some live demonstrations of how to plan out your ideas for writing using rhetoric, before you even get started on the writing itself.

So over the course of the unit, we're going to explore the rhetoric framework.

So how to create a framework that will then feed into these three different types of forms, written forms, where we can use rhetoric and action.

So over the course of the unit, we'll look at articles, speeches and advertisements, and how they make use of rhetoric in order to convince, or inspire, or just persuade, or manipulate people in some way.

Today, we're going to have a look at this idea of the rhetoric framework, a framework that you can use to base all of your rhetorical writing.

So we'll start by thinking, how we order and organise rhetoric effectively.

So we'll draw from, see where our knowledge is at, our prior knowledge of rhetoric, and then put that into action to think about what comes when, in what order.

What is particularly useful to be at the start, what is particularly useful to be later on, and why that might be.

Then, we'll put that framework into action.

And I'll show you a series of demonstrations as to how you can do that.

Then we'll finish up the lesson today, with thinking about, why, why is a framework useful when writing rhetoric, or writing generally, but particularly, for this type of writing.

Now to speak or write persuasively, when we're using rhetoric, we need to consider these three aspects from the Aristotelian Triad.

Aristotle outlined very clearly, that attempting to persuade anybody or arguing, putting a convincing argument across, would be absolutely empty, without a blend of these three key aspects.

Ethos, is how trustworthy or credible you appear to the audience.

They have to feel convinced that you are somebody who genuinely cares about the topic or the idea that you're talking about.

Logos, is the content of your speech that makes your argument logical and well-evidenced.

It's the proof of your opinion or argument to back yourself up.

It might be facts, figures, an expert opinion, or just your knowledge and experience of the topic itself.

Lastly, pathos.

Now, pathos is to what extent you have evoked, so managed to get out of, an emotional response from your audience.

So how have you left your audience feeling as a result of you speaking or in this instance, writing? Using hyperbole or directly addressing the audience makes your ideas really memorable.

So the pathos within speaking or writing, and the memorable lines, the lines that have stayed with you usually, which is why hyperbole or figurative language, normally features within pathos.

But we have to get an idea that all three of these areas of rhetoric have been thought about and considered, in the piece of writing that we're reading.

It's simply not enough for us to use one or two of these aspects of the Aristotelian Triad.

We have to attempt to create a blend of ethos, logos and pathos, almost as though we're mixing a cake, because the idea that we can just throw loads of facts at an audience, won't necessarily convince them, it just shows them that we know loads of stuff.

At the same way, that if we attempt to make them feel guilty, or make them feel sad about a particular situation, without providing the facts, we're probably going to fail in convincing them to feel sad or guilty at the situation, because we haven't necessarily highlighted why it's important.

If we don't build trust with the audience, then we're going nowhere fast, because they're not going to believe a word that we say.

So that's why the three elements of that triad are so important when we're talking about rhetoric.

Now the task that we're going to work towards today, I thought I'd share it with you early on, so that we can come back to it and keep it in the back of our minds, as we're looking at the various different ways of building up a framework of rhetoric.

So the writing tasks that we're going to cover today is, should we lower the legal age to drive, to 13 years old? Now we're going to use a rhetoric framework, that we learn about today, in order to plan or put to use, you can plan and write your own speech, outlining your views on this topic.

But the most important element today is that we build a framework so that we're able to effectively use rhetoric, to answer all views on that question.

But just for now you might want to think about where your opinion lies in response to that question itself.

So let's start with that.

So should we lower the legal age to drive at 13 years old? Absolutely! Or, definitely not, Ms. Howard.

What I'd like you to do is draw out the table and write out your own ideas for both sides of the argument.

I've given you some to start you off here.

So let's see on one side, we've got young people should have the freedom, so the freedom to drive.

It might cut down on having to get parents to take their children absolutely everywhere, and it will help them to prepare for the future.

So, mm, that's a valid reason, this idea of building an independence, interesting.

Let's have a look at the other side.

So we've got, there would be an increase to traffic accidents.

Yes, probably so.

We might want to include some, maybe some facts and figures around that, to make sure that we're backing ourselves up.

And they don't have their own income, who would pay for their cars? That's a very good question.

That's my idea to start you off.

Draw around the table and add your own ideas to both sides of the argument.

We'll come back to this later on.

So let's have a think about how we organise our ideas and then we'll be in a position to put our framework into action.

Now, we may actually, and these are quite nicely ordered, so that we use this framework within our rhetoric.

