Imagine taking a placement exam, and you come to the essay portion. You aren’t familiar with the topic, so you sink a lot of time into reading and re-reading the prompt. It tells you to analyze the given author’s rhetoric and support your argument with evidence from the text. Where do you start?
Complex rhetorical modes are your best friend at this moment; they are like ready-made ways to organize arguments and essays. Once you know them well, you’ll be able to choose which is best for various essays and assignments and begin the writing process immediately.
Complex Rhetorical Mode Meaning
Before getting into the meaning of complex rhetorical modes, it's important to define rhetorical modes in general.
Rhetorical modes are a way of organizing communication—whether spoken or written—so the author can impact the audience the way they intend. Rhetorical modes are also known as patterns of organization because they often happen naturally during discourse to create a natural pattern of discussion and/or argument.
Rhetorical modes help writers organize the evidence and connect facts in an orderly fashion so that a reader can make sense of the main idea or message of the text. Complex rhetorical modes are a category of the more involved rhetorical modes. These patterns of organization typically involve detail-oriented handling of the subject, as opposed to basic rhetorical modes, which can be more shallow.
Let’s consider, for example, the discussion surrounding the habit of vaping. Someone could organize the discussion into comparison and contrast—one of the basic rhetorical modes—of vaping versus smoking cigarettes. The discussion would revolve around how the two habits are similar or different.
Someone else could organize the discussion around the effects of vaping. This writer would have to conduct research and dive into an in-depth review of the facts to prove that vaping causes the effects they claim it does. Cause and effect is a complex rhetorical mode because it requires a more detailed discussion of the topic.
Types of Complex Rhetorical Modes with Examples
Fig. 1 - You can begin drafting your essay with the help of complex rhetorical modes.
As mentioned, rhetorical modes are like a ready-made approach to an essay or argument, so it’s helpful to understand how each type functions in order to use it to your benefit. You can use your knowledge of rhetorical modes as a springboard for writing essays on exams, eliminating much of the time it takes to organize your thoughts.
There are six types of complex rhetorical modes that are important to understand. Here's a breakdown of each.
Cause and Effect as a Rhetorical Mode
Cause and effect are used to connect an action or event with its consequences. It answers the question, “Why did X happen?” with “X happened because Y.” This rhetorical mode is best used when it is necessary to understand what led up to the event.
Don’t confuse a connection in time and space as true cause and effect as a rhetorical mode. For example, thunder does not make it rain; they often happen simultaneously, but one does not cause the other to happen.
The following statement demonstrates a cause-and-effect relationship: Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years because he was trying to institute democracy in South Africa during apartheid.
Why was Nelson Mandela imprisoned? Because he was an anti-apartheid revolutionary. There are no other possible reasons, and one thing (Mandela's public stance) certainly caused the other (his imprisonment), so this is a cause-and-effect relationship.
Here are a few words and phrases that link a cause to an effect:
Because
Due to
Since
Unless
Therefore
Consequently
In light of
Process Analysis as a Rhetorical Mode
By definition, a process is an action that moves through a series of steps toward the desired goal. This rhetorical mode uses a step-by-step explanation of how something changes.
You’ll typically want to describe the process in chronological order or the order in which the events should happen (or have already happened). It’s important to include every step in the process relevant to achieving the desired result.
Think, for example, how confusing it would be to read a recipe that didn’t include pouring the mixed batter into a pan. How does it go from the mixing bowl to the oven? You’d have no way of knowing exactly how to get the finished product.
Composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter to produce fertilizer that will enrich the soil for plant growth. You need green organisms such as food scraps, brown organisms such as sticks and dead leaves, and the right combination of water and air. First, make sure your container has plenty of holes for water to flow out and air to come in. Then add your green organic matter to the container, along with the brown organic matter. The best ratio is one part green to one part brown. The food scraps supply nitrogen, while the sticks and leaves provide carbon. Next, mix the contents together to fully incorporate the ingredients. The compost pile should be damp but not dripping wet, so monitor it for dampness and add water if necessary. To incorporate oxygen, regularly turn the compost pile. Within a few weeks, your compost pile will start to decompose and produce that valuable fertilizer for your garden.
Notice the use of transition words “first,” “then,” and “next.” These indicate steps in the process and make the passage easier to follow. This process is explained in chronological order, and the basic steps are covered, so anyone should be able to come away with a basic understanding of how to compost.
When using process analysis as a rhetorical mode, incorporate transition words like first, next, and finally into your writing. These make the process stages clear so the audience can follow along easily.
Definition as a Rhetorical Mode
Definition as a rhetorical mode is more than just defining something; it is a way to share your insight or knowledge about something. Possibly the most subjective (i.e., subject to an individual’s perspective) of all rhetorical modes, the definition allows anyone to explain what something is. Every person uses their own point of view to define the world around them, so one item could be defined in several ways.
