Category: Rhetorical Strategies

When attempting to persuade an audience on your outlook on a topic, how acceptable is the use of illogical reasoning in order to give more credibility to an argument? How does the art of discourse affect audiences with the intent of learning more about a topic? The issue of gender equity is one which has sparked a plethora of debate, revealing differing perspectives on the topic whilst collecting large amounts of controversy due to its contentious nature. According to The International Journal of Human Resource Management, the affair at hand can be attributed to the case that “Analyses conducted by government and non-profit organizations consistently demonstrate that female workers earn significantly less than male workers” (Yanadori, Gould & Kulik, 2018, 1). In an interview hosted by Channel 4 News titled ‘Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism’ psychologist and university professor Jordan Peterson, is interviewed and confronted about the arguments he has proposed on the validity and existence of the gender pay gap. There are two prominent views taken in the debate. The first argument being made by Professor Jordan Peterson is the fact that based-on analysis, the pay gap does exist but is not specifically attributed to gender rather, several different factors such as agreeability and conscientiousness. The opposing stance taken by the journalist, Cathy Newman is that there is a pay gap and gender is a significant element contributing to its existence. Throughout the interview, Peterson’s points are refuted and met with opposing arguments. Both individuals employ the use of various rhetorical devices to debate over the existence of the pay gap solely due to gender, with drastically contrasting outlooks on the issue.

This essay aims to explore the effectiveness of rhetorical appeals as opposed to fallacies, whether it constitutes ethical or manipulative persuasion and how context influences the appropriateness of fallacious argumentation. Furthermore, this essay will also highlight the power of discourse and how it can be used by authoritative figures to instigate change in society. Through the careful examination of the rhetorical strategies and the ethicality of discourse, we can better understand the complex ways speakers use the elements of language to sway audiences and how rhetoric is used to persuade to a greater extent in politics and society.

The utilisation of rhetorical appeals allows for a speaker to give greater integrity to their arguments without misleading an audience. When looking to exchange notions in a constructive and meaningful manner, rhetorical appeals are profoundly effective. During the conversation, Jordan Peterson makes the use of rhetorical appeals to persuade the viewers in his favour. The most commonly used appeal being logos, which can be defined as a “logical, rationality-based form of discourse” (McCormack & Krista, 2014, p. 131). An example of this can be observed when statistics and logical reasoning is presented by a speaker to give greater integrity to their points and to weaken opposing arguments. This appeal can be seen in use when Peterson elaborates in response to a question on the agreeability of women affecting the pay gap. He mentions that it is only one factor in a “multivariate equation that predicts salary” and how it only accounts for “5 % of the variance”. The complex use of jargon and statistics in these replies illustrate how appeals to logos can render an argument more persuasive since it draws upon empirical evidence to support his perspectives. Being an academic himself, Peterson’s use of logos leads us to believe his target audience to also be of scholars. Hence, the fact that he applies reasoning and causation to support his stance dismisses the opportunity to mislead or confuse an audience, thereby fostering an in-depth and convincing argument.

Context is an essential element to consider when evaluating the justness of fallacious arguments. In rhetoric, arguments need not be able to be logically proven to be deemed valid or acceptable. This is exemplified by the following quote from Philosophy & Rhetoric where Van Eemeren & Grootendorst (1995, p. 122) elaborate on argumentation in the discipline of rhetoric. “Lawyers, philosophers, and other scholars rarely produce perfect formal proof for their theses. Yet there is no reason to consider their justifications totally unreasonable or irrational” (Van Eemeren et al., 1995, p. 122). Here, it can be understood that the rhetorical situation is an influential component when judging a statement. Thus, “The realm of reasonableness and rationality should, therefore, not be restricted to statements that are capable of being verified by empirical observation and deductively valid formal proof” (Van Eemeren et al, 1995, p. 122). This is also evident when Minot (1981, p. 222) proposes that “arguments that are fallacious in one context may prove to be quite solid in another context”. In this quote, the author attempts to shed light on an alternative perspective of informal fallacies. He suggests that rhetoric is dynamic depending on the type of audience and how adherent they are to a speaker’s ideologies. Minot elaborates by expanding on the importance of context, a concept which is misunderstood and not particularly influential when logicians determine if an assertion is fallacious or not (Minot, 1981, p. 222). Since context is generally a determinant in the equation of informal fallacies, the author suggests that arguments should be viewed rhetorically in contrast to a more logical perspective (Minot, 1982, p. 222).

Rhetorical fallacies are repeatedly committed throughout the debate, the most notable being the strawman fallacy. This is depicted when interviewer Cathy Newman mentions the phrase “so you’re saying” before distorting Peterson’s actual argument. This fallacy is defined as the “a misrepresentation of someone’s commitments in order to refute that person’s argument” (Walton, 1996, p. 115), which is what the interviewer is guilty of in this scenario. Newman utilises this fallacy since her opinion is logically flawed. Thus, in an effort to give credibility to her stance, she intentionally negatively rehashes Peterson’s argument to challenge his integrity. It could be observed that her use of fallacies is done in bad faith with a motive to discredit logically valid points. On the other hand, one may argue that none of the arguments in a rhetorical sense are formal fallacies and cannot be judged as such. Thus, the evaluation boils down to whether or not Newman’s arguments are ethically acceptable given the rhetorical situation. Conclusively, it can be seen that context is paramount when considering the fairness of argumentation.

We can further explore the nature of situational appropriateness by considering how communication exists within a context. To quote from Bitzer (1992, p. 4) “There are three constituents of any rhetorical situation: the first is the exigence; the second and third are elements of the complex, namely the audience to be constrained in decision and action, and the constraints which influence the rhetor and can be brought to bear upon the audience”. Exigence, defined as “an imperfection marked by urgency” (Bitzer, 1992, p. 4) in the scenario of the debate would be classified as the potential difference in pay between genders which brings about controversy. The rhetorical audience in the debate would consist of those who “are capable of being influenced by discourse” (Blitzer, 1992, p. 4), which in Peterson’s case, would be academics and scholars due to his use of rhetorical appeals to Logos. Conversely, Newman’s audience appears to be the general public as she utilises fallacies to prove her points whilst misleading the audience. Lastly, constraints, which are the things that limit discourse and in the case of the debate, would be the choice rhetorical devices both participants utilise to prove an argument. This is a factor which influences Newman’s hostility as she has solid preconceived beliefs which constrain her ability to observe the facts of the matter and provide rationalized arguments.

