Theories Set A

Rhetorical Criticism
• A form of textual analysis wherein the
researcher systematically analyzes, interprets,
and critiques the persuasive power of
messages within a text.
Examples:
• To illustrate, a researcher could be interested
in how mass media portrays “good degrees”
to prospective college students.
• To understand this communication, a
rhetorical researcher could take 30 articles on
the topic from the last year and write a
rhetorical essay about the criteria used and
the core message argued by the media.
• Likewise, a researcher could be interested in
how women in management roles are
portrayed in television.
• They could select a group of popular shows
and analyze that as the text. This might result
in a rhetorical essay about the behaviors
displayed by these women and what the text
says about women in management roles.
 History and Development of
Rhetorical Theory
• Aristotle's definition of rhetoric provides a
starting point for understanding how rhetoric
has been defined: the art of discovering all
the available means of persuasion.
• For the ancient Greeks, rhetoric was the use of
logos or logical argument, ethos or speaker
credibility, and pathos or emotional argument
to construct a persuasive argument.
Rhetoric essentially was the art of discourse, of
systematically and artfully thinking through the
five canons of rhetoric:
• Invention
• Organization
• Style
• Delivery and
• Memory
The Rhetorical Triangle: Understanding and
Using Logos, Ethos, and Pathos

Aristotle taught that a speaker’s ability to

persuade an audience is based on how well the
speaker appeals to that audience in three
different areas: logos, ethos, and pathos.
Considered together, these appeals form what
later rhetoricians have called the rhetorical
triangle.
 LOGOS
• Logos appeals to reason. Logos can also be
thought of as the text of the argument, as well
as how well a writer has argued his/her point.
 ETHOS
• Ethos appeals to the writer’s character. Ethos
can also be thought of as the role of the writer
in the argument, and how credible his/her
argument is.
 PATHOS
• Pathos appeals to the emotions and the
sympathetic imagination, as well as to beliefs
and values. Pathos can also be thought of as
the role of the audience in the argument.
• LOGOS: What are the arguments presented?
• ETHOS: Who said the arguments? How
credible he/she is?
• PATHOS: How do you feel? What do you value?
What are your beliefs?
 Contemporary Developments
• First, rhetorical theory now addresses all
contexts in which symbol use occurs. No
longer confined to the public domains of
classical Greece for which rhetoric originally
was designed—the judicial context or court of
law, the legislative or political realm, and the
ceremonial or display function— rhetorical
theorists study every kind of context in which
symbol use occurs.
• Today this means studying everything from
intrapersonal to interpersonal to public
discourse to social movements and mediated
discourse. Rhetorical theories address what
makes a public, personal diaries as rhetoric, and
television, the Internet, and Web sites as
rhetorical artifacts.
• This means that rhetorical theory also includes
the study of visual and nonverbal elements, such
as the study of art and architecture, buildings
and all design elements of cities, and dress and
appearance, to sports, to name only a few.
 DRAMATISM
• Kenneth Burke’s theory compares life to a play and
states that, as in a theatrical piece, life requires an actor,
a scene, an action, some means for the action to take
place, and a purpose.
• The theory allows a rhetorical critic to analyze a
speaker’s motives by identifying and examining these
elements.
• Furthermore, Burke believes, guilt is the ultimate motive
for speakers, and Dramatism suggests that rhetors are
most successful when they provide their audiences with
a means for purging their guilt.
• He believed that language is a strategic human
response to a specific situation: “Verbal
symbols are meaningful acts from which
motives can be derived.”
• “Words are attitudes”. According to Burke, the
critic’s job is to figure out WHY a writer or
speaker selected the words that were
choreographed into the message. The task is
ultimately one of assessing motives.
• Persuasion – to influence a person to believe
something you believe in

• Propaganda – to influence a person to hate or

be against something you hate or against with
 Dramatistic Pentad
ACT What is being done
AGENCY Mean by which an action occurs
AGENT Person doing the act
SCENE Setting/background for action

PURPOSE Reason or rationale behind action

• Guilt is Burke’s catch all term to cover every
form of tension, anxiety, embarrassment,
shame, disgust, and other unpleasant
emotions he believed were intrinsic to the
human condition.
 Self-blame (Mortification)
• This route requires “confession of sin and a
request for forgiveness.