For example, consider the term insanity and how a doctor might define it in medical terms. A lawyer might use legal terms to define it, and the average person might simply say that someone is not acting as they normally do. One word considered from different perspectives takes on a whole new meaning.
You can use definition as a rhetorical mode to share your unique understanding of an event, a piece of art, or any subject under the sun.
There is a creativity crisis due to the lack of opportunity for children to feel boredom, mostly due to the constant access to digital entertainment. Creativity is the use of imagination or original thinking for play or artistic expression. Every child is born with creativity and doesn’t need to be taught how to use it. However, today children lose their creativity at earlier and earlier ages.
In this passage, we see a definition of the word creativity from the perspective of someone concerned that it is eroding in today’s youth. The term creativity could be defined in other ways, but this particular definition works with this person’s argument that digital entertainment is causing a creativity crisis.
Fig. 2 - Use complex rhetorical modes to improve your writing.
This passage also contains the beginning of an argument using the cause and effect rhetorical mode. With some more research and perhaps some statistics to illuminate trends in children’s creative output since the advent of smartphones and video games, there could be grounds for a cause-and-effect relationship.
Description as a Rhetorical Mode
Description is a tool writers use to make their writing come alive—they do this with language that appeals to the five senses. As a rhetorical mode, it should not be confused with definition. While definition explains the meaning of something, description explains its attributes.
Descriptions can be either objective or subjective; objective is a factual account of something, while subjective is the view from a single person’s perspective.
Objective description: The kitchen table is rectangular, eighty inches long, twenty inches wide, and made of hardwood covered with nicks and dings.
Subjective description: The kitchen table is the heart of the home. We cram ourselves around its four sides to eat our meals, share our days, and dream of the future. Little imperfections from years of use are worn into the wood-like lines on the palm of a hand.
As a rhetorical mode, the description provides information about something in great detail. It is often used in storytelling to make the audience feel as though they are experiencing the words on the page.
Narration as a Rhetorical Mode
While description is an excellent tool for storytelling, narration is the vehicle that carries a story. Narration is a means of presenting events in the past, present or imagined future. The main purpose is to explain to an audience what happened and in what order.
When possible, arrange the events of a narrative in chronological order. It is also important to provide a distinct beginning, middle, and end to the story.
Another key to narration is to use details. Details give authenticity to the story and make the reader feel as though they are experiencing the story. Vibrant language and varied sentence structures also make a narrative come to life for the reader.
“In the winter she sewed night after night, endlessly, begging castoff clothing from relatives, ripping apart coats, dresses, blouses, and trousers to remake them to fit her four daughters and son. Every morning and every evening she milked cows, fed pigs and calves, cared for chickens, picked eggs, cooked meals, washed dishes, scrubbed floors, and tended and loved her children. In the spring she planted a garden once more, dragging pails of water to nourish and sustain the vegetables for the family. In 1936 she lost a baby in her sixth month.”
This passage is from Bonnie Smith Yackal’s My Mother Never Worked (2010). It is an excellent example of narration as it moves the reader through a series of events, giving them insight into the busy life of her mother.
The use of varied sentence structures creates a feeling of living in the story. The same passage would have been much duller if it read, “She sewed clothes. She fed the animals. She cleaned the house.”
Argumentation/Persuasion as a Rhetorical Mode
This refers to a type of writing or discussion that is clearly arguing in support of a particular point. The goal of argumentation, also known as persuasion, is to convince an audience of your opinion or belief about something.
You can use two lines of reasoning to persuade your audience of your stance: inductive and deductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning uses specific examples to reach a general conclusion. For example, if a child refuses to eat carrots and potatoes at a meal, you might conclude they hate vegetables. You might be right, the child might dislike all vegetables, or perhaps they only dislike carrots and potatoes.
Deductive reasoning is the inverse of inductive; it uses generalizations to reach conclusions about a specific case. For example, imagine waking up and looking outside to see several inches of snow cover the ground. You turn on the news, saying schools in the surrounding area are closed today. You can use deductive reasoning to conclude that your particular school is closed and use that information to convince your mom to let your friend come over.
Why Are Complex Rhetorical Modes Important?
Remember the exam essay scenario from earlier? The fear of not knowing what to write is paralyzing, especially when you only have so much time to write. Complex rhetorical modes equip you with the ability to organize an argument on the spot - not just a simple argument, but one that is well thought-out and will have the most impact on your audience.
Knowledge of complex rhetorical modes will make you a better writer and speaker who can persuade your audience of (just about) anything.
Complex Rhetorical Modes - Key Takeaways
- Rhetorical modes are a way of organizing communication so that the audience is impacted the way the author intends.
- Complex rhetorical modes are a category of the more involved rhetorical modes.
- Complex rhetorical modes include:
- Narration
- Cause/ effect
- Definition
- Process analysis
- Description
- Argumentation/ persuasion
- Complex rhetorical modes are useful as blueprints for high-quality arguments and discussions, especially in essays.
- The difference between definition and description is that description appeals to the five senses while definition shares the author's special knowledge about something.
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