Based on the rhetorical analysis performed throughout this essay, we can extrapolate the Jordan Peterson’s use of rhetorical appeals, specifically, Logos, is more effective and ethical than Cathy Newman’s fallacious and deceptive arguments. This is since they mislead audiences into believing opinions based on illogical reasoning rather than Peterson’s logically sound reasoning. We have also analysed the importance of context in regards to evaluating the ethically and acceptability of fallacious argumentation. This essay also reveals how modern-day issues such as the gender pay gap can be misunderstood as a result of the fallacious and deceptive argument authoritative speakers present to persuade audiences in their favour. Consequently, audiences should be educated on the art of discourse as a more rhetorically aware audience will be able to recognise when they are being misled, allowing them to gain an understanding of the facts about a certain topic.

Fia Cumming’s (2000) “Higher fuel tax slows us down; NEWS EXTRA” published by Sun Herald; a Sunday counterpart of the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), illustrates the conflict between truck drivers and the dishonesty of the Australian government on the issue of increased excise rates for fuel. Cumming achieves this via applications of rhetorical appeals, predominately logos with statistical data, tone and structure. Likewise, Robert Muggah’s (2019) SMH “Amazon fires: the world’s lungs are filling with smoke” also demonstrates the divided views between the rest of the world and Brazil’s leaders. However, accentuating more on both pathos and ethos appeals, and diction. Ultimately, aiming to construct a persuasive argument for readers to recognise the unreliability of the leadership system in Brazil when dealing with environmental issues that has impacted on living organisms today. Hence, this rhetorical analysis will assess the effectiveness of various techniques and styles used in delivering the message in both articles.

Despite pathos being the least prominent throughout Cumming’s (2000) article, her introduction still managed to successfully create an emotional setting for readers to carry their initial feeling of understanding across. Evidently through the use of emotive language in “those who earn their living on the roads”, which produces an image that evokes sympathy from readers for those whose occupations are truck drivers around Australia. She ends her paper by adding a rhetorical question “Burning question. Why can’t the Federal Government bring down fuel prices?”, where she seeks to stir up the reader’s heated emotion that has been built up over the length of the article, as a desire to persuade them to also protest against the government.

Like Cumming, Muggah’s use of personification in his 2019 article’s title “the world’s lungs are filling with smoke” aims to capture readers’ immediate attention. Through his use of this pathos appeal, it allows readers to also react emotionally and to recognise the importance of the Amazon Rainforest for their survival on earth. Followed by the first line of the article “The fate of the Amazon is intertwined with the fate of the world”, the repetition of ‘fate’ further contributes to the building of the reader’s troubled and bothered feelings, enhancing their desire to alleviate the problem. Thus, both articles have effectively created the right emotional environment for their message to be conveyed.

Furthermore, Cumming (2000) persuasively utilises ethos to strengthen her claim by mentioning authoritative figures. Considering she did not indicate who she is as an author for readers to acknowledge her position on the issue, by paraphrasing and quoting the Prime Minister, John Howard, at the beginning of her article, it adds credibility to her work while also compensates for the absent of trust. By addressing the opposition earlier on, it allows her to finish the paper with a stronger viewpoint and argument, exhibiting a powerful, confident voice. Specifically, through the line “The Prime Minister was also less than honest in claiming that the GST…”, which appeals to countless Australian citizens, especially truck drivers, as an attempt to direct them to continue pressuring the government.

On the contrary, Muggah (2019) uses his status as being the founder of the Igarape Institute and SecDev Group in a bold font, which enhances the author’s credibility while also maintaining an authoritative voice, establishing a greater level of trust from readers compared to Cumming (2000). Moreover, by mentioning different foreign countries around the world that are against Brazil such as Germany, France and Norway, it asserts dominance and power over Brazil, allowing readers to also instinctively agree with the author’s point of view. Unlike Cumming (2000), Muggah addresses the opposing viewpoint throughout his article while also listing his arguments, this expresses more of modern news where the reader is able to understand from both sides equally. Yet, Muggah still managed to successfully deliver his point and persuade readers.

The majority of Cumming’s (2000) paper is supported with objective factual evidences, appeal to logos, particularly statistical data from “State-Federal GST arrangements”, where she used it as a main tool in reinforcing her point for the remaining two-third of the article. This structure provides an effective lasting impact on readers, which appeals to their intellects until the very end. Evident in “If it proceeds, it will not only give the Government an extra $360 million a year from motorists’ pockets, but…”, where she set a sensitive tone along with the evidence, basing it on logic which makes it harder for readers to ignore the fact that the government is being untruthful about tax rates. While stating these evidences, her sentences are short and concise, making it easier for readers to comprehend information.

Conversely, appeal to logos is the least prominent within Muggah’s (2019) article. The statistics of “40 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, 20 per cent of its fresh water supply, producing 20 per cent of air we breathe.”, is one of the main scientific evidences that was implemented in order to alert the reader of the issue that needs instant adjustments, also linked to the aspect of pathos. Regardless of the absent of factual evidences from sources, Muggah does discuss possible solutions to pressure the Brazil’s president, in condensed paragraphs towards the end of the article. Ultimately, this can either hinder the persuasive aspect of his argument or have the reversed effect, as readers may depend more on the fact that this was published from the SMH, a well-known news source today.

While constructing this rhetorical analysis of both Cumming (2000) and Muggah’s (2019) articles, it was interesting to see a great amount of similarities such as both starting off with pathos to evoke sympathy from readers. There were also differences regarding the chosen rhetorical appeals, the overall writing style, and tone. Through the data base from ProQuest, it made the process of looking for articles notably easier with the input of exact dates and a wide range of publications. Despite one article being on tax rates and the other on environmental issues, both was chosen for their conservative stance with the purpose of comparing their methods of convincing readers to pressure their governments.

