| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| appeal | Rhetorical strategies used to persuade or convince an audience, including logical, emotional, and ethical approaches. |
| 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. |
| emotion | Feelings and affective responses that writers appeal to in order to connect with and persuade their audience. |
| modes of persuasion | The primary methods or techniques used to persuade an audience, such as ethos, pathos, and logos. |
| motivate action | To inspire or encourage an audience to take a specific course of action or change their behavior. |
| need | The requirements, interests, or concerns of an audience that a writer must address to make an argument persuasive and relevant. |
| persuade | To convince or influence an audience to accept a particular viewpoint or argument. |
| purpose | The intended goal or objective of a piece of writing, such as to persuade, inform, entertain, or explain. |
| rhetorical choices | Deliberate decisions a writer makes regarding language, tone, structure, and evidence to persuade or communicate with a specific audience. |
| value | The principles or standards of behavior that an audience considers important or desirable. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| amplify | To use evidence to strengthen, emphasize, or expand upon a point to make it more powerful or convincing. |
| apt support | Evidence that is appropriate and well-suited to effectively backing up the claims made in an argument. |
| argument | A position or claim supported by reasoning and evidence presented to persuade an audience. |
| associate | To use evidence to connect or link ideas, concepts, or points together in an argument. |
| audience | The intended readers or listeners for whom a writer creates an argument or message. |
| clarify | To use evidence to make a point or idea more clear and easier to understand. |
| credibility | The quality of being trustworthy and believable, established through the use of reliable evidence and sound reasoning. |
| evidence | Supporting details, examples, and information used to prove or defend a thesis. |
| exemplify | To use specific examples or evidence to demonstrate or illustrate a general point or principle. |
| illustrate | To use evidence to make something clearer or more understandable through examples or explanation. |
| mood | The emotional atmosphere or tone that a writer creates through the strategic use of evidence and language. |
| quality | The strength, relevance, and credibility of evidence used to support an argument. |
| quantity | The amount or number of evidence pieces provided to support an argument. |
| reasoning | The logical thinking and explanations used to support and defend a thesis or claim. |
| sufficient evidence | Evidence that is adequate in both quantity and quality to effectively support an argument's claims. |
| validity | The quality of being logically sound and well-supported by evidence in an argument. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| argument | A position or claim supported by reasoning and evidence presented to persuade an audience. |
| claim | A statement or assertion that a writer makes and must support with evidence and reasoning in an argument. |
| evidence | Supporting details, examples, and information used to prove or defend a thesis. |
| reasoning | The logical thinking and explanations used to support and defend a thesis or claim. |
| thesis | The main, overarching claim a writer is seeking to defend or prove using reasoning supported by evidence. |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| argument | A position or claim supported by reasoning and evidence presented to persuade an audience. |
| line of reasoning | The logical progression and connection of claims, evidence, and explanations that support an argument's main point. |
| thesis | The main, overarching claim a writer is seeking to defend or prove using reasoning supported by evidence. |