elements of rhetoric

English 1301: Composition & Rhetoric I || D. Glen Smith, instructor 1

Elements of Rhetoric


Deductive & Inductive Arguments

Both styles of argument are used to construct strong hypotheses and thesis statements.

Both systems arrive at conclusions assumed

to establish a defendable truth.


Definition of Deductive Arguments

• Deduction—a style of argument which draws conclusions from evidence assumed to be true; the results are expected to be valid and based on truth.

• Information provided must move from general observations to specific notions.

• Consider Sherlock Holmes, the classic example, taking evidence from a scene to deduce the criminal mastermind behind the crime; highly skilled in logic and reason.


David Foster Wallace

In his published article in Gourmet (Aug. 2004) “Consider the Lobster,” in his introductory paragraphs, Wallace uses a deductive rationale to explain the human appreciation for crustaceans. • explaining types of festivals and people’s obsessions for seafood• notice in the example provided that he moves from general observations to specific details.



Tourism and lobster are the midcoast region’s two main industries, and they’re both warm-weather enterprises, and the Maine Lobster Festival represents less an intersection of the industries than a deliberate collision, joyful and lucrative and loud. The assigned subject of this article is the 56th Annual MLF, July 30 to August 3, 2003, whose official theme was “Lighthouses, Laughter, and Lobster.” Total paid attendance was over 80,000, due partly to a national CNN spot in June during which a Senior Editor of a certain other epicurean magazine hailed the MLF as one of the best food-themed festivals in the world. 2003 Festival highlights: concerts by Lee Ann Womack and Orleans, annual Maine Sea Goddess beauty pageant, Saturday’s big parade, Sunday’s William G. Atwood Memorial Crate Race, annual Amateur Cooking Competition, carnival rides and midway attractions and food booths, and the MLF’s Main Eating Tent, where something over 25,000 pounds of fresh-caught Maine lobster is consumed after preparation in the World’s Largest Lobster Cooker near the grounds’ north entrance. Also available are lobster rolls, lobster turnovers, lobster sauté, Down East lobster salad, lobster bisque, lobster ravioli, and deep-fried lobster dumplings. […]



Lobster Thermidor is obtainable at a sit-down restaurant called The Black Pearl on Harbor Park’s northwest wharf. A large all-pine booth sponsored by the Maine Lobster Promotion Council has free pamphlets with recipes, eating tips, and Lobster Fun Facts. The winner of Friday’s Amateur Cooking Competition prepares Saffron Lobster Ramekins, the recipe for which is available for public downloading at www.mainelobsterfestival.com. There are lobster T-shirts and lobster bobblehead dolls and inflatable lobster pool toys and clamp-on lobster hats with big scarlet claws that wobble on springs. Your assigned correspondent saw it all, accompanied by one girlfriend and both his own parents—one of which parents was actually born and raised in Maine, albeit in the extreme northern inland part, which is potato country and a world away from the touristic midcoast.


Definition of Inductive Arguments

• Induction—a style of argument which moves from specific facts (or basic observations of an event) to generalities

• Such arguments can be based on personal experiences and then applied to broader conclusions resolving issues within global society or a smaller, individual community.

• Moral or ethical themes work best with inductive arguments.


Francis Bacon

In his collected essays, published in the 17th Century, Bacon discusses various philosophical and abstract concepts, such as “Of Truth.”Bacon uses an inductive rationale to explain and define the concept of “truth.” • He explores various ethical issues of the human thought process.• He moves from a specific notions to general commentary.


Francis Bacon

He follows general assumptions of his Renaissance time period:

• Heavily influenced by Christian scriptures and classical philosophy.

• Bacon believes "truth" should be identified by the "truths" established by dogma of Christianity.

• Bacon believes humans are actual descendants of a historic Adam and Eve who became corrupted by nature and desire.

• He also assumes that humans have a moral obligation to struggle against sin and human frailties to pursue Truth and God.


Francis BaconWhat is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. [...] (specific notions on “Truth” based on the culture of the time)


Francis BaconBut I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open day-light, that doth not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs, of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?

(general, and creatively worded, points of his observations)

elements of rhetoric

Documents