So ethos, to open using ethos, might be quite a good idea.

Because as I said before, if your audience doesn't trust you, or your reader doesn't trust you, you're probably not going to get very far in convincing them that what you're saying is valid and correct.

So opening with a focus on building ethos, allows you as a writer to build the reader's trust.

And it also helps you, gives you the opportunity, to demonstrate why the topic is so important.

You can't really discuss a topic, share lots of facts or figures or expert opinions, if you haven't actually explained why the topic is important to you to begin with.

Why it is that you've decided to write about it.

So once we've got the reader's trust, then we can move on to thinking about how to incorporate logos.

So remember, logos is building our facts, our figures, our expert opinions, or just our own extensive knowledge of a subject.

So once we've got that trust, we can then include logos, and it's probably going to be really well received at this point, by the reader or the audience, because they believe us to be credible.

They believe that we know what we're talking about and that we really care, because we've spent time building a sense of ethos.

So, pathos.

Pathos is about making our writing or our speaking unforgettable.

There are figurative language moments there, this will blow you away, this is out of this world.

Now, incredible statements like that, deserve to be remembered.

So we want to put them in the final part of our writing or our speaking.

So once the writer and speaker has built a sense of ethos, so build up the trust with the reader or audience, provided a really solid argument that backs themselves up with evidence using logos.

Then the reader will need to experience pathos, to ensure the writing of speech is unforgettable.

So this is the opportunity for you to make sure that your audience reacts in an emotional way, to whatever it is that's being said.

Now it all depends on obviously the topic that you're writing about.

You might want to make them feel worried, you might want to make them feel guilty, you might want them to just have an overwhelming sense of sadness.

Whatever it is, this is your opportunity to do it.

Because by including it in the final part, it means that they're then going to go away and that will be the part that they heard, the last.

That will be the final part of your speech that they're going to go away and it's fresh in their mind.

So we need to make it unforgettable.

Let's have a look in a little bit more detail, and I'll show you how this might look, within a piece of writing.

So let's start with our opening of our framework.

If we've got this framework, this three-part framework of ethos, logos, pathos, what might it look like? So when we're opening a rhetoric speech or a piece of writing, we need to open with the intention of building trust.

Now that normally comes through and perhaps use of personal pronouns.

So we, our, us, to almost assume that this topic is as important to the reader as it is you.

Or essentially, talking as though this is a kind of level discussion where everybody's in agreement.

And we just make that assumption as a writer, that everybody is already going to agree with us, that this is an important topic.

Explicitly outlining, this is important to me.

So you might actually say, this is a really important topic to me because, and explain your ideas there.

Or, including anecdotes.

Now, anecdotes are short, interesting stories.

They usually personal stories so it might be about a friend, or it might be about yourself, but they're short, interesting stories that make the topic, essentially have a real-life quality to it.

It makes it sound as though it's happening to people around us, or it's happening to us, whatever the topic is about.

And I'll show you what this looks like in just a moment.

Anecdotes are really useful for building trust because they give that real-life quality, and that human quality, we feel like the speaker or the writer is one of us and they understand what it's like.

So it's building that sense of empathy.

You understand what each of those lives are like.

These three elements are really useful for building a sense of ethos.

If you want to pause the video here and note them down before I show you a demonstration, please do go ahead.

So this is my three-part plan, we're going to start with ethos.

And so we're looking at building up a series of bullet points that we might be able to use, to develop the trust of my reader.

But also to build a sense of credibility that what I'm writing about really matters to me.

So, I need my use of personal pronouns.

So we need to, or us all, might be really helpful for that.

I need to make sure that I create this explicit outline to show why this is important to me.

So, I'm going to make use of our, this is rudimental.

And what you want to do within your plan is almost have some phrases just mapped out, that you can then make into sentences.

I might also want to talk about.

Ooh, yeah, sort of thing around the risks, want to make it quite obvious that I disagree, or at least give a little bit of a hint.

And then I need to think about an anecdote.

So I'm going to write about myself at 13.

So I've got a series of ideas, I've made use of personal pronouns, I've made use of our fantastic word, fundamental.

I'm going to make it obvious that I think this is risky.

That that's where my opinion lies.

And then I'm also going to use myself at 13, as an example.

So what might this look like in a piece of writing? Okay, so.

Let's use our, we need to consider the safety of everyone on our roads.

This decision affects us all.

Okay, so I've used my, we need to and us all.

This is a fundamental.

Mm, I think, fundamentally dangerous suggestion.

