4, Unit 4.2 Rhetoric I & : Feopl who sein pblelnow ho importants to sound conden, They wan 7. tomov theilstensy thy wantto take them pled, oto speak How peakew BE achieve this effect on their audience isthe study of thetorie, Imagine persuasive apeech | isa cat.A good driver will know what kind of fuel makes it goandhov the engine | ‘works. In the same way, a good speaker hes mastered the mechanics of shetoric, In this ‘unit you will be looking first at the ways a speaker appeals to the audience and then 3) at nine shetorieal devices. The appeat slike the fuel and the rhetorical devices like the RE ‘mechanics of @ go0d, persuasive speech. You will study Barack Obamas victory speech from the 2008 presidential election as an example of rhetorical language, FE Appeal Tat He specs contin hen essen ineont ethos pathos dogs ‘These are the terms used by the ancient Greeks to describe the different ways a speech FT appeals to an auelience. These three qualities are the fuel of persuasive speeches, (As you read Text 42, do not worry about the numbers next to some ofthe passages for ‘now they will become clear when you study the next section on rhetorical devices.) Ethos thos refers to the trustworthiness ofthe speaker or writer. When speakers stand before an audience, they must ask themselves an important question: What gives me the righ to stan before you?"To answer it, they must establish credit with the aidience andi feel confident of Pr ther tight to deliver the speech to that audience. In the case of Obatne’s victory speech, yore hat eho rune thg he opening nes and rot he hearofhiemensee, ee Pathos i athos is that part ofa epeech tha appeals to our emotions The werd may remind you Et of other words, such as patti, sympathetic or empathy. Whenever spenkers make you feei patriotic, afraid, joyful or guilty they ate appealing to your sense of emotion. Theré is no doubt that the audience of Obama's speech, as they stood listening to it in cold Chicago, felt a sense of elation run through their bodies. Obama included emotional anguage to evoke an emotional response, e Logos “Logos the part of speech hat appeals to arsnse flop an al godspeed dpe this. Logical epeech tstally takes the form of an argument with several premises and Pr a conclusion (in TOK you will learn to refer to such arguments as syllogism). You may find examples ofzeasoning ina speech that canies a degree ofvalty and certiny. ee Text 4.2 ‘This is your victory’, Barack Obama, November 2008 Barack Obama was the first African American to become president of the USA. His victory speech, written with his speechwriter Jon Favreau, was delivered in his home city of Chicago in November 2008, If there is anyone out there who still doubts that Amorica is a place where all things aro possible, who silt! wondors if the dream of our founders is alive In our time, who stil questions the power of our democracy, tonight Is your answer? {t's the answer" told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numibars this nation has never saen, by people who waited three hours and four Dh PTif Chapter © The language of persuasion ! “hours, many for the first time in their Ives, because thoy belioved that this tne ~ must be diferent, that thoir voleos could be that difference, "It's tho answor spokon by young and ola rich and poor, Democrat anid ‘Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, streight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never ) been just a collection of ncividuals or a collection of red states and biue states We are, and always willbe, the United Staigs of America, It's the answor that led those who've been told for 80 long by so many to I be cynical end foarful and doubtful about whet we can achieve to put thelr hands Con the are of history an! bend it onco tore toward the hope of a better day? ts bean a long time coming, but tonight, because of what wo cid on this dato "In this election at this defining moment change has come to America: | Was never the tkellest candidate for this office. We didnt start with much monoy ‘or many endorsements. Gur caznpaign was not hatchad in the hls of Washington, “tegen in the backyards of Des Moines end the fving rooms of Concord and the “front porches of Charfoston. It was built by working men and women who dug ; Into what little savings they hed to give $6 and $10 and $20°to the cause, Itdrew =| |. cong rom te young pope who rejected tho myth of thelr gonoraton’s pathy "who left thelr homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay end less slesp. | _.t cow stents tom the not o-youngpoople who braved tho bitter cold ene soorching heat” to knock on doors cf perfect strangers, and from the maillone of Americans who volunteered arid organized and! proved that more than two | centuries lator a govornmont of tho people, by the peoplo, and forthe people® has {not perished from the Earth, This is your victory? The road ahoad wil be long. Our climb wil be stoop. We may not get there in | one yaar or even n one tm, But America ~1 have novor been reve Ropatl than | am tonight thet we wil get there. | promise you — we as a pooplo wil get there. There will be satacks and false starts, There are many who won't agree with |) every decison oF policy| make as president, and we know thet government cent solve every problem. But | wil always be honest with you about the