ON RHETORIC Review of Rhetoric and its situations.

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ON RHETORIC Review of Rhetoric and its situations

Transcript of ON RHETORIC Review of Rhetoric and its situations.

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ON RHETORIC

Review of Rhetoric and its situations

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Rhetoric Defined

Rhetoric is 2,500 years old Originally considered as a study of the power of language.

In the classical era it was purely defined as the art of persuasive communication through the appeal to logos (rationality), ethos (a person’s moral sense), and pathos (emotions). In ancient Greece, there were no lawyers, so every land

owning citizen needed to have to be able to defend, or persuade, a jury of his (no her) innocence of any crime. For some, rhetoric was initially a sort of “lawyering for dummies” or more charitably stated, “a heuristic for persuasion.”

For others, rhetorical skill became a way to make a living—rhetors would travel from town to town and give speeches. Sometimes they would even have rhetorical duels (i.e., debates) as if it were a sport.

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Classical Definitions of Rhetoric Plato: "art of enchanting the soul" (Phaedrus)

Plato was distrustful of rhetoric; “enchanting” anything in 370 BC was not something you wanted to be accused of. But Plato was distrustful of writing too, thinking it was destroying our memories and ability to connect with people.

Aristotle: "Rhetoric is the counterpart of dialectic. It is the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion" (On Rhetoric) Aristotle thought that rhetoric and argument worked together. Your speech needed substance

(argument, claims, evidence) but it had to be tailored to the audience (rhetoric).

Cicero: "Rhetoric is one great art comprised of five lesser arts: inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and pronunciatio. It is speech designed to persuade." (Of Oratory) Roman Cicero (55 BC) outlined the stages of speech writing: Invention, arrangement, style,

memory, and delivery. We come up with an idea, then we put the parts together to have the greatest impact, then we alter the style for our audience, come up with a way to memorize it (or make it memorable), and then figure out the medium or delivery of it.

Quintilian: "Rhetoric is the science of speaking well, the education of the Roman gentleman, both useful and virtue."(Institutes of Oratory) Plato thought rhetoric was bad because it allowed bad people to persuade you. Quintilian

figured that rhetoric itself only worked if it was spoken by the well meaning and ethical. Ethos became more associated with the speaker around this time (95 AD).

St. Augustine: "Rhetoric is the art of expressing clearly, ornately (where necessary), persuasively, and fully the truths which thought has discovered acutely." (On Christian Doctrine) In contrast to Quintilian, St. Augustine figured that rhetoric was applied to invention (“the

truths which thought has discovered”) after the fact.

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Contemporary Rhetoric

Contemporary rhetoric scholars have attempted to refine, revise, and extend the definitions of rhetoric to account for the fact that rhetoric has endured two millennia of critique.

At one time, rhetoric moved from the art of persuasion to the “art of expression” (Perelman, 1969) in which the display and style of a speech was more important than its substance. This is where we get a modern definition as used by politicians and newscasters that suggests that rhetoric has no substance. “Obama’s rhetoric on fighting poverty doesn’t match his

policies.” “Pope’s Rhetoric on Economy Worrying Rich Donors.”

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Contemporary Rhetoric

Some “new” definitions: Kenneth Burke: "the use of language in such a way as

to produce a desired impression upon the hearer or reader" (Counter-Statement, 1931, p. 210) In other words, we cannot speak and then magically change

minds—instead, we try to create connections with others. Kenneth Burke: “the use of language as a symbolic

means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols” (Rhetoric of Motives, 1950, p. 1032) It’s not just speech but “symbolic” means: writing & visuals. Burke also added “identification”—a writer attempts to

create a connection with a reader through identifying with her/him in turn seeking that he/she identify with the writer.

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Rhetoric Defined, Again

Despite these nuances, rhetoric still remains the art of persuasive communication WITH the understanding… that all “symbolic means” are persuasive,

whether audio, visual, alphabetic, haptic, or procedural.

that your audience is not a blank slate without their own values or concerns.

that you persuasive efforts can, at best, induce cooperation or identify with an audience.

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Rhetorical Situation

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Rhetorical Situation

One more name (not that you will remember or even have to) is Lloyd Bitzer (1968).

Rhetoric isn’t about the writer exerting some influence on the reader. Instead, communication is a whole situation consisting of a number of elements. Or, as Bitzer defines it: “a complex of persons, events, objects, and

relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence"

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Rhetorical Situation Defined

“Thing” – my highly technical term meaning speech, essay, movie, poster, advertisement, scientific study, video game, lab report, children’s story. (Sure, scholars might use the term “artifact” or “text”, and you might even use these two in your writing, but for this example, let’s just call it a “thing”)

Audience – person reading/hearing the thing Writer – the person or persona creating the thing Purpose – the writer’s intention with the thing Exigence – some idea or occurrence that motivated the writer to

create the thing Constraint – the limitations of the situation imposed by the genre,

writer, medium, time, audience, purpose. Modification – changing the exigence with the thing. Context – the place or medium of the thing.