And then I'll include my anecdote.

At 13 there's no way on earth that I, that I what? What couldn't I do at 13 other than drive? Could be trusted with the car.

Here we go.

So I've got my personal pronoun.

Our, affects us all.

This is a fundamentally dangerous decision.

Fundamentally any dangerous suggestion.

At 13 there's no way on earth I could be trusted with a car.

So I've got my anecdote there as well.

So it's a really nice introduction that builds a sense of trust because it sounds really important to me, I'm talking about safety.

I'm talking about affecting us all, I'm talking about dangerous.

And I'm talking about the I cliche, that even I, as a trustworthy speaker, couldn't be, or writer, couldn't be trusted with a car.

So it develops a really strong sense of ethos, but it also shares my opinion on the matter as well.

So next up, in the second part of our rhetoric framework, we have introducing and building logos.

Now logos, remember, is the proof of your argument.

So it's establishing why your viewpoint is the correct viewpoint.

So this could include facts or figures, statistics, or an expert opinion, an expert in that field.

So if we were talking about medical opinion, we perhaps get a doctor in.

If we were looking at something around education, we might get a professor and a quotation from them, but it really is backing yourself up.

The other thing that we included within logos, and this might sound a little strange, but stay with me, is including the possible counter-argument.

So it's including what the people think the other side of the argument.

So for example, who think that we should lower the legal age to 13 years old might say.

So this is where, if you come back to your table, this is why I got you to include both sides of the argument here.

So the possible counter-argument that some people might say, or some might say, argument, because we can use that argument so we can anticipate, what the other side might say, and might try and pick apart our argument with, to then bring in, however, and convince, convince, convince, with some really strong arguments.

So actually by including that counter-argument, it makes our own argument stronger.

Now, before we explore what logos looks like in action, we need to understand what a counter-argument is.

A counter-argument, is an argument or a set of reasons put forward to oppose an idea or theory, developed in another argument.

It's the other side of an argument.

So if you agree, the counter-argument would be the person who disagrees.

It's taken from the Latin, contra, meaning, go against or oppose.

And you have a great deal of words that use, counter, to oppose something, counterpart, counter attack, so the person attacking back.

Counteroffer, would be if you've made an offer and to buy something and you say, "I want to pay this much for it." And the counteroffer is the price of the other person coming back and saying, "No, I'd like you to pay this much." So, counter has lots of uses in that sense.

In this context, counter-argument is our other side of the argument, the opposing argument.

Okay, so if we're fixing now on logos, and we're moving on from the that paragraph of building ethos, I need to think about facts, figures, some experts, as well as my counter-argument.

So, I'm going to create, now remember, you can make statistics up.

So your facts and figures don't need to be real-life ones, they just need to sound believable.

So I'm going to put 80% of something, 80% of traffic accidents, I'm going to use that because 80% sounds really high.

Doesn't it? But believably high.

If I'd said like 90% or 99%, it might sound too high, that it doesn't sound realistic.

So I'm trying to be realistic with my statistics.

I'm also going to have my, some might say, statement, on doubt.

And then, obviously to turn that argument around, I need a, however, statement.

And I remember to do my, I, I, I, to think about how I'm going to use personal pronouns.

So let's give it a go and think about what it looks like in action.

So, 80% of road traffic accidents are caused by drivers under the age of, and now we have to make it sound believable, don't we? Because you only meant to drive at 17, so you have to make it sound credible.

21 years of age.

Mm.

I also want to put an expert in there somewhere.

So, let's have Police Officer Harris, outlines, or I could have, explains, this suggestion is mind-boggling.

The idea that a 13-year-old could make choices behind a wheel that could impact them forever, is, now I want a really nice hyperbole here.

So we need a really dramatic word.

So we've already said it's mind-boggling, maybe we just going to say, astounding.

That to be so shocked.

So, I've got a really nice sense of logos here.

I've got my use of statistics, and then I've also got Police Officer Harris in there as well.

Now I also need to think about my counter-argument, so I need to have a look back over my plan and think about which counter-argument is most convincing.

So I'd probably say something around the idea of independence.

So, some might say, driving at a younger age will, in quite formal language, ensure teenagers are responsible? That's not quite right, independent? Independent works.

It makes it sound like they're going to learn something.

And I call this doubling-up.

I think it's always good when you're making a point to explain at least two ideas, so, independent and let's use our responsible.

Then, we need to condense.

However, as deaths on the road rise rapidly, I feel, remember, our however, is our opportunity for personal pronoun, to really hammer it home.