In the 19th century, women in the United States had few legal rights and most of all did not have the right to vote. This speech on the women’s right to vote was given by Susan B. Anthony after her arrest for casting an illegal vote in the presidential election of 1872. Anthony was then tried and fined $100 but refused to pay. Not only was she a women’s rights activist but she also fought for the equality of the African American people too. In this speech, she finds a way to address both of these topics and hopefully enable the court to recognize two key issues of inequality. Anthony’s famous speech was spoken at her trial, where she was one of the only women in a court house full of men. Her speech had to be factual and spoken with confidence as she attempted to change longstanding political social norms. Anthony’s speech was organized in a clever fashion constructed around the laws created by the United States Constitution. She began with a fact and throughout the speech continually gave facts supported by firm evidence to defend what she is saying. She uses Kairos as she knows her audience is filled with a courtroom of people who are familiar with the laws and constitution in America and uses that to her advantage. Although the location and timing of the speech may not have been ideal as she was arguing for a false crime yet this setting was to her advantage because in the courthouse all eyes and ears were on her as she spoke. Everyone was forced to respect and listen to what she had to say. In closing her speech, she intelligently begins her statement with a rhetorical question that has a clear answer, which helped her emphasize her points and made the audience question if what they were promoting was right.

Logos is the most prevalent rhetorical strategy in the text. We first see it in the beginning when Anthony speaks about being wrongfully arrested for voting in the last presidential election. In reality, she was exercising the rights granted to her by the constitution.

She then goes to restate what the constitution says ‘We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” She breaks this statement down asking the courtroom where it forbids women from voting,(and) that their rule should not be over the constitution. This has a big impact because instead of simply stating her opinion to prove her point she has a quality fact that proves it. Ethos is the second most used rhetorical strategy in the text. The best use of it was when Anthony stated “are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities.” This brief sentence untangles and broadcasts how women aren’t treated as equal. Her question ‘are women persons?’ tests the character of the audience, causing them to question how they value and weigh women compared to themselves. Pathos is also used in this passage when Anthony informs the audience that no state has the right change or bend any law just because of a gender. The mix of both accurate information and her appeal to morals in her rhetorical questions makes ethos stand out that much more, helping make her and what she says more believable. Pathos was rarely used in this speech as she was searching for a logical connection with the audience rather than an emotional connection, but both Pathos and Ethos may be found when she states that “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people.” The repetition of the word “we” demonstrates the importance of her stance, and how she is trying to stress that in the original constitution was meant for the entirety of the population, not just some of it. Anthony lived the unfairness daily. This speech was spoken emotionally yet powerfully through her experiences, especially here with the unison of the word we. The stress on that word makes it that much more powerful and exemplifies her emotions towards this country coming together as one for equal voting rights.

Anthony was a voice when no one else would speak and a symbol of hope for change in America. Her groundbreaking speech was an upstart to the sociological change in the rights for women and African Americans in the 1800s. Without the use of her rhetorical strategies of Kairos, Logos, Ethos, and Pathos her speech would not have been as convincing and would not have impacted the drastic change in politics in the years to come.

“Best In Class” can be seen as full of rhetorical strategies and rhetorical appeals. Margaret Talbot uses exemplification as a rhetorical strategy in order to capture the audience’s attention. Throughout the essay, she introduces many rhetorical situations, many being about becoming valedictorian.

Talbot writes about issues of naming students valedictorian. She states that there are too many factors that can play a role in a students classification. Rules, regulations, circumstances, and agreements are made to title students as number one of the graduating class. Talbot may have used conscientious consumption to help readers understand how witty and quick students will be to gain a title. Davies, one of the valedictorians, deliberately chose classes that award more credits because ‘if the G.P.A.s were the same, the award goes to the kid with the most credits.’ As a result, Davies’ actions were controversial and sparked up hate within the graduating class. Students will do anything to gain the title, which we learn further in the reading. In addition, Talbot uses the schools and students who have had similar experiences with the title of valedictorian. She is trying to emphasize to the reader the problems of altering the valedictorian title. Her rhetorical strategy depends on focusing the impact and pressure of being valedictorian on one specific school. This allows her story and characters to have a more personal feeling to it. Throughout her essay “Best in Class” Margaret Talbot describes the situation at Sarasota High School, although the main topic does not involve that particular school but the valedictorian situation that happened in that school and many others. Many schools across the country removed the valedictorian and salutatorian award due to the pressuring and competitive environment it creates. Talbot brings up the Sarasota situation multiple times as a rhetorical strategy. With the use of repetition, the point is driven across that valedictorian awards should be removed. The use of repetition provides emphasis on the main idea of the story, making the audience understand why they should believe the author.

Talbot states that since her graduation, twenty-two AP classes were added to the school. AP classes give students a small—but significant boost in their G.P.A. Therefore, students have more opportunities to raise their ranks if they take multiple AP classes. Talbot uses this information to illustrate how it can be difficult to dictate a valedictorian when every student can attend these classes. The personal instance can be applied to each school district since schools are looking to advance the student’s knowledge and in return creating a conflict where too many students are tied in proficiency. Talbot’s experience in high school adds a personal element to the story. She says in paragraph fourteen that back in her high school years there were a very minuscule amount of AP classes compared to current years. This shows that the demand of AP courses along with competition has increased dramatically. By doing so, it shows she can personally relate to the change of pressure in education and she is not just using hard cold lawsuits and files, but her own experience with the matter. The author’s flashback to her times in high school allows us to compare the weight of AP classes when she was a high school student and compare it to the specific stories of the students that she interviewed. She has been in their shoes because at one point she was vying to be at the top of her class. It allows the audience to see her interest in the topic that she writes about and proves that it holds a special place in her writing.

