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last.updated 5.31.05

Rhetorical Principles Table

Purpose
To help you organize and categorize how various rhetoricians theorize rhetoric. These tables can be quite useful when writing your papers.

Overview

As you read through the assigned texts take notes about how the rhetoricians talk about the various principles (theory) and how they apply the various principles (example). You will want to focus more on the theory than on the examples.

When you are done reading; download the Rhetorical Principles Table. In the first column you will want to focus on what the rhetorician has said, either the theory or the example. You should...

• write or type in the key phrases or sentences that give you and your audience the gist of the rhetorician's thoughts
• identify the quote as theory or as an example so that you and your peers know how to interpret it.
• include the page number that you and your peers can see the quote in context at a later date

In the second column, explain the theory or example to yourself and your peers. Put this text in your own words or layman's terms so that everybody understands it.

As you fill out these tables, remember...

• focus more on theory than examples
• you are not just finding theory and examples for the principle that we are concentrating on in a given week. The principle that we are studying will be prevalent, but not exclusive. This is particularly important for those students preparing a table for the group presentation.
• provide several quotes for each principle, if available; be fairly exhaustive
• in the second column do not just repeat what you wrote in the first column