Some questions for thought

• How do we come into contact with rhetoric in our daily lives?
• When are we practicing rhetoric in our daily lives?
• What professions mandate great rhetorical skills?
• Is literature rhetoric?

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How do we come into contact with rhetoric in our daily lives?

• Advertising
• Media sources (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, Internet, etc.)
• Classes: Are your teachers just spinning rhetoric?
• Facebook, twitter, etc: a new rhetoric for the ages?
• Interpersonal Interactions
• Parents?
• Coaches?
• Friends?
• Boyfriends/Girlfriends?

When do we practice rhetoric?

What professions mandate great rhetorical skills?

• Politicians
• Lawyers
• News people
• Writers
• Leaders from all professions
• Teachers?
• Students?

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What happens if a professional has poor rhetorical skills? What are the consequences?

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Is literature rhetoric?

• “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.”
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

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(Oh wow! Human beings! What a species!)

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RHETORIC AS A TYPE OF DISCOURSE

What are the features of rhetorical discourse that set it apart from other types of communication?

What is discourse?

Herrick: “Symbols intentionally organized into a message”

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For our purposes: Written and spoken language

�When is discourse considered rhetoric?

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• Herrick: “when it is goal-oriented and seeks, by means of the planned use of symbols, to adapt ideas to an audience.”

Remember this:

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Rhetoric transmits ideology.

Another pep talk….

Tyler Durden's Speech

1. What is his message?

2. Is it convincing? Why?

3. How does he appeal to his audience?

4. How does he transmit ideology?

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Characteristics of Rhetorical Discourse

• Rhetoric Seeks Persuasion
• Rhetoric Is Planned
• Rhetoric Considers the Audience
• Rhetoric Reveals Human Motives
• Rhetoric Is a Response and Invites a Response

Rhetoric Seeks Persuasion

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Rhetoric is intended to bring someone to accept an idea, to act in a certain way, or both.

• What does Kid President want us to accept?
• What does Tyler Durden want his Fight Club members to do?

To persuade, rhetoric employs various resources.

The 4A’s

• Argument (evidence, reasoning)
• Appeals (to emotions, values, loyalties, beliefs, sensibilities)
• Arrangement (ordering of message for maximum impact)
• Aesthetics (form, beauty, force)

Rhetoric Is Planned

Q’s for the Communicator to Answer:

• Which arguments will I advance?
• Which evidence will I present?
• Which appeals will I employ?
• How will I arrange my arguments and appeals?
• What aesthetic resources are available to me?
• How will I establish credibility/trust?

Answering these questions asks us to consider the audience for our discourse….

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Rhetoric Considers the Audience

• What is the difference between imagined audience and actual audience?

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• The communicator must consider points of commonality between herself and her audience.
• What are shared values? What do we agree on? (Why is Kid President’s rhetoric effective?)

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• Audience adaptation: changes made in the message to tailor it to a particular audience
• Do we see this concept in the significant omission from Jefferson’s draft?

Rhetoric Reveals Human Motives

• Implicit and explicit motives

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• Herrick: “As a consumer of rhetoric, then, one must be aware that motives can be elusive and that hidden and admitted motives alike may be at work behind rhetorical messages.”
• What are Tyler Durden’s explicit motives?
• What are his implicit motives?

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Rhetoric Is a Response and Invites a Response

• Rhetoric is born of a situation, or exigency.

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• Rhetoric wants its audience to respond.

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• What response does Kid President invite?
• What response does Tyler Durden invite?
• Where do we see this principle in the political climate?

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THE RHETORICAL SITUATION

From the Purdue OWL…

• Writing instructors, and other professionals who study rhetoric, use the phrase “rhetorical situation” to refer to any set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person. In this context, “rhetoric” means any communication used to modify the perspectives of others.

The Rhetorical Transaction

• The communicator (rhetor )
• Speaker, writer, designer, artist, etc.

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• The audience
• Imagined
• Actual

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• The message (purpose, exigency, text)

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The Rhetorical Triangle

The Rhetoric of animashighschool.com

• Go to AHS website and determine the following components of the rhetorical triangle.
• What is the message?
• Read between the lines: What message is being transmitted by AHS’ website?
• Who is the communicator (AKA “rhetor”)?
• Is the message credible? What makes it credible?
• Who is the audience?
• What values, beliefs, and/or experiences must the audience hold for the message to be effective?

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All rhetoric is situated in a context.

The Rhetorical Triangle

The Rhetorical Situation: Communicator/Speaker/Writer

(Ethos)

• Communicator’s Purpose: Exigency
• What does the rhetor wish to communicate?
• Communicator’s Background
• Message is affected by communicator’s age, personal experience, gender, location, ethnicity, political beliefs, parents, peers, level of education, and others
• If an organization: What is organization’s purpose/mission?
• Is the communicator credible?
• Rhetor’s Attitude: Tone
• Influences the message and how it is received

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The Rhetorical Situation: Audience

(pathos)

• Audience’s Purpose
• Why is the audience consuming the discourse?

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• Audience’s Background
• What does the audience believe, value, feel, care about?
• We bring our own ideas to communication that impact how we receive the message.

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• Audience’s Attitude
• Also affects how communication is received and the relative effectiveness of the message

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The Rhetorical Situation: the Message

• What is being communicated?
• Message is dependent on the communicator’s ability to deliver, and the audience’s ability to receive.
• Key Terms:
• Medium: the means of conveying the message
• speech, letter, video, Twitter, website, opinion column, cable news, conversation, staff-wide memo
• Genre: category of discourse, based on style, form, or content
• poetry, satire, oratory, argumentative essay, TED talk

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The Rhetorical Situation: Context and Timing

(Kairos)

• Time/Place/Circumstances
• How is the communication situated in a societal and/or historical context?
• Community/Conversation
• Is the communication part of a larger societal conversation?
• Who is involved in this conversation?
• Sometimes this happens across the planes of space and time!

Every time you write for a reason, you do so within a rhetorical situation.

Lots of times when you speak too!

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