Defined the Word Rhetoric as the Art of Persuasion
two.4: The Art of Rhetoric
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What is Rhetoric?
In its simplest form, RHETORIC is the art of persuasion. Every fourth dimension nosotros write, we appoint in fence or argument. Through writing and speaking, we try to persuade and influence our readers, either directly or indirectly. We work to become them to change their minds, to do something, or to begin thinking in new ways. Put simply, to be constructive, every author needs to know, and exist able to apply, principles of rhetoric.
Writing is about making choices, and knowing the principles of rhetoric allows a writer to brand informed choices about diverse aspects of the writing process. Every deed of writing takes identify in a specific RHETORICAL State of affairs, which is a situation or circumstance in which someone (a author or speaker) must persuade an audience to do something, to alter their minds, to influence them, etc. This "rhetorical state of affairs" is the aforementioned concept that Fifty. Lennie Erwin terms "the writing situation" in his discussion on how writing is dissimilar from speaking (see "The Difference between Speaking and Writing").
The 3 most basic, yet important components of a rhetorical state of affairs are:
- The purpose of writing or rhetorical aim (the goal the writer is trying to achieve or statement the writer is trying to brand)
- The intended audience
- The writer/speaker
These 3 elements of the rhetorical state of affairs are in a constant and dynamic interrelation. All three are also necessary for communication through writing (or speaking) to take place. For example, if the author is taken out of this equation, the text will not exist created. Similarly, eliminating the text itself volition leave the reader and writer, but without any ways of conveying ideas between them, and and so on.
Other components of the rhetorical situation include:
- the medium (the grade of communication)
- the allotted fourth dimension for the message (how much time does writer have? appropriate time to persuade?)
- the political, social, or cultural implications, identify, etc.
All writing (or speaking) that is persuasive comes from a source of urgency or EXIGENCE –– a need to communicate the message.
NOTE
Delight note that the term "rhetoric" likewise is used to hateful someone speaking bombastic thoughts that are empty of meaning. The online Oxford dictionary defines rhetoric also as "language designed to take a persuasive or impressive result on its audience, but oftentimes regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content" and the case they requite is, "all nosotros accept from the Opposition is empty rhetoric." Such a significant is unfortunately derived from the emphasis of rhetoric on presentation and commitment. In this grade, we volition focus on rhetoric every bit a means of effective communication as we aspire to become skilled rhetoricians ourselves.
The following video focuses on the use of rhetoric from the viewpoint every bit a author. Equally you lot watch, consider how the same elements hold true from the viewpoint of a reader.
The Rhetorical State of affairs
When composing an essay, every writer must take into account the conditions under which the writing is produced and will be read. It is customary to correspond the three fundamental elements of the rhetorical situation equally a triangle of writer, reader, and text, or, every bit they are represented on this prototype, equally "communicator," "audition," and "message."
Figure 2.4.ane: The Rhetorical Triangle
Source: St. Edward's Academy
Changing the characteristics of any of the elements depicted in the figure above will change the other elements as well. For instance, with a change in the behavior and values of the audience, the bulletin volition too change to accommodate those new beliefs.
What does this agreement of rhetoric have to exercise with bookish and enquiry writing? Everything, really. If you have ever had trouble with a writing consignment, chances are it was because y'all could not effigy out the assignment's purpose. Or maybe you did not sympathise very well who was your reader. Information technology is hard to commit to purposeless writing washed for no one in item, which is how many students incorrectly approach bookish writing.
Rhetorical Appeals
In order to persuade their readers, writers must use three types of proofs, or rhetorical appeals. They are logos , or logical appeal; pathos , or emotional appeal; and ethos , or ethical entreatment, or appeal based on the grapheme and credibility of the author. An boosted appeal, called kairos, refers to whether a message is "of its fourth dimension period." It is easy to find that modernistic words "logical," "pathetic," and "ethical" are derived from those Greek words. In his work Rhetoric, Aristotle writes that the three appeals must be used together in every piece of persuasive discourse. An argument based on the entreatment to logic, or emotions alone will not be an effective one.
