The rhetorical triangle is a visual way to organize an argument
Before you begin writing
What are you trying to prove? Before you build the structure and outline of your argument, you will typically need a single statement that is the purpose of your argument.
In the example above, the student wants to obtain their drivers license as their purpose for the argument.
At this stage of your argument, we use the rhetorical triangle as a way to make sure our argument is well structured before we even begin writing. As you write, this makes sure your argument has all of the important parts for it to make sense.
For example, this is where you consider the audience, subject, speaker, tone, style and rhetorical situation.
Once an argument is written
When an argument is completely written out, you can approach it differently. This is because you will have a lot more information to analyze.
We will look at how to break down a fully written argument later. Let’s just focus on preparing a new argument.