Victimage
• Scapegoating is the process of designating an
external enemy as the source of all ills.
 Burke says,
“perfect guilt requires the perfect victim.”
Burke was not an advocate of redemption
through victimization, but he said he couldn’t
ignore the historical pattern of people uniting
against a common enemy.
Example

• Malcom X “The Ballot or the Bullet”

His address portrays America as a nation that
promises full equality, dignity, and freedom for all its
citizens, yet African Americans have never received
their birth right.
Emphasizing his commitment to Black Nationalism,
Malcolm urges his brothers and sisters to start their
own businesses and elect their own leaders. At the
same time he attacked white politicians who impede
civil rights.
 Have you ever wanted to know how to
effectively talk with the opposite sex?
Maybe a spouse, parent, sibling, or boss.
What motivates them to say certain things?
Is there a way to get along? Help them
understand you?
 Genderlect Theory
• Deborah Tannen predicts that men and
women in conversation will use different
conversational rituals based on the way their
gender is socialized to converse.

• The different rituals come from different goals.

These different goals also account for different
interpretations of the same conversation often
leading to misunderstandings.
• For example, we may predict a woman will use
a conversation to improve a relationship while
a man may use the same conversation to
improve his status. The woman will try to find
out what she and the other person have in
common. The man will try to top the other
person by comparing personal achievements.
 Standpoint Theory
• Understanding this theory is essential to effective
negotiations in business, therapeutic client/psychologist
encounters, parenting strategies

• When persons or social groups from different backgrounds

communicate, Standpoint Theory tries to understand how
each person views the communication based on their
unique life experiences (standpoints).

• This theory also identifies how one person may have more
or less power in the conversation depending on their
positions, and healthy intimate empathy.
• Standpoint Theory is the acknowledgement
that we can never be “neutrally” located. With
that, we need to be always aware of how
social, historical, and cultural processes are
constructing us, our thoughts, and our
knowledge production processes, such as
research. Our knowledge is always produced
from someone’s or a group’s “standpoint.”
 Muted Group Theory
• Muted group theory states that in every
society there are cultural groups who are
traditionally muted—given less access than
members of the dominant groups to public
discourse and to having their individual and
community concerns heard.
• Application: Anyone who has wanted to be
heard, those who want to get the most out of
the members of their team, marketing and
sales who want to know what their customers
want, family members who feel shut out.
Example

• Muted group theory states that marginalized

groups (including women) are more
constrained in conversation because they
have to speak a 'men's language'.
• The theory states that language was mainly
made by men. Women are often referred to as
the property of men (e.g. taking a man's name
in marriage)
• Muted group theory is a critical theory concerning the
certain groups of people who remain powerless compared
to the others.

• The muted group theory explains the cause of muteness

by a certain group of population especially of that of
women in the society.

• The theory upholds a gender perspective where the male

is the dominant class. The women live with the attitude
where her opinions remain muted when spoken and
mostly choose to adapt with the situation. The attitudes of
the male who are the bread winners are considered
dominant than the women who rely on them.
• The muted group theory was further studied by
Cheris Kramarae, a professor in women studies
upheld the idea that, communication was started
by men and due to that reason they take
advantage of women.

• While speaking, women are considered less

powerful than men and the reason behind this is
simple psychology. Women’s needs are
emotionally driven unlike men. And thus the
perspective of women differs from men in all
aspects.
Example

• Women being stereotyped can be seen in the

mass media and which is converted into a
popular culture. The women are portrayed as
a sex symbol in most of the advertisements for
the male products. The perspective of male
towards women has been narrowed down to
either sexual or emotional symbol.