Exam 5: Planning and Forecasting

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: The United States will not have an effective antiterrorist force until the army and the air force quit bickering about equipment and responsibilities.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "Any person who thinks that Libya is not involved in terrorism has the same kind of mentality as people who think that Hitler was not involved in persecuting Jews." -Robert Oakley, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism, in an interview on National Public Radio's All Things Considered

A) Discuss any instances of nonargumentative persuasion or pseudoreasoning and explain any slanting techniques you find in the following passage. B) Rewrite the passage in language that is as emotively neutral as possible but still retains the same informational content. "The arms buildup that President Reagan gave us is an albatross around our necks. We spent a trillion dollars on it. Do you realize how much a trillion dollars is? That's a one with 12 zeros after it. That's $4,000 for (or rather from) every man, woman, and child in the United States. And what was it all for? bAre we any safer now for having spent all this treasure? Do you feel any safer now than you did before? Our children, who will eventually have to pay for all this because of the national debt, will look back on us as a generation of lunatics." -Letter to the editor of the Bellevue (Ind.) Star-Reporter

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "To those who say that the analogy of Hitler is extremist and inflammatory in reference to abortion, I would contend that the comparison is legitimate.... The Supreme Court, by refusing to acknowledge their personhood, has relegated the entire class of unborn children to a subhuman legal status without protection under the law-the same accorded to Jews under the Third Reich." -Jerry Nims, writing in the Moral Majority's Liberty Report

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "Smokers unite! The reason the antismoking crowd doesn't want you to smoke can be summed up in a single word: dictatorship." -From a newspaper call-in column

Construct eight sentences, each illustrating a use of this slanter: proof surrogate.

Construct eight sentences, each illustrating a use of this slanter: stereotype.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: After the owner and the head coach of the Houston Oilers football team had met for more than two hours, the owner announced that the two had "mutually decided" that the coach "would not return as head coach."

A) Discuss any instances of nonargumentative persuasion or pseudoreasoning and explain any slanting techniques you find in the following passage. (We'll comment on features we find obscure, unusual, or tricky.) B) Rewrite the passage in language that is as emotively neutral as possible but still retains the same informational content.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "If it ain't country, it ain't music." -Bumper sticker

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: Voting is the method for obtaining legal power to coerce others. -From a commentary on a grocery bag urging citizens not to vote and thus not to encourage the majority to take away the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of the minority.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: The conservative mind is rigid and inflexible, like an orange peel that's dried out in the sun.

Construct eight sentences, each illustrating a use of this slanter: hyperbole.

Construct eight sentences, each illustrating a use of this slanter: innuendo.

... A total of 743 firearm-related deaths occurred during this six-year period, 398 of which (54%) occurred in the residence where the firearm was kept. Only 2 of these 398 deaths (0.5%) involved an intruder shot during attempted entry. Seven persons (1.8%) were killed in self-defense. For every case of self-protection homicide involving a firearm kept in the home, there were 1.3 accidental deaths, 4.6 criminal homicides.... Handguns were used in 70.5% of these deaths.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "Notre Dame people like to point out that, unlike other [college football] powerhouses, their players must face tough admissions standards, shoulder the regular course load, and forget about being red-shirted to gain additional playing years. And, of course, it's a lot more fun to point out those things if your guys are out there stomping on 24-year-old golf-course management majors every Saturday, the way they used to." -Newsweek

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: The antigun people think that just as soon as guns are outlawed, crime will disappear, and we'll all live together as one big, happy family.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: The Best Way to Clean Up Congress -Title of article by Rowland Evans and Robert Novak

Provide a critical assessment of the following comparative general claim: Beer drinkers are 23.2 times more likely than teetotalers to have unhappy marriages.

Gary Hart followed the pattern when he 'declared his "interest" in the presidency' (as the Washington Post chastely put it) by announcing that he won't run for reelection to the Senate this year. Good luck to Hart. I voted for him once before and wouldn't mind voting for him again. But really. Is this necessary?" -"TRB from Washington," in The New Republic