introduction to rhetoric and rhetorical analysis

Introduction to Rhetoric and

Rhetorical Analysis“”Rhetoric” is the opposite of “reality.” Rhetoric is spin. Rhetoric is dangerous. Rhetoric inflames. Rhetoric deceives”

(Longaker, Walker 1)

ObjectivesO To understand how messages

persuade through their angle of vision

O To understand how messages persuade through appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos

What is Rhetoric?O The art, study, & practice of

persuasionO Humans cannot exist without itO The social quality of human

interaction requires persuasion so that we can influence one another without violence or destruction

What is Rhetorical Analysis?O The study of persuasion in order to

understand how people have been and can be persuasive

O Rhetorically analyzing something requires that we judge its effectiveness

2 Reasons we Analyze Rhetorically

O So that we become better judgesO So that we become better advocatesO After we analyze, we’re more able to

say why we agree (or not), and why others should do likewise. If we understand how we have been persuaded, we can more effectively move others.

What is the Rhetorical Perspective?

O We must acknowledge that however much we may believe in an argument, that argument may be flawed (if not wrong), and however much we may disapprove of an argument, it may be reasonable (if not right)

Messages persuade through their angle of vision

OAngle of vision is one way on which a message may persuade, but it causes the reader to see the subject from one perspective only—the writer’s.

Writers create an angle of vision through strategies such as the following:

O Stating the point of view directlyO Selecting some details while omitting

othersO Choosing words or figures of speech

with intended connotationsO Creating emphasis or de-emphasis

though sentence structure and organization

OThe writer’s angle of vision – which might also be called a lens, filter, a perspective or point of view – is persuasive because it controls what the reader “sees.”

Kairos and the Rhetorical Situation

O Any effort to persuade someone involves, in its most basic form, a relationship among the producer of discourse (the rhetor), the discourse produced, and the audience of discourse.

O Rhetor – the speaker, writer, video maker, graphic designer, etc., who use any symbolic means, such as words or images, with communicative and persuasive intent

O Rhetorician – the analyst, theorist, or teacher of rhetoric

O Discourse – any persuasive effort: speech, article, song, film

O Text – a piece of discourse

KairosO The ancient word kairos literally

means time, in the particular sense of a moment in time, and especially the right time or the appropriate time

O The moment in time kairos refers to can be any size – something as short as a fleeting present instant, or as long as a year, season, or historical epoch

O The idea of kairos includes a sense of the surrounding conditions (cultural, political, economic, technological, etc.) that makes some things more possible, and other things less possible

O As a rhetorical term, kairos names both the occasion for discourse and the surrounding conditions that present the rhetor with opportunities and constraints.

O Opportunities: the opportunities and openings to say certain things in certain ways

O Constraints: limits on what can be said and how

O Kairotic: discourse that responds effectively or appropriately to the opportunities and constraints in its situation may be called kairotic, or timely

O Unkairotic: Discourse that fails to respond effectively or appropriately may be called unkairotic, untimely, inappropriate, or sometimes, just plain tasteless.

O Occasion: typically some event or circumstance that calls for speech. The speaker and audience, then, are brought together because they recognize the need for discourse – a rhetorical occasion.

O Exigence: within a genuine rhetorical occasion, there is an exigence—something the speaker and the audience want to discuss.

O Presuppositions: a systems of ideas, the ways of thinking that the speaker and the audience share. Presuppositions include what they love, hate, fear, admire, yearn for, etc.; a shared system of values, ideas, and needs.

Argumentation

The Classical Pisteis: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

O Argument is persuasions’ engineO An argument seeks to connect a claim to the

audience’s presuppositions: what they already recognize as true, probable, or desirable

O A direct argument overtly gives reasons and draws conclusions

O An indirect argument presents a set of ideas and/or images in an effort to get the audience to draw certain conclusions or inferences

PisteisO Aristotle’s three-part classification of

the pisteis (or pistis singularly), or what often are described as that main modes if proof or appeal: ethos as the ethical appeal; logos as the logical appeal; and pathos as the pathetic or emotional appeal

O Pistis means an assurance or guarantee hat inspires truth, faith, or belief in something

O As Aristotle observed, the three rhetorical pisteis derive from three main aspects of the communicative act: speaker, speech, and audience

EthosO The apparent character of the speaker—

what ever inspires trust (or the opposite). This includes reputation, credentials, knowledge of the subject, intelligence, fair-mindedness, honesty, goodwill, and general moral equality.

O Aristotle thought that such trust-inspiring qualities were communicates principally through the speaker’s self-presentation

O A good, effective reputation can outweigh a shaky reputation

O The ethos appeal consists of a two step process in which the rhetor petitions the audience for their trust, which, in turn, gives the audience reason to trust the rhetor’s statements

PathosO Pathos is the emotion of the

audience. This mood or feeling motivates the audience to believe or do something.

O It is often said that the pathos—desire, fear, anger, love, and so on—moves a person to take action.

O Like ethos, pathos is also a two-step process. Typically the speaker must first present causes for emotion to arouse, intensify, or change the audience’s emotion. The emotion functions as a reason for embracing an idea or taking action.

LogosO Logos is the reasoning itself—in direct

argumentation, it is the stated reason or reasons and/or evidence given in support of a conclusion; in indirect argumentation, it is the unspoken relationships between the speakers’ statements and the conclusions (inferences) they encourage the audience to draw.

O The logos appeal consists of reasons for accepting the rhetor’s claims; the logical relationships among claim and reason(s); and the audiences presuppositions.

A few last minute notes…

O The pisteis are not isolated appeals, but simultaneous dimensions of persuasion, although one appeal or another may dominate

O In a fully persuasive argument, ethos, logos, and pathos support each other

O It is a common mistake to think of logos alone as logical and ethos and pathos as non-logical or irrational. All the appeals have a logical dimension, as well as a pathetic dimension