Rhetoric

Rhetoric is at the heart of effective communication. As a writer or speaker, you will be making choices – using rhetoric – that has an intended effect on your audience. Understanding rhetoric can help you know which choices will be best.

The concept of rhetoric dates back to the Greeks when Aristotle came up with three modes that can be used to convince someone to do something. These are known as Aristotle's Rhetorical Appeals. They are pathos, logos, and ethos. We'll go over these below, but first, picture your own experiences with writing.

Fig. 1 - Aristotle's appeals help you to persuade

What is your thought process before and while you are writing? What do you hope your audience will do with the information you give your audience? Do you want your audience to learn something, feel a certain way, or take action?

Rhetoric is about understanding your target audience. Knowing your audience is essential because it allows you to decide how to write something based on the particular audience and particular situation – this is what we call the rhetorical situation.

A rhetorical situation is a circumstance, timing, or location that can influence a piece of writing. In other words, what is the background context of the rhetoric? To understand the rhetoric involved, you'll need to identify the context first.

Let's look at some situations you might encounter when trying to understand the audience.

You are sending a private text to a friend:

You are sending a private message to a boss:

Notice the potential differences between those two situations. Obviously, you need to have a different tone for each situation.

In other words, your rhetorical situation will influence your rhetorical choices.

So how do you tell the difference between a rhetorical situation and a rhetorical choice?

Identifying a Rhetorical Situation

Here are some questions to ask.

• Who is in my audience?
  • Is it my teacher?
  • Is it a small or large crowd?
  • What are the needs of the crowd?

• Where is this situation taking place?
  • Is it a speech in front of a group?
  • Is it in a classroom?
  • Will it be posted online?

• What is the purpose of this paper/speech?
  • Am I trying to convince my audience to do something?
  • Am I trying to educate my audience?
  • Is it a paper for just one or for more people to read?

Identifying a Rhetorical Situation

Here's how you start to make a rhetorical choice.

• How should I start this text/speech?
  • Would using jokes work with my audience?
  • Would a quote work best?
• What should my tone of voice be?
  • Should I be loud and assertive?
  • Should I present facts over emotion?

After identifying the rhetorical situation and making some rhetorical choices, you could conduct a rhetorical analysis.

A rhetorical analysis aims to explain the what, how, and why those rhetorical choices will affect the audience.

You will probably have to write or have already written a rhetorical analysis essay. An essay might be the standard for rhetorical analysis, but it isn't the only method. A rhetorical analysis could be presented on a video, a podcast, or in some other writing format besides an essay. Whatever the mode being used in a rhetorical analysis, here's how you can analyze it for any rhetoric that might be used:

After you've looked at these three things, you can determine if the communication from the writer was effective. For example, if you listen to a politician giving a speech, you'll know that the rhetorical situation is a crowd of potential voters.

When looking at the choices the writer makes when addressing their audience, you will look for the rhetorical devices they use.

A writer can use figurative or metaphorical speech, repetitions, or tone of voice – among other things – to influence the audience.

A rhetorical device will come in several different forms. Three common types of rhetoric used are pathos, logos, and ethos, but there are others. These are all deliberate techniques used to convey a specific audience message.

Pathos appeals to the empathy of a reader. Using pathos might get a reader to feel certain emotions like fear, anger, or sadness. Stories that utilize pathos can be personal experiences such as memoirs or testimonials. Using photos is a rhetorical device that is effective for evoking empathy. These devices are meant to appeal to the human side of a story. Stories about refugees or animal shelters often rely heavily on this tactic. It's not a bad thing, but you can use it negatively.

This type of rhetoric is used for logical arguments and appeals to an audience's reason. In this scenario, you're trying to persuade someone with statistics and data. Logos might include charts and graphs to display information. Providing a heavily fact-based article is used to persuade people that their argument is strong. This type of rhetoric also tries to appeal to common sense or prove a point.

Fig. 3 - Logos appeals to logic

Ethos shows the credibility of the writer. For example, a writer might show their area of expertise by mentioning their degrees, employment history, any publications they've written, or hands-on experience. This information helps convey that they are qualified to talk about a topic.

The writer is using their degree in Environmental Science to show that they have the credentials to give an opinion about this issue. Presenting information that makes you more credible is a form of rhetoric that convinces people to trust you more easily.¹

Think about ways you use this in everyday life. Say you need to write a resume for a job. You might list classes you've taken or any experience you've had to convince the employer that your credentials fit the bill. You can find ways to use each type of rhetoric daily.

There are many other types of rhetoric, but kairos, simile, and hyperbole are some of the popular ones that can be used.

Kairos

This type of rhetoric means that the writer must consider the timing. A writer should consider when and in what context they will deliver information. A writer should also consider the appropriateness of the information. Is it the right time to deliver that particular message? For example, you could save a juicy tidbit of a story for the end of an article or use appropriate comedic timing in your speech.

Simile

A simile is an extremely common rhetorical device, and for a good reason. It draws a simple comparison between two unrelated things using "like" or "as". Using a simile emphasizes something, making a subject interesting and descriptive.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that uses an exaggerated claim or story to get a reaction from the audience.

This rhetoric device is another popular one because it strongly emphasizes something. Hyperbole can add a shock factor to a piece of writing that draws in the audience, but it is not meant to be taken literally.

Different types of rhetoric motivate everyone differently. It's important to understand what kind of rhetoric will inspire your audience.

Another popular rhetorical device is the rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a type of question that is usually a persuasive tool to get a reaction, but not an answer, from the audience.

Since rhetoric is used to persuade someone to do something, what can you persuade someone to do by asking a rhetorical question? This type of question is asked to prove a point, not to get an answer; asking a rhetorical question might spark a discussion. The critical point here is that the answer to the question is implied.

Here's an example.

The opposite is true in this case, but it was asked to point out that it's annoying when people show up late.

This type of quote from a politician is designed to convince people that they should be scared of something happening. This is an example of how pathos can be used another way – invoking fear to get people to act.

1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aristotle's Rhetoric. 2002.