Class activity: diction, tone, syntax, appeals

Directions:  Read the excerpt carefully for information and understanding.  Then, annotate the text for the following elements.  Once you have completed the annotations we will have a class discussion on their function and purpose.

Diction:  Word choice.  (Analyze only unusual word choice or especially evocative choices that contain powerful connotations.)

Tone:  The accumulated and implied attitude toward the subject reached by analyzing diction, detail, syntax, and all other figurative language elements.

Syntax:  The intentional emphasis on word order/structure of a sentence or phrase; to analyze syntax one can consider sentence form and structure, repetition, and/or punctuation.  (Analyze especially complex or simple sentence structure—what effect did that choice have on the idea being communicated?)

Ethos:  Ethos is appeal based on the character of the speaker. An ethos-driven document relies on the reputation of the author.

Logos:  Logos is appeal based on logic or reason. Documents distributed by companies or corporations are logos-driven. Scholarly documents are also often logos-driven.

Pathos:  Pathos is appeal based on emotion. Advertisements tend to be pathos-driven.

Excerpt from the Preface by William Lloyd Garrison

In the month of August, 1841, I attended an antislavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with Frederick Douglass, the writer of the following Narrative. He was a stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage, and feeling his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the abolitionists, — of whom he had heard a somewhat vague description while he was a slave, — he was induced to give his attendance, on the occasion alluded to, though at that time a resident in New Bedford.

Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence! — fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful thraldom! — fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty! — fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has already done so much to save and bless! — fortunate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, as being bound with them! — fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men! — fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness, “gave the world assurance of a MAN,” quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed go free!