Talbot wants to inform parents, students, and the school board on the effects of the valedictorian praise. By including the student’s responses to being named ‘co-valedictorian’ or not receiving the title, the reader will understand the stress and motives that students have when trying to reach the top. Students have become too competitive; filing lawsuits on the school board for the minuscule difference in a GPA compared to another student. Talbot illustrates the importance held within the valedictorian title that pressures students to compete with not only each other but with the education system. Talbot attempts to appeal to students and parents who are involved in academic success. Shedding light on an issue that is not typically discussed and sharing multiple accounts can cause make the reader trust the authors intentions. Talbot relies immensely heavy on the interviews with students to provide evidence of her intention. By including the interviews she shows a counter to the schools argument. The school continued to degrade and belittle the valedictorian and what it stood for, however, it remained important to students. Due to its importance, that is why it typically ended up in lawsuits and fighting among the students. It created not only competition and a motive for students to strive among their peers, but an increase in academic importance which they expressed vividly in the interviews. This approach would appeal to her audience because her audience is aimed towards people interested in education, students, teachers, and even parents. All of which, take a particular interest in education and controversial topics like the standards set to become valedictorian. Talbot heavily interviews students to show the emotional affect and stress that being valedictorian does to a student. Their parents hire lawyers, the principle struggles to settle a compromise, and students will go to great lengths to try to see themselves as number one. The audience is given a direct source of information and people to feel empathetic for instead of using statistics of high school valedictorians. Most of the people reading this essay are high school students, so they can relate to the pressures of rank and GPA more easily than adults can. The people she talks about are portrayed as more human and empathetic that way.

Introduction

Rhetorical strategies are words or phrases that are used to inform, educate, convey meaning, provoke a response from a listener or reader and persuade during communication. Although the strategies are ordinarily used in literature, we often use these types of words in our everyday conversations without notice. For example, the metaphor, it’s raining cats and dogs. This is a common metaphor that describes a heavy downpour. While we are curtained that cats and dogs are not falling from the sky, a general phrase like this describes conveyor sway, someone, to see the perspective we present. Rhetorical strategies can be used in different forms including writing, in conversation or speeches. Persuasion is rarely achieved through a loose set of arguments alone. Rather an effective delivery of arguments follows a rhetorical strategy, combining logical reasoning with appeals to ethics and emotion. We argue that such a strategy means to select, arrange, and phrase a set of confrontational units. Rhetorical strategies involve encoding of three means of persuasion in a well-arranged and well-phrased speech or text, logos, ethos, and pathos. Listeners or readers then decode the encoding, forming their view of the author’s logos, ethos, and pathos The research paper, under different sub-headings that are discussed further in successive paragraphs, will explore different models and combination of rhetorical strategies for effective persuasion and communication to adolescents and young adults towards modern family planning services.

Amplification is a rhetoric strategy, which involves the action of enlarging upon or adding detail to a story or statement, phrase or sentence, evoking a sense of urgency and intensity in the audience. This strategy employs repetition to expand on an original statement and increases its intensity, even if one is not quite sure about the idea or the topic, they can figure it out by comparing it to their practical world. Adolescents and young adults would be attentive as the strategy draws them deeper into the presentation and provides a nice sense of flow, even when addressing sensitive or complicated ideas. Amplification takes a single idea and blows it up bigger, giving the reader additional context and information to better understand your point. Restating the statement would not be enough to persuade. Hence, the use of amplification to expand and dive deeper into the presentation on modern family planning to show adolescents and young adults how important it is for a better future.

An anacoluthon as a form of rhetoric strategy is used to introduce a sudden change in ideas or sometimes seemingly unrelated topics in the middle of a sentence. Modern family planning services to adolescents and young adults rely on emphasis on the ideas and topics of presentation to persuade the audience (Llorente-Barroso and García-García, 2015). The presenter would change the tact in the middle of the conversation, almost seemingly into an unrelated topic, depending on the moods of the audience. However, the object remains to persuade, but with the use of anacoluthon, where the original idea is cut off, provoking the adolescents and young adults to guess at what the presenter may have been about to say. The use of anacoluthon, as a strategy, gives a powerful persuasion as it deliberately subverts the audiences’ expectations to make a point.

Anadiplosis is another rhetoric strategy that uses repetition at the end of one sentence or clause and the beginning of the next sentence or clause. For example, ‘salesman needs to persuade. Persuade customers. Customers are key to any business.’ The ending word of each sentence is the beginning word in the following sentence. This rhetorical device draws a clear line of thinking of adolescents and young adults as repetition makes them pay closer attention and follow the way the idea evolves. Used this way, the anadiplosis allows a chain of thought to carry through to the next idea, allowing your audience to follow along with the point of the presentation. The strategy can also help to put more emphasis on the ideas being conveyed, allowing the conversation to stress the importance of ideas.

An antanagoge as a strategy balances negative and positive statements in one. This rhetorical strategy presents a problem and a subsequent solution. When used appropriately, this strategy allows for a well-developed and persuasive approach to communication, whether in writing or everyday conversation (Bernardi, Constantinides and Nandhakumar, 2017). Antanagoge, for example, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, conveys the negativity in having a bunch of lemons with its subsequent solution, making lemonade from all of it. The device works here by presenting what could be considered a problem, and then providing a solution, to the earlier negative statement. When addressing the adolescents persuasively, this can be a great way to respond to potential detractors of an idea. Suppose you want to convince the religious groups to advocate for the uptake of family planning services, but you think that they might focus more on sexual exposure. Yes, it will be a lot of work to uphold moral standards, but working together will encourage our young adults to make informed decisions for the prosperity of our society.

Apophasis is a form of irony relating to denying something while still saying it. Adolescents and young adults are very sensitive people and often keen on the choice of words, the tone of expression and body language. The presentation would, therefore, be paired with phrases like, ‘I’m not intending to…’ or ‘for the interest of time…’, followed up with saying exactly what was not supposed to be said. Adolescents and young adults are responsible for all the unplanned pregnancies, except that they exactly said as their examples. Stating things like this, by pretending you’re not saying them or saying the opposite, is very effective in creating an environment that is easily played for humor. Apophasis can also be a useful rhetorical tool for passing on sensitive ideas and attacking the audience without offending them (Foss, 2017). Here, the speaker would not in any way overtly blames the adolescents and young adults for the issues surrounding modern family planning services but is saying that the audience is responsible in some way.

