Rhetorical Approaches

Question 1

Rhetoric

Answer 1

the discovery of the available means of persuasion

Question 2

Aristotle’s Three Genres/Situations of Speech: Forensic

Answer 2

• Considers guilt and innocence through examining the past

- Ex. takes place in courtrooms, includes testimony given, open & closing arguments and cross examinations

Question 3

Aristotle’s Three Genres/Situations of Speech: Deliberative

Answer 3

• Considers future policy, takes place in legislatures, hearings, debates
• Ex: State of the Union Address: central goal is lay out a plan for future federal policy

Question 4

Aristotle’s Three Genres/Situations of Speech: Epideictic

Answer 4

• Is ceremonial; invokes praise or blame

- Ex: eulogies, commencement address, wedding toasts, Lifetime Achievement Award

Question 5

The Neo-Aristotelian Method

Answer 5

Reconstructing the context: 
- What was important about the historical context?
- Who was in the audience?
The 5 Canons (to analyzing artifacts)
1) Invention
2) Organization/ Arrangement
3) Style
4) Delivery
5) Memory
- Assessing the effect (on the audience)
- Writing the essay

Question 6

The Neo-Aristotelian Method: Invention

Answer 6

how a rhetor speaks/ uses language to invent or construct arguments

• Ethos
• Logos
• Pathos

Question 7

The Neo-Aristotelian Method: Organization

Answer 7

how a rhetor puts arguments together to form a cohesive text

Question 8

The Neo-Aristotelian Method: Style

Answer 8

how language is used in unique ways

Ex: allusions

Question 9

The Neo-Aristotelian Method: Delivery

Answer 9

delivery of speech

Question 10

The Neo-Aristotelian Method: Memory

Answer 10

our memory of the speech

Question 11

Vernacular Uses of Rhetoric

Answer 11

• Used in both common speech and in technical cues
• Commonly used to mean ‘empty words’ or sophistry (Historical relevance: sophists were traveling teachers of rhetoric)
  a) Flowery language with no substance
• Associated with public communication that privileges style over substance
  a) Words over action

Question 12

Contemporary Definitions of rhetoric: Political

Kenneth Burke

Answer 12

• “Rhetoric is the manipulation of men’s beliefs for political ends.”
• “Basic function is for the use of words by human agents to form attitudes and induce actions in other human agents.”

Question 13

Contemporary Definitions of rhetoric: Seeks Change (Lloyd Bitzer)

Answer 13

• “Rhetoric is a mode of altering reality by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action.

Question 14

Contemporary Definitions of rhetoric: Instrumental (Gerard Hauser)

Answer 14

• “Rhetoric is the instrumental use of language. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal.
• “Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. It is explicitly pragmatic.
• “It’s goal is to influence choice on specific matters that require immediate attention.

Question 15

Contemporary Definitions of rhetoric: Context-or Community Specific (Chaim Perelmen)

Answer 15

• “All language is the language of a community-a community bound by biological ties or by the practice of a common discipline or technique.”
• “The terms used/ their meaning/ their definition, can only be understood by the context of their habits, ways of thoughts, methods, external circumstances, and traditions known to the users of those terms.”

Question 16

rhetor

Answer 16

the person who produces the rhetoric being investigated, person doing the action

Question 17

rhetorician/ rhetorical critic

Answer 17

the person analyzing the rhetorical artifact/text

Question 18

rhetorical artifact/ text

Answer 18

the real world rhetoric itself that the rhetorician is analyzing

Question 19

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach: Object of Study/ Rhetorical Artifact

Answer 19

• Speaker/audience/text
• Language: ex: metaphors
• Form
• Context
• Power & ideology

Question 20

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Object of Study): text/context

Answer 20

• Identify what makes the rhetorical artifact unique and interesting as a text including its sources of invention or symbolic elements, its arrangement, structure, or stylistic aspects.
• Analyze the rhetorical artifact against its context, or the socio-political and cultural context in which it is constructed or which it is working. (What is relationship between audience & the text context?

Question 21

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Object of Study): context

Answer 21

Why was this built? Why was this speech developed?

Question 22

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Object of Study): Form

Answer 22

Structure of the text, organization

Question 23

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Object of Study): Power & Ideology

Answer 23

What ideologies/ beliefs is the speaker promoting?

Question 24

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach: Goals of Reseach

Answer 24

• Describe/ Identify
• Analyze
• Interpret

Question 25

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Goals): Analyze

Answer 25

What is it about the speech that makes it effective?

Question 26

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach (Goals): Interpret

Answer 26

Different people have different interpretations | - Theoretical Concepts

Question 27

Contemp. Rhetorical Approach: functions

Answer 27

- To make an argument about how the rhetorical artifact is working, or what the rhetorical artifact is doing for the audience - We draw info from our analysis of the rhetorical artifact as a text within a context to evidence or, demonstrating our arguments