The Power of Persuasion:

What is Rhetoric?

The art of making an argument

Making your language as effective as possible.

For writers, readers and speakers.

Not what you say, but how you say it.

The Rhetorical Situation

The circumstances in which you are

speaking/writing.

Greatly influences your rhetorical

strategies.

Being aware of this gives you more

rhetorical power.

The Writer

Your background (race, gender, class,

language, reputation)

Your beliefs, values, and opinions.

Purpose

What is the goal of this piece of

writing/speech?

Can be expressed in the infinitive: to +

verb

Purposes of Sociological Writing

To educate

To explain

To advocate

to solve problems

To inform

?

Genre

The category of writing/speaking

Novels, essays, poems, spoken word,

presentation, lecture, research paper,

poster, movie....

Each genre has its own conventions,

purpose and context.

Take Immigration for Example....

Song:

―Paper Planes‖ by MIA

―Americano‖ Lady Gaga

America‖ by K’naan

Novel:

―Enrique’s Journey‖ by Sonia Nazario

―Call It Sleep‖ by Henry Roth

―The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao‖ by Junot Diaz

Research Publication:

―Immigrant America: A Portrait‖ by Portes and Rumbaut

―Homebound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities and Countries‖ by Yen Le Espiritu.

Movie:

Harvest of Empire (Documentary)

The Visitor (Feature Film), Babel (Feature Film)

Limitations/Conventions

What rules dictate how you will

write/speak?

Be knowledgeable about what you can

and cannot do.

Influenced by the audience, genre and

context.

•You want to present about how youth are using hip-hop as a tool for activism

Topic

• Final Research Presentation for your B.A. at USF

• Expected to be a 20 minute lecture on your findings.

Context•You probably won’t rap

as an example

•You need to link your findings to sociological theory.

•You cannot show a film about the subject

Choices

Topic

What you write and talk about

It is determined by the writer; modified by

the context.

Often manifests in scope of project

Audience

Who you are writing for!

Group that needs to be persuaded

Factors that can influence the audience:

Race, Gender, Class, Age, Education-level,

Occupation, culture, expectations....

Abraham Lincoln gives us a good example....

―Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man and the

other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and

therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all of

these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall

once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal‖—Northern

Illinois, 1858

―I will say then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in

any way the social and political equality of the white and black races

(applause); that I am not, nor have I ever been, in favor of making voters or

jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with

white women...And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain

together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as

nay other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white

race‖– Southern Illinois, 1858

Culture and Context

The situation/environment where the

genre/conventions/audience/speaker

exist.

What you write/say has to make sense

within the context of the situation

Word Usage can Show Context...

―...Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious

reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro

homes and churches in Birmingham than any home in the

nation...‖ Martin Luther King Jr. ―Letter From a Birmingham Jail‖

1963.

―We have always welcomed good colored people in South

Boston but we will not tolerate radical blacks or

Communists...Good colored people are welcome in South

Boston, militants are not‖ Boston Globe, 1975

―Woman is the Nigger of the World‖ Yoko Ono and John Lennon

Strategy

How you choose to deliver your message

Must fit the rhetorical situation

Can also be used to gauge effectiveness

Rhetorical Situation:

The Writer

The Purpose

The Genre

Limitations and

Conventions

Topic

Audience

Culture and Context

Strategy

Rhetorical Analysis

Evaluating how effective (or not!)

someone’s argument is

Did they accurately asses and respond to

the rhetorical situation?

Practice

Rhetorically Analyzing

Sociological Stand-Up

What is the rhetorical situation?

Did they appeal to that situation? How?

Some aspects more than others?

More engagement with the rhetorical

situation= more successful