Rhetoric

Key Concepts in “An Overview of Rhetoric” by Robert Herrick

Rhetoric has a dual nature

• Can be used to “cheat” or to be insincere or “meaningless”

• Must be used to negotiate all human cooperation– Alternative to rhetoric: GUNS/violence or some

other form of bribery or coercion

Good things rhetoric can do

• Help us organize our thinking (internal/cognitive function)

• Help us make rational decisions about how to act in the face of uncertainty

What kind of “good” persuasion do nurses do?

Rhetoric can help us UNDERSTAND situations and discourse

• Who is being addressed (who is the speaker/writer attempting to persuade?)

• Of what does the speaker/writer want them to be persuaded (what are they being asked to think, believe, and/or do?)

• What elements of the discourse (word choice, word order, pictures, etc.) are doing the work of persuading?

Uncertainty/Contingency

• Rhetoric is using discourse to decide what to do under conditions of uncertainty– Can we think of “everyday” situations that do not

comprise ANY uncertainty/contingency?– Can we think of any nursing practice situations

that do not comprise ANY uncertainty/contingency? (p. 43 BG)

Let’s consider an example

You are a nurse in a clinic that provides care for chronically ill patients, including diabetics. You meet with a diabetic patient who tells you that she checked her blood glucose with a self-monitoring device an hour ago and her glucose (A1C) was 6.6 (the ADA recommends a target of < 7.0).

TASK: In writing, brainstorm some of the issues of uncertainty you now face.

TASK: In writing, brainstorm some of the rhetoric you’ll need to use (consume and produce) as a nurse

Signs and Symbols

• These are the “raw materials” from which people build persuasive discourse

• EXAMPLE: Bathroom icons– are these persuasive? – how does their persuasion work?

• ALSO: the more buy-in you already have from your audience, the less hard you have to work on using signs to persuade– What would you have to do to persuade people to use

the “gender-alternate” bathroom?

Is this image rhetoric?

Is this image rhetoric?

Is this image rhetoric?

Is this image rhetoric?

What are the limits of rhetoric?

• All communication?• Certain communication?– Planned (purposeful); goal-oriented– Adapted to an audience– Responsive to situation– Seeks to persuade– Concerned with “uncertainty” (contingency)

• Rhetoric CAN be resisted!!!

Forging links to audience

• Persuasion doesn’t start from a blank slate. You build on what people ALREADY know and/or believe

• This is called “identification”– Folgers commercial: what existing knowledge and

values does this message build from?

Enthymeme

• Builds on an already-believed premise that is not stated:– Example: The health disparities report: what is

the “unspoken” premise?– Example: Planned Parenthood Morning-After Pill

piece

Constraints

• The rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, context) CONSTRAIN what a writer/speaker can say– How is the Planned Parenthood piece probably

constrained by rhetorical situation?• BUT: Rhetoric always intends to move the

audience to a “new place” – some new belief—it has to navigate between what people already believe and what you want them to believe

Audience adaptation

• Let’s tailor this message to a patient audience:– “Your t-cell count is elevated and we’ll need to

start an infusion of phage therapy”

– “Patients are prohibited from self-determination with regard to their post-surgical saline drip therapy”

“The Rhetorical Situation”

• Events set up “situations” (also called an “exigence”) to which people must respond appropriately with a rhetorical performance:– Hurricane Katrina

• Question: do rhetoricians merely RESPOND to situations, or does their performance sometimes CREATE situations?– Depression ad study

Resources of symbols used to persuade:

• Argument• Appeals• Arrangement• Aesthetics

Argument

• “reasoning” – giving reasons for people to accept a belief– Does music provide people with REASONS for

belief?– Does evidence provide people with reasons for

belief?• In writing, brainstorm an example of a nursing question

and what sort of evidence would give you reason for belief

Appeals

• Elicit emotions or engage values, loyalties, or commitments– Question: Will reason alone really motivate

action? Or MUST you also engage people’s emotions?

– Can you think of an argument that would motivate a patient to get more exercise? Can you think of an appeal that would persuade the patient?

Arrangement

• Order/sequence matters!– Can you think of an example of how someone’s

experience of the UWEC campus is being “sequenced” to produce a particular belief?

Arrangement in images

Aesthetics

• Gettysburg Address– http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/

speeches/gettysburg.htm

• Folgers commercial

Social Functions of Rhetoric

• Test ideas• Assist advocacy• Distribute power (personal, psychological, political)• Discover facts• Shape knowledge• Build communitiesTASK: in writing, brainstorm ways that rhetoric can serve nurses in each of these capacities

So what’s it all about?

• Power• Truth• Ethics• Audience• SocietyExactly how rhetoric works and how it addresses these issues has been debated for thousands of years.