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Visually, it looks like…

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The means of persuasion

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Rhetorical Appeals

Appeal to reason (logos) Appeal to personality, values, or

character (ethos) Appeal to emotions (pathos)

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Logos – Appeal to Reason

Logical appeal to an audience’s reason and understanding of the facts of a situation. Recognize, however, that facts can change, and different people will see different facts within a given situation. Academic audiences prefer logos over other appeals Scientific discourse requires logos and never pathos.

Ethos in scientific discourse is established by lengthy literature reviews

Popular writing privileges personal stories, and thus, ethos and pathos are greater. Logos is often “revised” so as to make it easier for mass audiences to understand.

Connect with the reader using data and evidence that is generated for the writer’s purpose.

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Logos example 1

“Pew Internet and American Life researchers found that 44% of ages 18-49 have used Wikipedia to find information” (1). We see the survey-based evidence here

and we see that the claim is substantiated. Recognize that logos can be written differently as well—it’s not just “fact.” For example, think how the following is different:“Pew Internet and American Life researchers found that 56% of ages 18-49 have not used Wikipedia.”

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Logos example 2

“According to a recent U.S. Census poll, 29% of movie theater revenues come from food and beverage sales.” Once again, statistics are used as evidence.

Not all statistics have built-in corroboration. In this case, the data is closer to “fact” than the Wikipedia logos from example 1, but we also don’t see the full picture. Compare this, for example, to other data:“According to Time magazine, movie theaters make 85% profit on food and beverage sales.”

Recognize that revenue and profit are different things here. It’s all about how you report logos.

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Logos example 3

Geico insurance’s famous advertising tag line, “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.” This is a rational appeal (logos), but

recognize it is consequence/effect and not a “fact” or statistic (go back to the Argument PowerPoint). They use “could” (a qualifier) and “15% or more” meaning there is a chance or mystery that people just love to explore.

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Ethos – Appeal to Character

Ethical appeal – claims and evidence from one’s character (to another’s character)

1. Establish character of author2. Provide details about the character of the evidence3. Demonstrate authority and credibility.

Authority – The author knows about the subject, and provides evidence of such.

Credibility – The author is honest and respectful to the audience and provides relevant support to claims

Values – The author displays or appeals to similar values as those of the audience

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Ethos Example 1

“Bob’s rant-now website recently reported that over 60% of Americans like to eat pizza for breakfast.” We don’t know Bob. Because he doesn’t have

authority, we might not trust him. If he had included his method for how he got this data, he would build credibility.

Note that Pew Internet and American Life (from Logos example 1) provide their method in a full report, but they are also a reputable non-profit research group that have earned authority over the years.

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Ethos Example 2

“Professor Jones has studied learning and memory theory for over twenty years and has served on the board of Harvard Medical school department of neurology.” We see Jones has authority based on the

background provided. However, if he were writing about bicycles, we wouldn’t automatically trust him. If he were writing or speaking about learning and memory, we would more likely trust him.

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Ethos Example 3

Mitt Romney’s famous 47 percent speech: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” The speech was given at the home of equity

manager Marc Leder, where Romney was talking privately to wealthy contributors. He was attempting to align his values with theirs. It might have worked had it not been for pesky bartender Scott Prouty filming it.

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Pathos

Emotional appeal – claims and evidence from the heart (and to the heart).

Connect with the reader using anger, sadness, happiness, and humor. You are trying to instill these emotions in your audience – trying to persuade them to feel emotional.

Theory of proximity – the closer you are (or portray yourself to be) to the social, political, and ideological position of your readers’ values, the easier you can persuade them using emotions.   A note about humor – it’s tricky because it relies on the theory

of proximity to work correctly. One theory of humor is that it is absurd. For the absurdity to work, a common assumption must be shared from which to riff off of.

To see this in action, a study by LaMarre, Landerville, and Beam found that Republicans think Stephen Colbert is an actual Republican pretending to be funny and Democrats think he is acting as a character and is being satirical.

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Pathos Example 1

From Pink Floyd’s song “The Final Cut” (1982) from the album of the same name: “Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes, I can barely define the shape of this moment in time. And far from flying high in clear blue skies, I’m spiraling down into the hole in the ground where I hide.” The song invokes sadness in its audience to get them to

feel sympathy (pathos) for the singer and the situation. The song is partly about isolation.

We identify or the emotional appeal works better if we have ever looked through tear-stained eyes or have felt isolated ourselves as it takes us to that moment again.