Chiasmus is a rhetorical technique where the speaker changes the order of the words or phrases in a sentence to invoke a sense of powerful emotion. This device works by allowing the listener to have an emotional thought response to what is being said. One of the most well-known and powerful examples of this rhetorical device can be heard in President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. This device can be used to provoke deep thought as well as to make a personal connection between the adolescents and young adults and their roles within their society and the uptake of modern family planning services.

Asterismos is a great rhetorical tool for persuasion and communication, which uses a word or phrase to draw attention to the thought that comes afterward. Listen, hey, so, look, hear this are the best examples of asterismos. The use of such words in a presentation draws the audience into an attentive mood, full of expectations (Daly and Davy,2016). They all have the same effect: they tell the audience to pay attention to a very important idea or point that is about to be said. Even if the adolescents and young adults do not feel more inspired to listen, they would pay a bit more attention because of braking the expected form.

Euphemism is the substitution of a more pleasant phrase in place of a familiar phrase, and dysphemism is the opposite, unpleasant phrase substituted in place of something more familiar. This rhetorical device uses a pleasant phrase or saying to convey a more familiar or less pleasant one (Martin,2016). Consider the following examples of euphemisms in the streets, sexual workers instead of referring them to prostitutes. These tools are two sides of the same coin. Euphemism takes an unpleasant thing and makes it sound nicer—such as using ‘passed away’ instead of ‘died’, while dysphemism does the opposite, taking something that isn’t necessarily bad and making it sound like it is. These strategies would make the discussion on modern family planning services concerning adolescents and young adults more comfortable, creating plenty that can leave an impression without being outright offensive. People refer to train as a snail, that without any real malice behind it, but snail implies slowness, drawing a comparison between postal mail and faster email. The presentation involves telling the audience how unplanned pregnancies can slow down life, making a point about how a planned future can support goals and dreams in a faster way, better for their profession, and overall life, comparing email to postal mail with the phrase ‘snail mail’ gets the point across quickly and efficiently. Likewise, if you’re writing an obituary, you probably don’t want to isolate the audience by being too stark in your details. Using gentler language, like ‘passed away’ or ‘dearly departed’ allows you to talk about things that might be painful without being too direct. People will know what you mean, but you won’t have to risk hurting anyone by being too direct and final with your language.

Eutrepismus is another rhetorical device commonly used in conversation before without realizing it. This device separates speech into numbered parts, giving your reader or listener a clear line of thinking to follow. Segmentation of the presentation will allow the audience to match the flow with their expectations (Willem, 2017). Eutrepismus is a great rhetorical device, this is because of its efficiency and clarity. Also, it gives your writing and presentation a great sense of rhythm, preventing any possible boredom of adolescents and young adults. This strategy is easy to follow and each section can be expanded throughout the presentation, to accommodate more ideas. The audience understands all the points in an easy, exciting way and consumable format. Eutrepismus helps in structuring the points and arguments in a way that makes them more effective, just as any good rhetorical device should do.

Hypophora refers to a writer or speaker proposing a question and following it up with a clear answer. It is a rhetorical strategy that is used when a writer or speaker asks a question and then immediately provides the answer. This is a common device in public speaking and when in conversation or other communication. Here is an example, why is it important to eat healthy foods? It is important because you can heal illness and build your immune system. Unlike a rhetorical question, a hypophora wastes no time in providing a direct answer to a posed question. Speakers employ hypophora without ever thinking about it (Harmon, Green Jr& Good night, 2015). This is different from a rhetorical question, another rhetorical strategy because there is an expected answer, one that the writer or speaker will immediately give to the audience. Hypophora serves to ask a question the audience may have, even if they’re not entirely aware of it yet and provide them with an answer. This answer can be obvious, but it can also be a means of leading the audience toward a particular point. The speaker outright states that he’s asking questions others have asked, and then goes on to answer them, so naturally, it’s going to reflect his point of view, but he’s answering the questions and concerns adolescents and young adults might have about taking up the modern family planning services. In doing so, the speaker is reclaiming an ongoing conversation to make his point. This is how hypophora can be incredibly effective, you control the answer, leaving less room for argument.

Litotes is a deliberate understatement, often using double negatives, that serves to draw attention to the thing being remarked upon. For example, saying something like, it is not smart, is a less harsh way to say, it is dumb, or It is stupid, that nonetheless draws attention to it being dumb or stupid. There is power in the use of not since by using a double negative makes the audience pay closer attention, points out that some slaves still sought superiority over others by speaking out in favor of their owners. Litotes draws attention to something by understating it. It is like telling somebody not to think about the greatest adventure and soon, adventures become all they can think about. The double negative draws audiences’ attention and makes them focus on the topic because it’s an unusual method of phrasing.

Personification is a rhetorical device you probably run into a lot without realizing it. It’s a form of metaphor, which means two things are being compared without the words like or as, in this case, a thing that is not human is given human characteristics. Personification is common in poetry and literature, as it’s a great way to generate fresh and exciting language, even when talking about familiar subjects. Objects and nature, like winds, cannot speak or run, and the sun can’t laugh. However, the aspect of them speaking and laughing is quite evocative. The audience is provoked to create an image in their minds (Wachsmuth, Stede, El Baff, Al Khatib, Skeppstedt and Stein, 2018). Through personification, we get a strong image for things that could otherwise be extremely boring and hard to imagine.

Procatalepsis is a rhetorical device that anticipates and notes a potential objection, heading it off with a follow-up argument to strengthen the point. It is complicating things from outside, but it is quite simple when internalizing well. It works by confusing the audience by the terminologies in the first sentence. Adolescents and young adults will get confused and anticipate their arguments. Then, the speaker addresses that argument to strengthen the main point, making procatalepsis easy, which is seen after demonstrating it. Anticipating a rebuttal is a great way to strengthen an argument. Not only does it proves putting thought into what is being said, but it also leaves less room for disagreement.

