| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| audience | The intended readers or listeners for whom a writer creates an argument or message. |
| background | An audience's experiences, education, cultural context, and prior knowledge that shape how they interpret an argument. |
| belief | The convictions or principles that an audience holds to be true, which influence how they interpret and respond to an argument. |
| context | The circumstances, background, and setting in which writing occurs that influence how a message is crafted and received. |
| exigence | The problem, issue, or circumstance that prompts a writer to create an argument or communicate a message. |
| message | The main idea or content that a writer communicates to an audience. |
| need | The requirements, interests, or concerns of an audience that a writer must address to make an argument persuasive and relevant. |
| occasion | The specific event, circumstance, or reason that prompts a writer to create a particular text. |
| place | The geographic location or cultural setting in which a text is created, affecting its perspective and subject matter. |
| purpose | The intended goal or objective of a piece of writing, such as to persuade, inform, entertain, or explain. |
| rhetorical situation | The context in which communication occurs, including the exigence, audience, writer, purpose, context, and message. |
| time | The historical period or era in which a text is written, which influences its content, language, and relevance. |
| value | The principles or standards of behavior that an audience considers important or desirable. |
| writer | The person who creates and presents an argument or message to an audience. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| analogy | Extended comparisons that explain how two things are similar in structure or function to clarify a complex idea. |
| anecdote | A brief, personal story or account used as examples to illustrate a point or support a claim. |
| claim | A statement or assertion that a writer makes and must support with evidence and reasoning in an argument. |
| defense | The support, evidence, or reasoning provided to justify or prove the validity of a claim. |
| detail | Specific pieces of information that provide support, clarification, or evidence for a claim. |
| examples | Specific instances or cases used to illustrate or support a general claim or idea. |
| experiments | Controlled procedures or tests conducted to gather evidence and test hypotheses or claims. |
| expert opinions | Judgments or conclusions from individuals with specialized knowledge or authority in a particular field. |
| facts | Statements or information that are known to be true and can be verified or proven. |
| illustrations | Visual representations or examples used to clarify or demonstrate a concept or claim. |
| personal experiences | Events or situations that an individual has directly lived through or encountered. |
| personal observations | Direct observations or perceptions made by an individual based on their own experience. |
| position | A stance or viewpoint on a subject that represents what someone believes or argues about an issue. |
| statistics | Numerical data or facts collected and analyzed to support claims or demonstrate patterns. |
| testimonies | Firsthand accounts or statements from witnesses or individuals with direct knowledge of an event or claim. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| claim | A statement or assertion that a writer makes and must support with evidence and reasoning in an argument. |
| defense | The support, evidence, or reasoning provided to justify or prove the validity of a claim. |
| evidence | Supporting details, examples, and information used to prove or defend a thesis. |
| justification | The reasoning and evidence used to explain why a claim is valid or true. |
| paraphrased | A restatement of source material in the writer's own words while maintaining the original meaning. |
| quoted | The direct reproduction of exact words from a source, typically enclosed in quotation marks. |
| source material | Information, evidence, or ideas obtained from external sources such as texts, articles, or research that writers incorporate into their arguments. |
| summarized | A condensed version of source material that captures the main ideas in fewer words. |
| syntactically embedding | The grammatical integration of quoted, paraphrased, or summarized information from sources into a writer's own sentences and ideas. |