Critical Thinking
lessons in rhetoric for kids

The Rhetorical Situation

Whenever you find yourself communicating with the intent of modifying someone’s or a group’s perspective, you are within a rhetorical situation. This unique context encompasses a topic, listeners or readers, and specific boundaries. Each time you write an essay, have a verbal discussion or listen to a debate, it happens

Critical Thinking
slippery slope fallacy for kids and more

Don’t Fall for That Fallacy, Part Three

By the age of 10, children have the ability to tell right from wrong, according to expert Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist. However, knowing how to distinguish a true statement from a false one is a skill that you have to learn. One vital component is spotting fallacies. Apple Polishing:

Communication

The Rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a scholar, a Baptist pastor and a father who became famous during the 1950’s and 1960’s as a leader in the non-violent U.S. civil rights movement. During the years from 1957 to 1968, Dr. King spoke publicly on more than 2,500 occasions, wrote five

Critical Thinking

Don’t Fall for that Fallacy, Part One

When you fall for a fallacy, you are taken in by false or misleading reasoning. Some fallacies appeal to such emotions as pity or guilt. Others leverage your anger or your fear. When you learn to recognize these kinds of fallacies, you are less susceptible to their squishy, insubstantial logic.

Critical Thinking
teach kids about rhetoric in advertising - pathos

Rhetoric in Advertising – Activities for Kids

Activity: Pretend You’re a Marketer 1. Create an ad based on emotion. Use rhetoric containing emotive force. (Note: Rhetoric frequently involves language that contains emotive force and affects what others believe without actually providing logical reasons for a claim.) Look at Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotion below and decide which emotional

Critical Thinking

What is Rhetoric? An Explanation and Examples

  Rhetoric is the art of influence, friendship and eloquence, of ready wit and irrefutable logic. And it harnesses the most powerful of social forces, argument.  – Jay Heinrichs The above quote is from Jay’s book Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About The Art

Critical Thinking

Aristotle & Rhetoric

In Aristotle’s world, rhetoric was the art of discovering all available means of persuasion, and he heavily emphasized the logical aspect of this process. He considered rhetoric a counterpart of both logic and politics, and called it “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.”