This research paper emphasizes on the fact that humanity is being signed by the rhetoric strategies. However, deliberate living virtues, stillness and solitude mustn’t be eliminated in favor of technology. The use of rhetorical tools additionally helps adolescents and young adults to make a solid argument on the positive impact of rhetoric devices in technology and modern family planning services. It proposes a general model of making conversation following rhetorical strategies as means of persuasion: logos, ethos, pathos. The model idealizes the combination as the selection, arrangement, and phrasing of argumentative discourse units. Before computational approaches are developed based on the model, this paper has evaluated its general adequacy in an experiment with human influence. The results provide evidence that humans agree significantly more when synthesizing argumentative texts following the same strategy. Besides, it found that the arrangement of the argumentative discourse units and the re-phrasing of their connections is hardly affected by the strategy at all. A study of the phrasing of the actual units is left to future work. In the long term, we envisage a system that can automatically generate effective argumentation and persuasion. Such a system requires two main types of resources and phrase operators along with information about their effectiveness for specific topics and about the means of persuasion they encode. Given quantities with respective annotations, both resources can be developed using existing natural language processing techniques. It sees this as the next step towards our goal. On the other hand, it feels that there is room and opportunity to reverse the trends.

Work Cited

1. Bernardi, R., Constantinides, P., & Nandhakumar, J. (2017). Challenging dominant frames in policies for IS innovation in healthcare through rhetorical strategies. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 18(2), 3.
2. Daly, P., & Davy, D. (2016). Structural, linguistic and rhetorical features of the entrepreneurial pitch. Journal of Management Development.
3. Foss, S. K. (2017). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice. Waveland Press.
4. Harmon, D. J., Green Jr, S. E., & Goodnight, G. T. (2015). A model of rhetorical legitimation The structure of communication and cognition underlying institutional maintenance and change. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 76-95.
5. Llorente-Barroso, C., & García-García, F. (2015). The rhetorical construction of corporate logos. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 27(2), 257-277.
6. Martin, J. (2016). Capturing desire: Rhetorical strategies and the affectivity of discourse. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 18(1), 143-160.
7. Wachsmuth, H., Stede, M., El Baff, R., Al Khatib, K., Skeppstedt, M., & Stein, B. (2018, August). Argumentation synthesis following rhetorical strategies. In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics (pp. 3753-3765).
8. Willem, L. M. (2017). Galdós’s Segunda Manera: Rhetorical Strategies and Affective Response. The University of North Carolina Press.

The financial crisis of 2008 bred a new technology. Blockchain technology was born from a desperate attempt to try and alleviate trust from big banks and government after they failed to protect people’s money when the market crashed. Hundreds of millions of dollars lost, families broken, and lives destroyed. When blockchain was invented in 2009 naturally at first, barely anyone even noticed this technology existed. As time evolved and people saw the value of this technology applied in Bitcoin, people despised the idea, and slapped a label on it claiming it would be “used by mainly criminals”. As more time goes by, people and corporations have realized that blockchain tech has endless possibilities”. More time goes by, until recently people realize we have the power to form a centralized digital system, yet people get more satisfaction from dismissing it. Now major companies such as Nasdaq, JP MorganChase, and many others invest millions of dollars in blockchain technology, the technology used behind Bitcoin. The future that we are undoubtedly heading towards, a shift towards digital economies is coming sooner than later, and blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, is our first prototype digital currency, as well as ledger for many digital innovations to come outside of just money. The two articles that I will be cross-analyzing for rhetorical strategies primarily consisting of ethos, logos, and pathos are; Alex and Daniel Tapscott’s “How Blockchain is Changing Finance”, and Jong-Hyouk Lee’s, “How the BlockChain Revolution Will Reshape the consumer Electronics Industry”. Both the authors, Alex Tapscott and Jong-Hyouk Lee argue through establishing a series of rhetorical arguments such as ethos, logos, and pathos. Both of these articles rely heavier on statistical as well as tested factual data, and therefore have less to almost no account of pathos, however, Alex Tapscott’s article attempts to make a slight connection to account for all rhetorical strategies. Meanwhile, Jong-Hyouk Lee sticks to the scholar approach and wins over the reader by giving multiple accounts of statistical data, as well as arguments for and against this technology.

Alex Tapscott, in “How Blockchain is Changing Finance” establishes Logos by proving our current economic system is flawed by introducing statistics on Economic crime that happens in America every year. He states that 45% of all intermediaries suffer economic crime, such as banks and government. The author’s purpose in introducing this logos strategy is by proving that our system is so flawed that not even the banks and our own government have yet discovered a truly efficient way to protect themselves. The author continues to present more statistical truth to truly entice the reader and implants true intimidation by citing statistical data of economic crimes that businesses, and we the people such recurrently every year without realizing. One such statistic mentions that 37% of all economic activity suffers economic crime, which is a terrifyingly high number for a Government that makes trillions of dollars a year, and a society that on average spends about 18,000 a year on just nonessentials. (Tapscott 2017) This statistic establishes logos by presenting statistical data and it is important to establish logos to the audience because it makes them feel engaged as a statistical reference as they read through this. It makes them feel smart that they are in fact learning something from the article, and even ask themselves, “Am I part of that statistic?”.

Alex Tapscott establish ethos by deeply diving into the curriculum and background work that went into this paper. The structure of the paper makes it easy so that before you even begin reading. It is an online article on the Harvard Business Review, and upon opening, you are greeted by a 5 step dropdown menu that explains exactly how blockchain technology works. I think the structure of the article is great, because although while modern, has a credible source, credible publisher, and long history of earned credibility. I don’t believe that this being an online article affects the rhetorical strategies the author is trying to use at all, as he still makes his points clearly, and outlines the essay effectively and efficiently. Near the end of both articles, there are links to highly credible authors. For example, in the Harvard Business Review, they make accounts of contributors such as Daniel Tapscott, ranked the fourth most important living management thinker in the world, and a plethora of cited sources which enhance credibility. This is established by thinkers50, recognized as the world’s most reliable resource for identifying, ranking, and sharing the leading management ideas of our generation. This is given its own section at the bottom of the paper and is hard to miss, the author’s purposely presented their credentials in fairly large sections at the bottom of the paper, and recognize themselves as a credible source. This was smart of the authors, as establishing ethos is important to magnify their expertise and draw themselves as respectable authority figures of this topic who can be trusted by the audience to receive reliable information.

