RHETORIC
Introduction
What is rhetoric and why is it essential to study the same?
Many ancient philosophers have proposed the use of rhetoric in order to make their arguments more persuasive and appealing to the audience. Indeed, the main object of rhetoric is to persuade through effective use of language. In the ancient times, rhetoric, along with grammar and logic is included in the three arts of discourse. Plato has defined rhetoric as the “art of winning the soul by discourse.” Aristotle on the other hand defined rhetoric as the “faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion.”
In the European history, rhetoric was popular in open and democratic societies, which are given freedom of speech, free press, free assembly and political associations (Garsten, 2005). This is because rhetoric is concerned with persuasion in public and political settings. As a field of study, rhetoric teaches students to speak and write effectively by learning the principles and rules of composition as a means of moving audiences. Rhetoric has also been closely associated with knowledge by contemporary rhetoricians. Whereas classical rhetoric has focused on training individuals on how to be effective persuaders in public forums and institutions, contemporary rhetoric investigates and analyses human discourse that have been written over the centuries. Thus, rhetoricians studied discourses in a wide variety of areas such as religion, arts, history, architecture, natural and social sciences, journalism and fiction as well as politics and law (Nelson et al., 1987). Today, rhetoric is typically employed in the field of public relations, marketing, law, professional and technical writing and advertising.
Leith and Myerson (1989) stated that “The purpose of Rhetoric, ultimately, is to encourage thinking, thinking about language in the world.” According to them, being able to think rhetorically also enables us to explore how written stories relate to other ideas such as history. “Rhetoric’s questions may seem simple–questions about quotation or attribution, and about replying and motivation. But these questions can be powerful because they allow reading to unfold, enabling us to be exploratory without inhibiting or distorting the process being explored.” Rhetorical thinking is thus essential to intellectual growth because it enables the readers to think out of the box by relating the stories or materials they read with their experiences with the outside world.
The Rhetorical Approach
What is rhetorical approach and what does it entails?
Simply put, a rhetorical approach to communication artifacts or texts describes and analyses them in terms of the materials and techniques used by composers to present arguments of the materials and techniques used by composers to present arguments to a particular audience on particular occasions in persuasive ways, calculated to produce some definite outcome. Thus, it can be said that in adopting a rhetorical approach to reading and communication, one pursues a deeper form of understanding on the topic at hand. By using the rhetorical approach, the reader is forced to concentrate fully on the material and understand the ideas and thoughts as expressed by the author in order to decide for himself whether he will agree to it or not.
Rhetorical approach entails the appropriate employment of materials and techniques, arguments, composers, and audiences. In preparing one’s arguments, one should take note of the various types of rhetoric which can serve as his foundation namely rhetoric of knowledge-based economy; rhetoric of global economy; rhetoric of nation; rhetoric of progress; rhetoric of the network society; rhetoric of anti-government, market populism; and rhetoric of shareholder value.
Rhetoric of knowledge-based economy, argues that the sources of production of wealth are or will be, the production of ideas and intangible assets rather than tangible physical assets. Thus, knowledge workers, capacities for creativity and innovation are the highlight in this economy. Rhetoric of the global economy argues that there is a single global economy, which national economies must engage and compete so that they will not be left behind. In order to achieve this, greater levels of efficiency, productivity, and strategic innovation are needed. Rhetoric of nation on the other hand argues that in the nation, we all share the same interests such as increased productivity and technological advancements such as broadband.
Rhetoric in progress likewise argues that communication technology has a civilizing mission associated with speed, instantaneous and continuous connectivity and economic development. Rhetoric of the network society argues that everything is connected and those connections are non-hierarchical. Finally, rhetoric of shareholder value argues that businesses exist to produce value in the form of profits for the benefit of those who own or have equity in interest in the company or what we call shareholders.
Rhetorical approach also entails asking questions such as one. Whose words are these? 2.
To whom are they addressed? To what is this voice replying? To what are these words replying?
