Rhetoric and the Rhetorical Triangle

Basic Understanding of Rhetoric

What exactly is rhetoric? Rhetoric is defined as “the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech.” by dictionary.com an online dictionary. The art of rhetoric is commonly referred to a speaker or writer's ability to persuade and or motivate their audience. There is an issue facing the art of rhetoric would be that of audience its trying to persuade since it varies greatly.

An example of rhetoric would be when Sarah Vowell says:

Shuffling past the Lincoln statue, I pause under the white marble feet, swaying back and forth a little so it looks like his knees move.A moment of whimsy actually opens me up for the Second Inaugural, a speech that is all the things they say—prophetic, biblical, merciful, tough. The most famous phrase is the most presidential: with malice toward none. I revere those words. Reading them is a heart-breaker considering that a few weeks after Lincoln said them at the Capitol he was killed.But in my two favorite parts of the speech, Lincoln is sarcastic. He’s a writer. And in his sarcasm and his writing, he is who he was. He starts off the speech reminding his audience of the circumstances of his First Inaugural at the eve of war. It’s a (for him) long list, remarkably even-handed and restrained, pointing out that both the North and the South were praying to the same god, as if they were just a couple of football teams squaring off in the Super Bowl.(Assassination Vacation)

As  Sarah Vowell is pointing out and emphasizing certain aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s speech it shows as an example of  rhetoric. She is trying to convince and persuade her audience that not only was Abraham Lincoln a great president but he also had a larger human side to him than is acknowledged. This perspective on him is often forgotten when seeing him as the popularized iconic figure he is today. The speaker of the book, in this case the author Sarah Vowell, is trying to share the knowledge she has acquired after years of research. She strongly believes in what she has learned in her travels and is trying to convince her audience to see things the way she does. In this case with Abraham's sarcasm.

The way rhetoric is used can change drastically.This can be seen if an author were writing to a very general audience. The different appeals would be used differently as to accommodate to needs of the wide range groups such as children, elderly, certain ethnic groups, people of different sexual orientations,etc. This can make it difficult at times to give off the same message for everyone within a wide range of audiences. In contrast when writing to a better targeted audience the author can use greater appeals in order to persuade and inform them in a much more efficient manner. The audience ties in with the context in rhetoric.

The Rhetorical Triangle

A man known as Aristotle back in ancient Greece came up with the three core concepts of rhetoric which is know as the rhetorical triangle. The triangle consist of the author,message and audience. Each core concepts correlates with the three appeals to the audience used in arguments being ethos, pathos and logos which exist inside of context. 

The credibility or ethical appeal (ethos) is established by the author. In the case of Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell establishes ethos by stating she has been studying presidential assassinations for years and explains her on field research such as that of seeing the statue of Abraham Lincoln. The persuasion and reasoning is established through the over all message of the rhetoric.The message of persuasion that Sarah was trying to convey in the quote is that, during his speech Abraham Lincoln was being sarcastic. She logically explains this as to how Abraham had stated the war between the north and the south being sort of silly.Like they were two sides but of the same coin. Finally pathos being the persuasion by appealing to the readers emotion corresponds to the audience. In this quote Sarah exemplifies the dispute Abraham Lincoln was explaining by comparing it to "just a couple of football teams squaring off in the Superbowl." By jokingly comparing it football she gives the feeling of sarcasm to audience which probably there when Abraham Lincoln gave his speech. The previous acknowledgement of how audience affects rhetoric is part of the context of the rhetorical triangle.

  The contexts within the rhetorical triangle consist of 4 basic elements being the aim, audience, medium, and subject (previously revealed with the paragraph on different audiences). The aim is the writers basic goals as for what effect it should have on the audience. The aim in rhetoric quoted is probably to inform and persuade the audience that Abraham Lincoln was exactly as he is viewed today. the Audience is the specific person or group of people that the writer would be addressing. In the quote previously given over the book Assassination Vacation the author has a audience of some sort of general educated adults. She challenges their previous notions of what they had learned from Abraham Lincoln by showing him a particular different side to him. The medium is the method used to deliver rhetoric whether it being a newspaper, book, discourse, etc. The medium in this case is the book itself Assassination Vacation. Finally the last element of context is the subject. This being the actual topic the rhetoric is about. Although it talks about the speech he had given, the actually subject is focused on Abraham Lincoln himself. Its based around on how he really was and uses the speech as an example of proof.

Further Understanding of Rhetoric

Heading away from the division of rhetoric and going back to the topic of Rhetoric as a whole. It is primarily expressed as being 5 different types of rhetoric also known as canons. These 5 categories are known as invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery. Subsequently each category has their own main concerns and formations which they are centered around. In the invention canon it is concerned with the topic that is being said. Invention is tied to the rhetorical appeal, being based on what the author says.This is used as to explain or find a valid argument for the rhetoric.  Arrangement is corncering on how the writing is arranged. This is used when aligning special rhetorical appeals into a certain order to persuade and inform to the max possibility. This include as an example having an introduction, statement of fact, division, proof, refutation, and a conclusion. Style is concerned with expression of ideas which can vary by audience as previously explained. While identity is concerned with what is said, style is concerned with how its actually said. It is the primary and more used of the categories. Memory was once only concerning mnemonics such as abbreviation that would help remember a speech. But has then evolved into also being what the audience remembers from that which was invented in the first canon. Delivery is concerning the way the rhetoric is expressed. Similarly to medium it is based on whether the rhetoric was discoursed, written, how it was discoursed, and on what it was actually written.

https://www.taftschool.org/students/writingcenter/pdfs/Glossaries/Art%20of%20Rhetoric.pdf

http://rhetoric.eserver.org/aristotle/oneindex.html

http://www.letu.edu/people/annieolson/online/intro.html

http://www2.bakersfieldcollege.edu/jgiertz/clip_image007.png

http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/What-Are-The-Five-Canons-Of-Rhetoric.htm

http://www.public.asu.edu/~jvanasu/rhet-triangle.htm