The way pathos is established by Jong-Hyouk Lee, “How the BlockChain Revolution Will Reshape the consumer Electronics Industry” is a bit different. The authors from the IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, establish pathos by taking the side of the average consumer. I don’t think Jong-Hyouk Lee makes any effort to establish pathos or logos in his paper. Jong-Hyouk’s paper seems to be made for such a specific audience that you have to be specifically looking for this article in order to run into it, and even more dedicated to a field to read through it. While Jong- Hyouk does not do a good job, or an effort at all to appeal to pathos or ethos, it does do a good job at establishing credibility; logos. Side-by-side comparison would be, in Jong-Hyouk’s paper, he has a full page with roughly about 30 references. Since Jong-Hyouk’s is writing a professional journal, he provides no graphs, no charts, or any visuals for that matter, strictly, text and little to no statistical data. Jong-Hyouk’s long list of references include reference points for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, statements made from the French Senate, as well as Consensus reports, and many other professional financial journals. How the author Jong-Hyouk includes is I don’t believe is the most effective way, because during the Journal there are few to almost none in-text citations. I think he would have made a better case, and had a stronger article if he did in-text citations and would have a line with some information followed by (Department of Homeland Security). However, I can also see one sentence having multiple references and not being able to do in-text citations for 10 references after a single statement.

For example, in Tapscott’s paper, “How Blockchain is Changing Finance”, the author starts his own paper with an opening statement basically questioning the legitimacy of efficiency in our banks and our governments. He states, “Why is our financial system so inefficient? First, because it’s antiquated, a kludge of industrial technologies and paper-based processes dressed up in a digital wrapper.”(Tapscott 2017) In the same article, “How Blockchain is Changing Finance.” The author establishes a layer of trust between himself and the reader, as most people who show interest in this technology have skepticism in our government, banks, and the financial industry, and by taking the side of the financial industry, and they take share similar ideologies.

In conclusion, both articles argue positively for blockchain technology. The information presented at hand is very valuable to defend the rhetorical strategies both authors are trying to pimplement. If the authors would have included visuals to support their arguments, whether that be visualizing statistical data it would have made a highly more significant impact on readers in both the beginner level and scholar-academic level. Jong-Hyouk Lee’s work in the IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine is a much more professional, detailed, and targeted paper. Meanwhile, Jong-Hyouk Lee’s paper clearly has a specific target demographic audience as this was posted on a very specific magazine that more than likely targets scholars, and career professionals. The other article, “How Blockchain is Changing Finance”, by Alex and Daniel Tapscott is not directly targeting any audience, rather defending and promoting the acceptance or at the very least conserving the ideology that we must accept the transitional gap that is happening in our generation.

Throughout “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, we see how the author uses claims and evidence as well as rhetorical strategies to make different appeals to the audience. This educational text serves the purpose of providing information to white individuals who aren’t familiar with the criminal justice system, which works to force blacks into literal cages and this is mentioned throughout the article. It also appeals to those who believe that they and their children won’t face the risk of incarceration. Michelle Alexander gives people a sense of what it’s like to deal with these issues and brings to light how damaging it could be to the black community. Claims and evidence serve the purpose of making this concept of mass incarceration more understandable for the attended viewers, emphasizing the importance of different ideas and providing the necessary evidence to make the claim credible. Cause and effect, description and imagery, and exemplification are some of the key elements used in this article to develop a pathos appeal, which deals with the emotions of the audience.

One claim the author makes within this article is that the majority of young black men are being controlled by the criminal justice system, which marks them as a criminal for the rest of their lives. Nowadays, it is normal to label blacks as criminals and as the author stated, “As normal as separate water fountains were just a half century ago.” Later on in the passage, Alexander uses the example of Chicago to provide evidence for her claim. She did so by including statistical information about the black male population with a felony found on page 744, “55 percent of the black adult male population and an astonishing 80 percent of the adult black male workplace in the Chicago area.” This evidence proves that black males are trapped underneath the criminal justice system via the total population of black males in Chicago with a felony. To provide further proof for her claim, Alexander decides to

Throughout “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, we see how the author uses claims and evidence as well as rhetorical strategies to make different appeals to the audience. This educational text serves the purpose of providing information to white individuals who aren’t familiar with the criminal justice system, which works to force blacks into literal cages and this is mentioned throughout the article. It also appeals to those who believe that they and their children won’t face the risk of incarceration. Michelle Alexander gives people a sense of what it’s like to deal with these issues and brings to light how damaging it could be to the black community. Claims and evidence serve the purpose of making this concept of mass incarceration more understandable for the attended viewers, emphasizing the importance of different ideas and providing the necessary evidence to make the claim credible. Cause and effect, description and imagery, and exemplification are some of the key elements used in this article to develop a pathos appeal, which deals with the emotions of the audience.

One claim the author makes within this article is that the majority of young black men are being controlled by the criminal justice system, which marks them as a criminal for the rest of their lives. Nowadays, it is normal to label blacks as criminals and as the author stated, “As normal as separate water fountains were just a half century ago.” Later on in the passage, Alexander uses the example of Chicago to provide evidence for her claim. She did so by including statistical information about the black male population with a felony found on page 744, “55 percent of the black adult male population and an astonishing 80 percent of the adult black male workplace in the Chicago area.” This evidence proves that black males are trapped underneath the criminal justice system via the total population of black males in Chicago with a felony. To provide further proof for her claim, Alexander decides to add more statistical evidence, but this time with the ratio of black men who attend college versus those who go to prison. She stated near the beginning of page 746, “Just 992 black men received a bachelor’s degree from Illinois state universities in 1999, while roughly 7,000 black men were released from the state prison system the following year just for drug offense.” Again we are given credible information that young black men are being targeted by the criminal justice system, but this time with a different approach. The evidence we are given can be portrayed as trustworthy and credible for the author’s initial claim.