3. With what purpose? 4. How? 5. What argument/s do they propose? 6. On what occasion? 7. With what outcomes? These are the questions, which every student must use in order to grasp the content and the meaning of the material. It can be said that those who are able to employ the rhetorical approach are also the ones who learn the most from the reading materials presented to them. In turn, by being able to apply rhetoric in ones communication and written works, an individual is able to persuade his target audience the most.
The rhetorical approach works hand in hand with the practice of rhetoric in the sense that in order to effectively persuade others to adopt the line of thought the orator, writer or speaker is proposing, the latter must first be able to identify the elements of the rhetorical approach and be able to integrate the same in his communication. A good student of rhetoric should also keep in mind that the effective use of the rhetorical approach will enable them to think critically about the ideas or thoughts being imparted to them through. For instance, knowing the composer and the audience will give them an idea whether or not a given article or communication is believable or persuasive enough to merit their attention. The author or the speaker in turn will also benefit from practicing the art of rhetoric as well as the elements of rhetorical approach because it gives him more effective in the delivery of his message. Needless to say, the rhetorical approach is an essential tool in practicing the art of rhetoric because it saves time and effort and it makes the arguments more effective and persuasive to the public.
Two Sample Rhetoric
Applying the elements of the rhetorical approach and the questions entailed in analyzing the same, I will discuss two sample rhetorical articles namely the articles entitled New Directions for Communication: A Broadband Future for Australia–Building a National Broadband Network and Broadband infrastructure and the future of Australia.
The article entitled New Directions for Communication: A Broadband Future for Australia–Building a National Broadband Network, the composer or the author was the Australian Labor Party and the article was published in March 2007. The target audience of this article is the people in Australia and the government. Using the rhetoric of the nation, rhetoric of progress and the rhetoric of the network society, the composers argued on the importance of broadband technology and the necessity of the same to Australia. The Australian Labor Party proposed the establishment of the National Broadband Network as crucial to Australia’s “future wealth creation.” They added that the network would also allow Australia to compete globally by making it more competitive, innovative and knowledge-based economy.
In order to understand fully the article, we must first examine it by using the guide questions provided in the rhetorical approach. Whose words are these? As stated above, the composers of this article were members of the Australian Labor Party, an interest group that is concern with the improvement and enhancement of the economy in Australia by the employment of means or adoption of technology which are aimed at increasing the global competitiveness of the country. To whom is the article addressed? Given the fact that the issue discussed in the article of vital importance to the economic growth of Australian nation, it can be assumed that this article was written and meant for the public and the government. The public is interested in improving the technology because it affects the quality of their life. The government should also be interested in improving Australia’s technology because in a world where transactions are now undertaken on a global level, it is imperative to keep up with the latest technological developments or risk being left behind.
As to the purpose, the article is meant to persuade the government as well as the public of the necessity of broadband technology and of having a national broadband network Australia. The authors argued that the existing telecommunications networks are not adequately supplying the country with high-speed internet access and this in turn hampers the intellectual and economic growth of the citizens and the economy. The ALP believed that this inefficiency has gone for too long and there is a need to revolutionize Australia’s internet infrastructure by creating a new National Broadband Network.
In order to carry out this plan, the ALP proposed that the budget for this project will taken from existing government investment in communications such as the $2 billion
Communications Fund and the Future Fund’s 17 percent share in Telstra. It was also proposed that the Rudd Labor Government would collaborate with the private sector to deliver the national broadband network for a term of five years. It will also undertake a competitive assessment of proposals from the private sector to build the network. The labor government will also ensure competition in the sector through an open access network that provides equivalence of access charges and scope for access seekers to differentiate their product offerings. The Rudd Labor Government will also make a public equity investment of up to $4.7 billion and put up regulatory reforms to ensure certainty for investment.
The National Broadband Network is necessary in order for Australia to compete globally and not lag behind the global market. Furthermore, the ALP also believes that the proposal will give positive outcomes in the rural and regional areas such as: slashed telephone bills for small business; enhanced business services such as teleconferencing, video conferencing and virtual private networks; enhanced capacity for services like e-education and e-health; and high definition, multi-channel and interactive TV series.
