Chapter 1

Review Questions

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Quiz

Put your Chapter 1 knowledge to the test!

Question 1

Which of the following is not considered one of the six social functions of rhetoric?

Ideas are tested

Knowledge is shaped

Advocacy is assisted

Wealth is distributed

None

Question 2

The word rhetor can be defined as:

A type of rhetorical argument

Anyone engaged in preparing or presenting rhetorical discourse

An abbreviation for rhetorical discourse

The name of the ancient Greek city that was the birthplace of rhetoric

None

Question 3

After many instances of racial discrimination are covered in the news, a theater company decides to put on a performance in which a plea for racial harmony is advanced. Which attribute of rhetoric is highlighted from this example?

Rhetoric as conciliatory

Rhetoric as discovering facts

Rhetoric as personal power

Rhetoric as responsive

None

Question 4

The attribute most often associated with rhetoric is its pursuit of persuasion. Though some rhetorical texts try to be more persuasive than others. Which of the following is the most explicitly persuasive?

A presidential candidate’s campaign speech

A news report on a link between stress and childhood obesity

A scientific article on the amount of carbon emissions produced annually

A comedian’s monologue on how bad airline food is

None

Question 5

Issues of power and its distribution have always been central to rhetorical theory.

True

False

None

Question 6

Concerns about the ethical implications of rhetorical persuasion have only recently developed and are largely due to its use in the political arena.

True

False

None

Question 7

One social function of rhetoric is that it brings new facts to light through the clash of arguments.

True

False

None

Question 8

Understanding the art of rhetoric enhances personal power, power, and political power.

Question 9

is defined as discourse characterized by reasons advanced to support a conclusion, as well as reasoning made public with the goal of influencing an audience.

Question 10

Richard Lanham has defined rhetoric as the study of “how attention is created and allocated.” For this reason, he speaks of rhetoric as teaching the

Time’s up

Flashcards

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Essay Questions

1. In Chapter One, a description of rhetorical discourse is advanced. Identify and describe the various characteristics that define the type of discourse called rhetoric. Provide examples of these characteristics in discourse, drawn either from your own experience or from the text.  
2. Chapter One described the art of rhetoric. Identify and describe the social functions this art performs. Illustrate your answer with your own examples, or with examples from the text.  

Weblinks

Dive deeper with hand-picked online resources 

Academic article analyzing emotional rhetoric used during COVID-19 pandemic:  
Widmann, Tobias. “Fear, Hope, and COVID‐19: Emotional Elite Rhetoric and Its Impact on the Public During the First Wave of the COVID‐19 Pandemic.” Political Psychology 43, no. 5 (2022): 827–50.  

“Gravity” composed by Steven Price 

“Karma” performed at Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour 

Trailer of Netflix’s NYAD 

Koko the Gorilla’s use of language 

Recommended Readings

Want to learn more? Check out these bonus readings!  

Michael Billig. Arguing and Thinking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.  

Critical Questions. Ed. W. Nothstine, C. Blair, G. A. Copeland. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994: 350–382.  

Barry Brummett. Rhetoric in Popular Culture. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.  

William A. Covino. Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.  

Richard Leo Enos. Greek Rhetoric Before Aristotle. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 1993.  

Ann Gill. Rhetoric and Human Understanding. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc. 1994.  

Richard B. Gregg. Symbolic Inducement and Knowing: A Study in the Foundations of Rhetoric. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1984.  

George Kennedy. Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient Modern Times. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1980. 

Richard Lanham, The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007).  

Catherine Helen Palczewski, Richard Ice, John Fritch, Ryan McGeough, Rhetoric in Civic Life (Third Edition). State College, PA: Strata, 2022: esp. 104. 

Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000). 

Robin Reames, The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times (New York: Basic, 2024), 9. 

Robert L. Scott. “On Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic.” Central States Speech Journal 18 (February 1967): 9–16.  

Jan Swearinga. Rhetoric and Irony. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.  

The Present State of Scholarship in Historical and Contemporary Rhetoric. Ed. Winifred Bryan Horner. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1990.  

The Present State of Scholarship in the History of Rhetoric: A Twenty-First Century Guide. Ed. Lynée Lewis Gaillet, Winifred Bryan Horner. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2010.  

Brian Vickers. In Defense of Rhetoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.  

Writing Histories of Rhetoric. Ed. Victor Vitanza. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994: 112–127.