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Pathos Example 2

From an op-ed piece in The New York Times, “I ♥ Pluto” by Tim Kreider (2006): “I’ve long regarded Saturn’s misty tantalizing moon Titan as the Homecoming Queen of the solar system, courted and fawned over, stringing us along with teasing glimpses under her atmosphere, while Pluto was more like the chubby Goth chick who wrote weird poems about dead birds and never talked to anybody. Still, I just can’t stand by and watch as the solar system’s Fat Girl gets pushed down into ever-more ignominious substrata of social ostracism.” It uses humor and personification as a way to persuade us to care

emotionally whether Pluto should be a planet or not because we don’t like to see people get picked on.

The humor works unless we ever aligned our identity with the “goth chick” or thought we were ever overweight, then it seems to be shaming us as an audience in its humor. It’s also gendered in a way that some might object to.

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Other Rhetorical Concerns

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Kairos

Kairos means the opportune moment, finding that right time.

Situations change quickly, so making an argument with evidence that is timely makes for a better argument than using old evidence or making an old argument.

We cannot control kairos (there is never an appeal to kairos); what we do is seize on it or exploit it or take advantage of it.

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Kairos:Martin Luther King, jr. “I Have a Dream” King famously gave his speech about social justice on the

steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC in 1963. He worked on the speech with some colleagues the night before, but then when it came time to give the speech, he basically improvised the majority of it. As a result, he seized the moment or kairos, and had lines such as the following:

“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”What makes this kairotic was that the temperature was in the 80s, it was late in the day, and people were crowded together and tired. King was using the moment (kairos) to make the audience empathize with the “heat” and to long for an oasis both politically and individually at that moment.

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Kairos: Which is from 2014? Which is from 1961? The reduction or

control of fat consumption under medical supervision, with reasonable substitution of polyunsaturated for saturated fats, is recommended as a possible means of preventing atherosclerosis and decreasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

[check your answer]

Current evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats.

[check your answer]

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Types [Species] of Rhetoric

Aristotle defined three “species” of rhetoric.

Deliberative – What should we do about the future

Forensic – What do we know about the past

Epideictic – Praise or blame in the present

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Their uses

1. Deliberative arguments are used in politics and advertisements. They are used for writing about the future (do this, buy that, think this):

Exordium (Hook) – Creating goodwill, connecting with the audience

Narratio (Problem) – Background, situation, and problem. Confirmatio (Proof, Solution) – Outlines a solution to the

problem Peroratio (Call to action) – Specific benefits of the

solution and call to action

2. Forensic arguments are used in law and science. They are used to evaluate the past:

IRAC (Issue, Rule of Law, Analysis, Conclusion) IMRAD (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion)

3. Epideictic arguments are used to inspire, entertain, lament, praise, and blame

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Caveats

Linear texts (movies, television, essays) rely on patterns of development to make a case. They more closely follow the hook, problem, solution, call to action.

Non-linear and static texts (print advertisements) have to rely on traditional arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

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But how does rhetoric work in our brains? Thinking expends energy. Your body wants to

conserve energy. Thus, it will find ways to expend less energy. Common patterns, models, and experiences will insert themselves in new tasks to help you conserve energy—and it is done subconsciously.

Theory (jargon, models, ideas) gives us a form and language to talk about thought. It allows us to use tools to create new jargon, models and ideas.

A good deal of rhetorical practice is implicit because its practice has been repeated for thousands of years. Using the language to talk about these implicit practice makes you smarter because it allows you to uncover and disassemble the subconscious thinking. In other words, it helps you figure out how language works.

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Effective rhetoric

A “text” should be motivated by a clear exigence, and the author should want to modify that exigence with a clear purpose.

A “text” should be directed towards an audience by using appropriate emotional, ethical, and logical appeals for that audience and their values.

A “text” should be relevant (kairotic) to the time by referring to current events or by being about current events.

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Practice

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Rhetorical Analysis

In the Beatrice esurance advertisement, can you name the following? What is the exigence? What is the purpose? Who is the Audience? How is esurance portraying themselves

(persona/writer)? What are the logical appeals (Logos)? What are the emotional appeals (Pathos)? What are the ethical appeals (Ethos)? Why is it the opportune moment (Kairos)?

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Any rhetorical analysis should attempt to do the following

1. Who is the audience(s)? How do you know? Be as specific as possible in describing the audience. Include as many details as you can in this description. Narrow the audience down as much as possible.

2. What is the primary purpose of the piece? What was it trying to persuade the audience of? What are the other purposes? Be specific and clear in describing the purposes.

3. What are some genre features used in this piece? Why were these particular genre features effective in reaching the audience and achieving the piece’s purpose?

4. What appeals are used (logos, pathos, ethos), and how are these features persuasive for the piece’s audience and achieve the piece’s purpose?

Be specific in describing the rhetorically effective features.

Give examples from the piece to illustrate the rhetorically effective writing strategies you are describing.