I feel it is my duty and right, notice that doubling-up again.

To highlight, I could have, emphasise, I can have, reinforce, there.

This idea has now, I think a really good way to hammer your point home it's a tricolon, but need to think of the right words.

I definitely want to start with, ridiculous, irresponsible, and not worth consideration.

Mm, see, I think it's lost its power at the end, because if I read that back, I feel it is my duty and right to highlight this idea as ridiculous, irresponsible and not worth consideration.

Not worth consideration, really kind of extends it a little bit, doesn't it? Let's think of some more powerful words.

Instead of this, let's play on that alliterated sound of, ridiculous, irresponsible and reckless.

Reckless as if you don't really care about something as this, another word for irresponsible, so that's really nice.

However, as deaths on the road rise rapidly, I feel it is my duty and right to highlight this idea, as ridiculous, irresponsible and reckless.

That's really nice.

We've got our personal pronoun in here.

We've got our, however, while we perhaps rise it home, and then we've got our tricolon here.

The three reasons as to why we think that the counter-argument doesn't stand up.

So we've created a strong sense of ethos in our opening, we've established our opinion, we've explained why.

We've also built the reader's trust in us, so that they feel that we care about what we're talking about and that we're genuine.

We've then moved on to backup our argument with evidence, with anticipated counter-argument and then we've gone on and outlined why it's incorrect, and actually why our opinion is more justified.

Now we've got to close this with a series of ways to appeal to the readers' pathos.

So by that we mean, we need to make them react, with a particular emotion.

Now that might be to act upon the advice, it might be that they're motivated to go away and do something about the idea of reducing the legal driving age.

Whatever it is that we want them to do, we want them to feel motivated, by our words, to do so.

So we need to think about the final words that we include here, will be the words that will be most memorable to them.

So let's have a look at how we can go about that.

Well, we can include a great deliver emotive language here.

This is language that really pulls at the heartstrings, language that will make them feel moved, or guilty, or responsible.

A sense of personal responsibility always works here.

We can directly address the reader, using you and your, so that they feel a personal sense of responsibility to act on our words.

And finally, we'll always plan out off final line.

It's usually the most memorable.

We really want to end on a grand note, and this is really good practise for any type of writing, really, to plan out your final line, your powerful line, before you even write the entire piece.

It gives you a sense of direction, so you know where you're working towards.

Anaphora works really well for closing, when you're writing, using rhetoric.

So, anaphora, is that repetition, if you remember, at the beginning of a sentence or applause, so that repetition of, for example, Martin Luther King's, "I have a dream, I have a dream, I have a dream." That anaphora phrase that is used over and over again.

So we might want to try and do that in our final section.

Let's see what that looks like in practise.

Now we need to think about our closing pathos, where we're going to appeal to the audience to feel moved, to either act or at least agree with us.

And the fact that this idea really isn't well thought out at all.

And we don't want to put 13-year-olds, or even 15-year-olds or 16-year-olds behind the wheel of a car.

But we really need to play on the idea of children don't we? So I would start very much with something along the lines of, children are and should be precious, protected, and most of all, cherished.

I urge you, notice that direct address, I'm involving the audience here.

To take the time to imagine the awful outcome of putting people so young on our roads, before they are ready.

So I'm really involving my audience here, because I'm playing on the fact that I hope that they understand the innocence of children.

So I'm playing to that empathy, that hopefully that we all feel for anything children.

So children are and should be precious, protected and most of all, cherished.

So I've even thought about the order of my three things I'm at mine in there.

I urge you, so that personal pronoun, more importantly, direct address.

To take the time to imagine the awful outcome of putting people so young on our roads, before they are ready.

We have awful and so, that are really emotive here.

Okay, now we need to plan out our final line.

Now our final line, didn't we say before, anaphora would be a really nice way to end this.

So something that repeats the same idea over and over again, whatever it is that we want our audience, or our reader, to remember as the final words.

So, let's think.

Make a choice, make a choice, or for us, make a choice for them.

And then, keep our children safe.

So I'm still building on this idea of danger and safety.

So we've got this anaphora make, make, make, make a choice, make a choice for us, make a choice for them, keep our children safe.

So that final line is our imperative, isn't it? Of telling them what to do.

Just to being quite kind with it and reassuring with it, that maybe they won't notice that we're telling them what to do.

But that imperative to close is really, really powerful.

So, have a go at this multiple choice question.

Why is it useful to build ethos at the beginning of your rhetoric writing? Pick two answers here.

