Rhetorical

Concept How to Write About It

Rhetorical Reynolds rhetorical situation forces him to walk a fine line in constructing his text. In the
Situation highly-politicised context of the history wars, his purpose is to challenge his audiences
assumptions without provoking their hostility.
Ideology The idea that Australia is the land of the fair go is an unquestioned part of our national
ideology.
Commonplace The claim that Australia was peacefully settled is a commonplace in discussions of our
national character.
Reynolds historical research led him to question the commonplace notions about
Australias egalitarian character.
Narrative Reynolds use of narrative organises the events of his life into a unified, meaningful whole
and thus deepens our identification with his persona.
Identification Reynolds encourages his reader to identify with his vision of a future Australia that lives up
to its egalitarian myths.
Cultural or By challenging the previously accepted account of white settlement, Black Armband
ideological historians like Reynolds have subverted the mainstream cultural narratives that underpin
narrative Australian national identity.
Conversion Reynolds tells his life story using the conventions of the archetypal conversion narrative.
narrative He portrays his decision to focus on Aboriginal history as stepping across a frontier from
innocence to implication and from ignorant complacency toward responsible citizenship.
Anecdote Reynolds anecdote about the visit of Ali Mazrui to Palm Island depicts, concretely and
immediately, the improving race relations that have been his subject earlier in the chapter.
Reynolds frequent use of anecdotal evidence helps to further his ethos as a self-proclaimed
witness to racism.
Representativ Reynolds revelations about his troubling violent dreams serve as a representative or
e or synecdochic anecdote. That is, a story that vividly condenses and stands for the whole of
synecdochic his larger argument regarding the way that the racism of the past, though repressed, still
anecdote shapes the present.
Genre Reynolds chooses to write in the memoir genre, framing his political arguments within a
Rhetorical
Concept How to Write About It
personal narrative.
Appeal to Reynolds careful accumulation of historical evidence and statistics amounts to a powerful
Logos appeal to logos.
Reynolds relies most heavily on logical proofs when he is dealing with the most
controversial of his topics.
Appeal to Reynolds vivid portrayal of the scene allows the reader to see the event in the minds eye
Pathos and so appeals to their emotions.

Appeal to Reynolds frequent mentions of his academic qualifications serve to shore up his ethos as an
Ethos authoritative voice.
Reynolds self-representation, as an everyman who struggles to overcome his own ignorance
furthers, his ethotic argument.
Persona Reynolds use of informal, jargon-free language and his frequent use of self-deprecatory
vignettes create an amiable and approachable persona, that readily secures the readers
goodwill.
Encomium In Paying Tribute to the Black Pioneers, Reynolds writes a moving encomium to the
Indigenous workers who endured dangerous conditions and low wages while developing
Australias primary industries.
Deductive Reynolds rigorous deductive argument against those who downplay frontier violence
Argument seems to have an inescapable logical force.
Reynolds argues deductively in this chapter, making a compelling case for official
commemoration of the Indigenous dead.
Inductive Reynolds supports his claims about frontier violence inductively, piling up primary sources
Argument describing massacres from around colonial Australia.
Reynolds many anecdotes about street violence in Townsville make a strong inductive case
in support of his argument that past racism still burdens the present.
Voice and In the introduction and the biographical chapters that follow it, Reynolds employs a personal
Rhetorical
Concept How to Write About It
Distance and colloquial voice that narrows the distance between author and reader and creates
intimacy. Later in the book, he adopts a more formal style which creates a more detached
tone.
Enthymeme Reynolds concludes his book with a rousing enthymeme: Knowing brings burdens which can
be shirked by those living in ignorance. The question is no longer what we know but what
we are now to do.
Maxim Reynolds adroitly turns the attack of those who accuse him of politicising history, using the
maxim, the historian cannot be sundered from the citizen to imply that his political and
moral commitments make him more, not less, authoritative.
Address/ In the introduction, Reynolds addresses his reader using the first person plural, we. In this
Interpellation way, he interpellates his audience as fellow citizens, who share his values of truth, justice,
education and dialogue.