RECLAIMING RHETORICIntro to Rhetoric
 

Part 06

Practice

Four short cases. The last one is outside the lessons. Name the judgment, then the proof or the move. A case is recorded when every answer is right. You can change an answer and submit again.

Three case pages, marked with a target, a scale, and a speech bubble.
Name the job the piece is doing. Then name the proof, the point at issue, or the move.

Case 01

The date on the slide

Internal note, three days before a launch

We should move the launch to the 28th. The last two releases shipped with open bugs because we cut the testing time. A four-day slip costs one campaign email. A broken checkout costs the quarter.

I know the date is already on the all-hands slide. I would rather correct that slide than explain a rollback.

1. The species doing the main job is
2. The primary appeal in the comparison of costs (one email versus a broken checkout) is
3. The lines about the all-hands slide are mainly

Choose a response for each question.

Case 02

The open door

Incident note, posted to the staff channel

The outage started at 2:11 a.m., not during the change window we had announced. The log shows the switch was flipped at 1:58 by an account that remained active for three days after the contractor's work ended. Those facts are not in dispute.

What is in dispute is the name. Was the leftover access an authorized handoff, or a breach of the access policy?

1. The species doing the main job is
2. The second paragraph is asking which question?

Choose a response for each question.

Case 03

After the launch

Spoken close at an all-hands

This team does not celebrate trailers. It celebrates the quiet hour after, when a parent can book the appointment without calling back. That is the work. Not the leaderboard. The ordinary thing, made reliable, for someone who will never know our names.

1. The speech is mainly
2. As a closing move, the paragraph is closest to

Choose a response for each question.

Case 04

The painted line

Note to a neighborhood association

The city should paint a crosswalk at Maple and 4th before school starts. Last spring a child was hit there at dismissal. Parents already stop traffic with their own bodies.

I know a painted line is not a guard. I am not asking you to call the corner safe. I am asking you to stop calling it fine.

1. The judgment this note asks for is
2. Which assumption connects the crash to the request for paint?
3. "A painted line is not a guard" is mainly

Choose a response for each question.

Pocket list

Seven questions worth asking of the next piece you meet.

  1. What is the point at issue: fact, definition, quality, or procedure?
  2. What judgment is the audience being asked to make? Time is a clue, not the test.
  3. Which premise is unstated, does this audience accept it, and does it support the conclusion?
  4. Where is ethos being shown in the speech, and where is a credential only borrowing a hearing?
  5. What feeling is the audience being asked to judge under, and is a claim attached?
  6. Does the order let the later sentence be believed?
  7. Can you state the strongest objection in a form its holder would recognize, and then answer it?