Fantastic work, if you've got option one and option two.

Building ethos at the beginning of our writing, builds trust with the reader, and it also shows the reader that you care.

Let's have a go at this one.

How can you close your writing in a memorable way? So think about the final section of our rhetoric framework.

How can we close our writing in a memorable way? Pick two answers here.

Brilliant work, if you've got option one and option three.

We can close our writing in a memorable way by directly addressing the reader, or planning out and writing a powerful final line.

Well done.

So, let's have a look at our original writing task.

Should we lower the legal age to drive to 13 years? What I'd like you to do, using your knowledge and some of the examples that I've given you through demonstrating what this might look like in a series of sentences, I'd like you to plan, or plan and write, your own speech, outlining your views on this topic.

So it might be the fact that you think we should lower the legal age to drive at 13 years.

If that is the case, then your counter-argument, will obviously explain some reasons as to people that don't agree, so you might use some of my examples.

But whichever you agree with, make sure that your counter-argument, counter, opposing, other side, the other side of your argument disagrees with your ideas.

Have a think about where you're using the framework, so that the first section, the opening part of your speech is building ethos.

The middle part is building logos, so your expert's opinion and your facts and figures, and the final part of your speech really appeals to pathos for your audience.

If you're happy to plan or write on your own at this point, then by all means get cracking.

If you still feel like you need a little bit of support, continue to watch the video and I'll provide you with some strategies to do so.

If you're pressing pause here to get started, brilliant.

So don't forget, you've got your existing table of ideas to pull from.

If you were struggling to complete your ideas, then use some of mine from that table to help you out with that.

If at this point, you feel that you're happy to plan and write out your speech, giving your views in answer to that question, Should we lower the legal age to drive at 13 years old, then press pause here and get started.

If you feel like you still need a little bit of help to get going, continue to watch the video.

Okay, so here's our step of rhetoric.

So we're going to focus on ethos at the beginning, really moving on to building a sense of logos, so this idea of facts and figures, and the proof behind our argument, and closing by appealing to our audience's pathos, so being really emotive with our language in that powerful final line that we plan.

The help to get started is on the right hand side so I've given you some sentence starters that might help you to include the different arguments, the different ideas, sorry, within your argument.

Pause the video here and then I'd like you to plan, or plan and write your speech in full using that rhetoric framework of ethos for section one, logos for section two, pathos for section three.

Best of luck.

So let's finish up the lesson today by thinking about why we need a framework for writing rhetoric.

Well, using a framework is really good practise and building really good habits for writing generally.

If we were going to write a piece of descriptive writing, we'd plan first.

If we were going to write a newspaper article, we'd plan first.

And so whatever type of writing you're putting together, it works really well for you to plan out your ideas first of all.

It avoids us repeating ourselves and using the same ideas to back ourselves up, or explain things.

It also makes sure that we have a sense of direction before we even get started on writing.

So for example, we planned out off final line didn't we? Before we even knew what the whole piece of writing, the whole speech, looked like.

So a framework is really useful because it gives you a sense of direction when you're writing.

It also makes sure, particularly for things like rhetoric, that we've considered, we've anticipated, the counter-argument, we've thought through what the best possible argument would come from the opposition could be, so that we can plan our own idea, to make sure that our argument is stronger.

Rhetoric is all about preparing yourself for an argument, a civilised argument, but an argument all the same.

And so you need to plan out your ideas, to make sure that you have the best proof, the best counter-argument, and the best emotive language to get the audience to agree with you, and not the other side.

Fantastic work today.

If you'd like to share your work with Oak National, please ask your parent or carer to share your work, with Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and the hashtag, @LearnwithOak.

Brilliant work today, you've taken quite a lot on, and there were plenty of challenges along the way as well.

So, fantastic for staying focused, and for putting together a really strong plan, or piece of writing that shares your views using rhetoric.

Now we'll be using that framework and revisiting it for the next couple of lessons throughout the unit, as we explore different ways to use rhetoric within writing.

So, hang on to that three-part plan.

Keep it in mind.

I'd like you to do two things for me today before we finish up.

I'd like you to write down three things that you have learned within the lesson today.

It could be particular devices that you didn't know could be used for a particular area, or aspects of the triad.

It might be the triad itself, whatever you've taken away from the lesson, it's fantastic write down there.

The second thing I'd like you to do, is complete your quiz, because I'm really interested to see what you have learned and you should be as well, because you've worked really hard.

Take care and I'll see you soon.