changes we i face. | wil iston o you, especially when we disagree, Figure 4.8 Piesident Obama making his victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago, 2008, Chairs, yo ‘you studied'a Sainple wt tak inthe fim ofa Mabie Gages 880): * 4 TA Read thie aidene pect iv aptes gana Lobketee Stamp hel Ae patios oid Tog} the thie qualities of appeal, it that: i re Wilf tank & BpOBEN' Dy | Test 23) Bataale bahia viet | Mill Moore sci Sc SUS S 95 |= bn Kine rhetorical devices E Rhetorical devices are the nuts and bolts of speech; the parts that make a speech work. Separately, each part of a speech is meaningless but once put together they create a gay powerful efect on the Istener As you read President Obama’ peech again look at Fe the examples ofthe nine thetorial devices (Hhese‘are labeled 1-9 in Text 42), However, thislstiot exaustv and thee ne devices here represent just some of the many. pe rhetorical device used by spoechwvriters 4+ Paral f= Parallels is styistic device thal you offen hear in speeches but also one that is vary usaful for writing, Weting structures that aro oramumeticaly perale! helps your reader ofIstener understand your points botter because they tiow moro sinoothly, n the frst sentence of Text 4.2, Obama uses three clauses, making the sentenos very ong, bul the clauses are easy to follow because they all have the same structure: Ifthere is anyone out there () who sti doubts... (2) who st F wonders... (2) who stil questions ... Obama's speeches are famous for thelr use of parallelism, and there is more than one example in this victory speech. = 2. Hypophora Ee ‘A.common techrique is to start a speech with a hypophora, in which the epeakor frst asks e question and then enews it. In Obama's 9peoch, the word answor leer is used regularly as an obvious signpost ofthe speaker's intetion to ive his ausdlonce answers. Note that here the questions were embedded in the frst sentence and not asked as direct questions. F/O RES “Let me be vague!” Figure 4,9 Which rhetorical dovice is the speaker daliberately Ignoring in this cartoon?Chapter @ The language of persuasion 21 Repetition ‘Notice that tho opening words ofthe second, tic and! fourth paragraphs are the ; c 4#8s the answer. Repoition, when used propery, cen be vary effective i ting a sense of structure and powsr. You may have been warned not to sound 0 repatiive in your written work. in speech writing, however, repeating small ppirases can ingrain an Idea In the minds of your audience, antithesis é Obama is famous for having sald There aro no red states or bive states, thors aro ioe Jo only the United States of America. This is an example of antithests, a technique 1 Giten used by speochnters, In orir to tol peop'e what you believe In Its useful | Jand effective to tell thom what you do not believe in, J. & Fiourative speach “People ks to think in metaphors, The image of boning the arc of history up "towards hope Is powerful, Figurative speach tends to work bast when set off F- by concrete images, such as found here a fow lines on fom the are of history _Wth tho backyards of Des Moines and the ving rooms of Concord and the front Porches of Charleston, (See Chapter 4, page 85) 1 tricoton and polysyndaton " Altioolon|s a sort of it of threo, or a sentence in whch there are three parts r clauses, Tha currulatve effect of three has a powerful effect on an auxllence. lee, the backyarcs, ving roams and front porches build up a strong pleture ‘plan folks and the three amounts of money underine the big achiovernent | Stmodest donations by ordinary Americans, (Note too the parallelism of the ‘backyards, the Iving rooms end the tront porches) | Furthermore, there s a peculiar kind of ticolon present in the backyards | example, Obama usos the word and in betwoen oach anc! evory liom isted {Whereas usually In a ist iis only nocossary to use and before the last item, This _ Technique is known as polysyndeton and is used to stroaa the importance of {every tem, We seat also in tho example of $5 and $10 and $20, Can jou obo 1 Why he uses and twice? | 7) suntapostion When two things of opposite nature are mentioned together, readers and listeners nd to notice, Obama talks about 'the not-so-young people who braved the bittor ‘bold and scorching heat to knoak on doors of periect strangers. The juxtaposition "OU biter cold’ and ‘scorching heat’ strescos th extrerne conitions in which Pe bocce ‘campeigned for Obame, convincing the audience of thoir dedication. 8 Alluston _The words government of the peopl, by the people, anc! for the people are ittoc eC Cee yee = fom the famous Gottysbura Adcross dlvored by President Abraham Lincoln In Sls I alae {1809 (hance the more than two centuries later reference), and most Americans ths auclehes would know them, Allusion is when your speech echoes another i ;Pe9ch or famous phrase, By using allusion, you not only associate yourself with pov : “tho das of the orginal text but also create a bond with tho auclance by evoking ey Rey ‘Shared knowledge, z 1 es 8 Varied sentence length aise rying the longth of your sentonoes is always @ good way to strengthen any wiring : “yl, bet for epeoch wating or essays. In this perecraph ofthe speech, notice how (ong the frst sentence is compared tothe second sentence: It chew strenath from the not-so-young ... has Not perished trom the Earth, This is your victary. 97