Moreover, Alexander’s second claim is about the design of the current caste system. Under the subheading “Mapping the Parallels”, she emphasizes that mass incarceration, the original Jim Crow laws and slavery share similarities, she deliberately mentioned a “profound sense of deja vu” that they all have in common. Although these instances happened in different time eras and they are divergent in many ways, there are far too many factors that share similar characteristics between these issues. Some evidence behind this claim is the racial stigma that’s produced because of the discrimination being prompted by the racial undercaste. Within the same subheading on page 746 we are provided with information regarding the similarities between these three different issues, “Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in American.” From slavery to the Jim Crow laws, and now with mass incarceration we see that all of these issues serve the purpose of what it means to be black in America and also allows for legal discrimination against this racial group. The author is making the audience aware of the fact that although we have progressed into a new era, blacks are still branded with a racial stigma, and for mass incarceration today that racial stigma is defined as black equals criminal.

Along with claims and evidence we see how Michelle Alexander targets the audience from a different angle, which causes emotional triggers. Usage of the pathos appeal along with rhetorical strategies is seen throughout this article and there are many examples provided that can make an impact on the readers. One rhetorical strategy that is involved in this text is cause and effect. On page 739, Alexander mentioned the cause, “Majority of young black men in many large urban areas are currently under the control of the criminal justice system.” This quote leads to the effect, these black men lack the title of being a good father and are unable to provide for their children because they are confined in prisons. From the cause and effect example, we see how the usage of mass incarceration breaks apart families, this particular scenario has the potential to affect the audience’s emotions. Most people have families so they are able to sympathize, to a certain extent, with those who are dealing with this issue.

To form a second rhetorical strategy, Alexander uses description and imagery. This strategy is defined as painting an illustration for the audience, which contributes to the pathos appeal. Throughout the article, we see that Alexander often refers to cages as prisons, and overall constructs sentences in a way that gives off a powerful meaning. When she refers to the prisons as cages it gives off the impression that blacks who are affected by mass incarceration face the process of having their humanity ripped away from them and are forced to reside in a small area for a set amount of time. A specific example of how Alexander frames a statement in a robust manner is found on page 746 which says, “The young men who go to prison rather than college face a lifetime of closed doors, discrimination, and ostracism.” The lifetime of closed doors phrase is something that stands out, the audience is provided with the tragedy these young black individuals are faced with. Prison corrupts their lives, limits their freedom, as well as forcing them to deal with the negativity induced by society for the rest of their lives. Description and imagery used within the text can convey deep meaning and have an emotional toll on those reading this passage.

A third rhetorical strategy used in the passage that supports the pathos appeal is exemplification. On page 748, there is a quote said by a student from the See Forever charter school, “We can be perfect, perfect, doing everything right and still they treat us like dogs. No, worse than dogs, because criminals are treated worse than dogs.” This statement attempts to make the audience feel sympathy for what’s going on, it’s helping them to see that blacks are dehumanized and have all of their freedom completely stripped away. Something else that can make the audience feel sympathy for this text is that fact that this quote came from a student. Parents are able to picture their kids in this position and come to the realization that what’s going on isn’t right, students who aren’t currently in this position can also do the same thing. This strategy functions within the text in a way that provides an emotional appeal and a vital point within the text.

In all, claims and evidence, as well as rhetorical strategies, play a role in having an impact on the audience’s emotions and how they will interpret certain parts of an article. We reviewed how Michelle Alexander uses cause and effect, description and imagery, as well as exemplification, to build up the pathos appeal. From all the examples provided, we analyzed how information within the text made certain points more understandable for the audience to read, provided a sense of sympathy to draw emotion out of them and emphasized major claims. Claims about the criminal justice system and how it’s designed to keep blacks locked in cages, along with information about how it affects that certain community is proved with evidence provided throughout this article. Members of the black community, especially black men, are forced to reside in confinement over minor offenses. Their lives are ruined, they are dehumanized, the freedom they once had is gone and to top it all off they are forcefully separated from their families.

When World War II began, Britain released several propaganda posters. Through diction, symbolism, and imagery, Britain attempted to persuade its citizens to join in the war effort.

Throughout several of the posters, targeted diction is used to convince the audience that it is essential for them to go to war. The emphasis on the word ‘our’ in one of the posters is meant to make the viewer feel like they need to fight to feel like a part of their country. It targets their sense of pride in Britain and makes joining the war seem like an obligation. The word ‘home’ being used to describe air defense in another poster connects the viewer with the soldiers in the planes. It is intended to create a sense of possession over their country and is supposed to convince the viewer to want to protect what they view as theirs. Guilt and shame are also used to persuade the audience, such as the word ‘wasted’ when talking about hours not spent on the war effort. This is meant to make the viewer feel ashamed for not participating and suggests that they are lazy for not doing so. The mixture of both positive and negative diction is used to drive the viewer toward wanting to enlist.

The imagery used throughout the posters is made to show that all British citizens should take part in the war. One poster shows a family on the beach viewing the passing planes, while the father happily points them out to his son. This targets the typical British family at the time and is meant to glorify the war effort. It tells kids that their parents are happy about the war, while simultaneously conveying to adults that they should also be glad about it. Another poster displays a crowd of people with the image of a huge, ambiguous soldier behind them. The crowd includes both men and women, and the unidentifiable soldier behind them reinforces the message that everyone, regardless of gender, should be helping out with the war.

The posters also rely on visual help to capture the attention of their audience and create a mood. All the posters contain some type of contrast in their text and bright background images. The white text against the red background in the first poster immediately makes the viewer pay attention to the words. The images also use bright, flashy colors, such as yellow or red. This causes the viewer to feel a sense of passion or joy because of the emotions linked to those colors. The only poster with darker and dimmer colors used is the one that shames people for not joining the war effort. The choices in color throughout the posters are specifically chosen to elicit a desired emotion from the audience.

Through these techniques, the audience is meant to feel various emotions that would cause them to want to help out with the war, such as passion, a sense of possession, or shame. The persuasive methods target the viewer to want to enlist and, based on the eventual size of the war, successfully do so.