Pathos
Pathos tin can best be described as the use of emotional appeal to sway another'southward opinion in a rhetorical argument. Emotion itself should require no definition, just it should be noted that constructive 'pathetic' appeal (the apply of pathos) is often used in means that tin can cause anger or sorrow in the minds and hearts of the audience.
Pathos is oftentimes the rhetorical vehicle of public service announcements. A number of anti-smoking and passive smoking related commercials use pathos heavily. One of the more memorable videos shows an elderly man ascension from the burrow to meet his young grandson who, followed by his mother, is taking his first steps toward the grandfather. Every bit the quondam human coaxes the immature child forward, the grandfather begins to disappear. Equally the child walks through him the mother says "I wish your granddad could run across you now." The audience is left to assume that the grandfather has died, as the voice-over informs us that cigarette smoke kills then many people a year, with a closing argument, "exist in that location for the ones you love." This commercial uses powerful words (like "love") and images to become at the emotions of the viewer, encouraging them to quit smoking. The goal is for the audition to get so "enlightened" and emotionally moved that the smoking viewers will never touch another cigarette.
Ethos
Ethos can be seen as the credibility that authors, writers, and speakers have when they present themselves in forepart of an audience. If, on the first day of class, your professor walked in, kind of bent over and looking like they had been out all dark and picking their olfactory organ, how would you perceive that instructor? What would your view of the class he takes be? How confident would you lot be that this person knows what they are talking about?
Ethos encompasses a large number of different things which can include what a person wears, says, the words they use, their tone of vocalisation, their credentials, their experience, their relationship with the audience, verbal and nonverbal behavior, criminal records, etc. At times, it can be equally of import to know who the person presenting the cloth is, as what they are maxim most a topic.
Many companies, peculiarly those big plenty to afford famous spokespeople, volition use celebrities in their ad campaigns to promote the sale of their products. Sure soft drink companies have used the likes of Ray Charles, Madonna, and Britney Spears to sell their products, and have been successful in doing so. The thing yous demand to inquire yourself is: what exercise these celebrities add together to the production other than their fame? Or is it their human relationship with the audience that is the selling point?
Frequently times ads for medical products or fifty-fifty chewing mucilage might say that four out of five doctors/dentists recommend a certain product. Some commercials may even show a doctor in a white lab glaze approving whatever is for auction. Now, provided that the person you are viewing is an actual medico, this might be an example of a good ethos argument. On the other hand, if an automotive company uses a famous sports effigy to endorse a product, we might wonder what that person knows about this product. The campaign and celebrity are not being used to inform the consumer, but rather to catch their attending with what is actually a faulty case of ethos.
How does this apply to writing? To brainstorm, if y'all are going to cite an article about racial equality published by the Ku Klux Klan, or a Neo-Nazi organisation, this might send upwards a red flag that this particular commodity might be written from a biased viewpoint. You demand to inquiry an author's background to re-assure yourself that what they are writing is unbiased. Also, if you are trying to nowadays a formal project, y'all may want to increment your positive ethos by using appropriate terminology. Writing that "abortions are all whack and stuff" is probably not the all-time way to convince your audience of your point of view. It may happen that you equally a writer adopt different voices for different assignments, but your give-and-take option and your approach to the consignment should reflect what it is yous want to say.
Logos
Logos is most easily defined as the logical entreatment of an argument. Say that you are writing a paper on COVID-nineteen and yous say "COVID-19 is only like the flu, and so we should have the same measures as the flu." This statement is illogical because the virus itself, it'due south characteristics, and the overall situation is not like that of the influenza. The statement has an illogical comparison. The COVID-nineteen virus is in a unlike family of viruses (corona viruses) than are the diverse influenza viruses, such as H1N1. COVID-19 displays a wide diversity of symptoms (or no symptoms) and is much more than contagious precisely because information technology can be transmitted without whatever symptoms. In improver, nosotros have immunizations confronting the influenza virus, which we exercise not yet have for the COVID-19 virus.