On the national level, the proposed National Broadband Network is expected to deliver economic benefits such as up to $30 billion annual additional economic activity; extended media diversity, creation of new markets for businesses and new jobs for the citizens. The network will also increase the competitiveness of small Australian businesses. Overall, the ALP was able to deliver a persuasive argument in favor of the development of the National Broadband Network by giving a detailed enumeration of its benefits to the nation and the economy of Australia. It is also important to note that the proposed measures in order to carry out this plan were realistic enough such that it can be carried out by the government with less expense and with substantial results in the process.
In Broadband infrastructure and the future of Australia, the author Phil Burgess through his speech delivered to the Rotary Club of Melbourne discussed the benefits of Telstra’s Next GTM network and how the FTTN high-speed broadband can improve people’s lives. Burgess also argued against the government’s decision to invest almost $1 billion to a foreign government through the SingTel-led OPEL consortium.
The composer of the abovementioned speech is Phil Burgess. He is the Group Managing Director, Public Policy and Communications. The intended audience of his speech is the Rotary Club of Melbourne. Burgess employed rhetoric of anti-government, rhetoric of shareholder value, and rhetoric of nation in preparing his speech. Burgess, in his speech discussed that his team conducted a lot of research by interviewing more than 400, 000 people in the country “to try to better understand what kind of connections people want to make and what kind of telecommunications services they think they need.” It is apparent from a statement that Burgess is using the rhetoric of nation approach in order to make his argument and speech more
persuasive to his listeners.
As opposed to ALP, Burgess believed that competition is more favorable because according to him, people have different taste and preferences, which must be attended to by different services. This is the reason why Burgess is in favor of competition with no government intervention in the field of telecommunication.
Burgess also argued against government’s continued intervention with Telstra’s business activity. The author stated that “Telstra’s been viewed as a magic pudding. Just keep taking the money out.” Burgess also expressed his opposition against the treatment of Telstra as a community property and letting everybody have a say to what the company does. Burgess stated that the “Government sold Telstra to 1.6 million mums and dads in this country for $65 billion.” In this line of argument, Burgess is clearly employing rhetoric of shareholder value arguing in favor of the company’s private interests as opposed to government regulation for the public
interest.
Burgess also narrated in his speech his encounters with different individuals and how the government is not meeting their needs adequately. He then used these situations in order to support his argument that the government made a mistake in allocating a substantial amount of money to build a telecommunications infrastructure, which is arguably of inferior quality. In sum, Burgess is opposing the development of the broadband infrastructure undertaken between the Australian government and the Singapore but not against the development of the broadband technology in the country. The author opines that the choice whether to have broadband technology or not should be left to the people and should not be left to the government to decide.
Conclusion
Overall, I believed that insofar as the practice of rhetoric is concerned, the ALP presented a more convincing and persuasive argument. This is because all the essential elements of the rhetorical approach is present in the ALP article whereas in the speech prepared by Burgess, there were some missing elements such as how the author proposes to solve the problem and what outcomes will likely result if his views will be adopted. In the ALP article, the authors were able to present all the material points to support their claim and they were able to give possible outcome if their approach will be implemented. They were likewise able to present their arguments in a clear, concise, and logical manner.
References
Australian Labor Party (Mar. 2007). New Directions for Communication: A Broadband Future for Australia–Building a National Broadband Network.
http://www.alp.org.au/media/0307/mscomfinloo210.php
Burgess, Phil (Aug. 2007). Broadband infrastructure and the future of Australia.
http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/speeches.cfm
Garsten, B. (2005). Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment. Harvard UP
Leith, Dick & Myerson, George (1989). The Power of Address: Explorations in Rhetoric. London: Routledge.
Nelson, John S., Megill, Allan and McCloskey, Donald N. (1987). The Rhetoric of Human Sciences: Language and Argument in Scholarship and Public Affairs. London: University of Wisconsin Press.