The Rhetorical Triangle
Key #1

Persona a mask, the character the audience perceived behind the text, the character a writer or speaker conveys to the audience

"It is to my other self, to Borges, that things happen. I walk about Buenos Aires and I pause, almost mechanically, to contemplate the arch of an entry or the portal of a church; news of Borges comes to me in the mail, and I see his name on a short list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I am fond of hourglasses, maps, 18th-century typography, the etymology of words, the tang of coffee, and the prose of Stevenson; the other one shares these enthusiasms, but in a rather vain, theatrical way. . . .

"I cannot tell which one of us is writing this page."
Jorge Luis Borges, "Borges and I"
Terms associated with PERSONA: Rhetor: the speaker or writer
Ethos: Persuasive appeal (one of the three artistic proofs) based on the character or projected character of the speaker or writer. According to Aristotle, the chief components of a compelling ethos are good will, practical wisdom, and virtue; educated, considerate, trustworthy and well-intentioned
"According to Aristotle, rhetors can invent a character suitable to an occasion--this is invented ethos. However, if rhetors are fortunate enough to enjoy a good reputation in the community, they can use it as an ethical proof--this is situated ethos." (Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. New York: Pearson, 2004. Print.)
Voice: the distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or narrator
Voice is the sum of all strategies used by the author to create the illusion that the writer is speaking directly to the reader from the page."
(Don Fry, quoted by Roy P. Clark, Writing Tools. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. Print.)
Tone: A writer's attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction, point of view, syntax, and level of formality.
Robert Frost believed sentence tones (which he called 'sound of sense') are 'already there--living in the cave of the mouth.' He considered them 'real cave things: they were before words were' (Thompson 191). To write a 'vital sentence,' he believed, 'we must write with the ear on the speaking voice' (Thompson 159). 'The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader. Eye readers miss the best part. The sentence sound often says more than the words' (Thompson 113). According to Frost: Only when we are making sentences so shaped [by spoken sentence tones] are we truly writing. A sentence must convey a meaning by tone of voice and it must be the particular meaning the writer intended. The reader must have no choice in the matter. The tone of voice and its meaning must be in black and white on the page. (Thompson 204)
Diction: word choice
Point of view: the perspective from which a speaker or writer recounts a narrative or presents information.
Depending on the topic, purpose, and audience, writers of nonfiction may rely on the first-person point of view (I, we), the second-person (you, your), or the third-person (he, she, it, they).
Syntax: The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences (and one of the major components of grammar). (2) The arrangement of words in a sentence. Adjective: syntactic.
Level of formality: the style that your audience expects and that fits your purpose; exists on a scale of formal, semi-formal, and informal
Attitude: usually used for a synonym for tone; tone refers to a literary technique that expresses a feeling the persona is trying to achieve through a number of attitudes
Irony: the use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea
Key #2
Understanding Appeals to Audience

Ethos: offering evidence that the persona is credible and knows important and relevant information about the