Kairos
"Kairos" is an of import, but sometimes illusive, rhetorical term. The word itself ways "time," and time is central to the concept, which means the "right fourth dimension" or the "ideal moment" for communicating. Kairos is basically about the context of the moment: what's relevant to the audience at whatever particular time? Some rhetoricians depict kairos as a fourth "entreatment" considering rhetors oftentimes appeal to the urgency of a particular time or moment to engage an audience.
Timing, every bit they sometimes say, is everything. Rhetoric is about finding the best "bachelor ways" of persuasion "at any given moment" or "in whatever given instance." Past, present, and hereafter ("forensic," "epideictic," and "demonstrative" as the video, beneath, on labels them) are definitely part of the picture here, also.
Video: How to use rhetoric to go what you desire by Camille A. Langston. All Rights Reserved. Standard YouTube license.
Summary: Chart
The chart below summarizes the primal points relating to the rhetorical appeals:
Rhetorical Appeal | Abbreviated Definition | Cogitating Questions |
Ethos | Appeal to credibility Y'all may want to think of ethos as related to "ethics," or the moral principles of the author: ethos is the author'due south fashion of establishing trust with his or her reader. |
|
Pathos | Appeal to emotion You may desire to think of pathos as "empathy," which pertains to the feel of or sensitivity toward emotion. |
|
Logos | Entreatment to logic You may want to think of logos equally "logic," because |
|
Kairos | Appeal to timeliness You may want to think of kairos equally the blazon of persuasion that pertains to "the right place and the right time." |
|
How the Appeals Work Together to Persuade
Understanding how logos, pathos, and ethos should work together is very of import for writers who use research. Ofttimes, research writing assignments are written in a way that seems to emphasize logical proofs over emotional or ethical ones. Such logical proofs in research papers typically consist of factual information, statistics, examples, and other similar show. According to this view, writers of bookish papers demand to be unbiased and objective, and using logical proofs volition help them to be that way.
Because of this emphasis on logical proofs, you may be less familiar with the kinds of pathetic and ethical proofs bachelor to you. Pathetic appeals, or appeals to emotions of the audience were considered by ancient rhetoricians as important every bit logical proofs. Yet, writers are sometimes not easily convinced to use pathetic appeals in their writing. As mod rhetoricians and authors of the influential book Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student (1998), Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert Connors said, "People are rather sheepish about acknowledging that their opinions can exist afflicted by their emotions" (86). According to Corbett, many of u.s.a. think that there may be something wrong about using emotions in argument. But, I agree with Connors, pathetic proofs are not only admissible in argument, but necessary (86-89). The well-nigh basic mode of evoking appropriate emotional responses in your audience, according to Corbett, is the utilise of vivid descriptions (94). This is demonstrated at the beginning of many newspaper and magazine feature articles.
Using upstanding appeals, or appeals based on the character of the author, involves establishing and maintaining your credibility in the optics of your readers. In other words, when writing, call back about how you lot are presenting yourself to your audience. Do you requite your readers enough reasons to trust y'all and your argument, or exercise yous give them reasons to dubiety your authority and your credibility? Consider all the times when your conclusion about the merits of a given argument was afflicted by the person or people making the argument. For instance, when watching goggle box news, are y'all predisposed against certain cable networks and more inclined toward others because you trust them more?
And then, how can writers establish credible personas for their audiences? One style to practise that is through external research. Conducting research and using it well in your writing help you with the factual proofs (logos), simply it also shows your readers that y'all, as the author, have done your homework and know what you are talking about. This cognition, the sense of your authority that using logos creates amidst your readers, will help you be a more than constructive author.
The logical, pathetic, and ethical appeals piece of work in a dynamic combination with one another. It is sometimes hard to separate one kind of proof from some other and the methods by which the writer achieves the desired rhetorical effect. If your research contains information that is likely to cause your readers to exist emotional, information technology tin can heighten the pathetic aspect of your argument. The key to using the 3 appeals is to use them in combination with each other and in moderation. It is impossible to construct a successful argument by relying also much on one or two appeals while neglecting the others.
Using Rhetorical Appeals in Your Own Writing
Identifying these appeals in persuasive writing is a valuable skill to learn; understanding how to employ these appeals in your persuasive writing can show to be an even more than powerful ability to develop. To begin, several ways to appeal to logic exist. Consider the construction and quality of your statement. Digital strategist and rhetorician, Daniel T. Richards, asks writers to consider these questions: "Does your conclusion follow from your premises? Volition your audience be able to follow the progression? Does your argument provide sufficient evidence for your audition to be convinced?" To improve the quality of your argument, consider:
- Referring to facts and figures.
- Citing relevant, current statistics.
- Providing examples.
- Including and addressing an opposing view.
- Using visual representations.
In addition, as Lane, McKee, and McIntyre recommend in their article regarding logos: maintain consistency in your statement, and avoid fallacious, or faulty, appeals to logic. For example, in "Beguiling Logos," they provide an overview of several faux appeals to logic, including the false dilemma, which assumes that there are only ii options when in that location are more.
Writers may employ several methods to appeal to pathos. Read "Desolation" to explore several suggestions which include:
- Referring to other emotionally compelling stories.
- Citing stark, startling statistics that will invoke a specific emotion in audition members.
- Showing empathy and/or understanding for an opposing view.
- Using sense of humor, if advisable.
However, in your efforts to appeal to the audience's emotions, avoid relying on faulty appeals. For example, "Beguiling Pathos" points out that using emotional words that evidence does not support leads to the argument by emotive language fallacy.
In pondering how to effectively use rhetorical devices and aptly avoid fallacies, writers tend to miss the human relationship among the rhetorical appeals. Consequently, at that place is something very right well-nigh such arguments as the one advanced by Richards, who argues that "your statement could exist sound. It could even be emotionally compelling. Simply if your audience doesn't trust you, if they don't think you take their interest at middle, it won't thing" ("The three Rhetorical Appeals"). Raise the effectiveness of appeals to pathos and logos with appeals to ethos.
To demonstrate your brownie, try:
- Referring to relevant work and/or life feel.
- Citing your relevant awards, certificates, and/or degrees.
- Providing evidence from relevant, current, and apparent sources.
- Carefully proofreading your piece of work, and request a few other people to then as well.
Additionally, follow McKee and McIntyre's communication in "Fallacious Ethos." McKee and McIntyre provide specific examples of fallacious ethos.
Conversely, appeals to kairos can aid you make use of the particular moment (Pantelides, McIntyre, and McKee). Inquire yourself if you lot tin can capitalize on any of the audience's fast-budgeted moments to create a sense of urgency. Nevertheless, avoid false appeals to kairos. Read "Fallacious Appeals to Kairos" to learn more well-nigh this topic.
Adept writers write to win. As such, rhetorical appeals underlie much of the successful persuasive writing in society, whether in the form of written arguments, television commercials, or educational campaigns. Equally previously discussed, some thoughtful, strategic anti-smoking campaigns have reduced smoking-related diseases and decease. Additionally, Ariel Chernin, advertising researcher, observes that a big trunk of literature proves that nutrient marketing affects children'south nutrient preferences. Similarly, appealing to logos, pathos, ethos, and kairos in your persuasive writing can help you achieve your goals. Approaching rhetorical appeals from the within out—from the perspective of the writer—i can note their effectiveness in persuasive writing, and one can write to win.
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Source: https://human.libretexts.org/Courses/City_College_of_San_Francisco/Writing_Reading_and_College_Success:_A_First-Year_Composition_Course_for_All_Learners_%28Kashyap_and_Dyquisto%29/02:_Writing_and_the_Art_of_Rhetoric/2.04:_The_Art_of_Rhetoric
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