Contact Zone Rhetoric

Moral integrity

2008-11-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

November 15, 2008
Credo: The moral integrity that makes for a powerful speech

Geoffrey Rowell
TimesOnline. Novemeber 15, 2008.

One of the many striking things in the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States is the power of his language. His gifts of oratory and rhetoric are palpable, rooted in ancient and classical means of communication, in which rhythm, alliteration and assonance all have their part to play. In his powerful repetition of questions and phrases, challenging and cumulative sentences end with some simple affirmation — “Yes, we can.”

Aristotle famously spoke of three aspects of arguments that convince — logos, pathos and ethos. The first is centred on logical reasoning, the second on emotional appeal, and the third has at its heart an ethical appeal, convincing by the character of the speaker or author. When there is a mismatch or a disjunction between powerful words spoken and the character of the speaker, then the accusation of hypocrisy is quick to be made. Oratory and rhetoric to be powerful and convincing need to be grounded in a life that is consonant with the ideals proclaimed. Words without moral commitment will never suffice. It is not merely Obama’s words that have swayed Americans and moved so many elsewhere, it is the sense that words and character match. Both politicians and preachers are judged by their integrity, the coherence of life and rhetoric.

Obama Effect

2008-04-06T09:10:00.001-07:00

Call for Papers: The Obama Effect

 October 23-25, 2008, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

 Since he stepped into the national political spotlight at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) has challenged conventional wisdom about race, politics, media, and generation.  In this historic election year, it is imperative for scholars and professionals in a wide variety of disciplines to reflect upon the potential effects of Mr. Obama on: American and global public opinion; party politics; voter participation; media representations; international relations; religious discourses; and constructions of racial, sexual, and gender identities.

 This conference invites papers from scholars and professionals working from different perspectives on the phenomenon of Senator Obama’s political career. Our goal is to create a conference that will showcase various and interdisciplinary approaches to the “Obama Effect” to provide participants with a multi-faceted view of the past year’s campaign and its potential effects on a wide range of social arenas.

Function vs Rhetoric

2008-04-03T11:44:00.001-07:00

Function v. Rhetoric
Peter Campbell
LRB

Architect and Engineer by Andrew Saint

It is difficult to work out who gets the credit for a building – so many people are involved, from owners, contractors and governments to bricklayers and roofers – but it is particularly hard to decide what is due to the architect and what to the engineer. Andrew Saint, in his new book, sees them as sibling rivals, and in tracing how their relations have changed over time, looks for answers to three questions. Was there a time when the roles of architect and engineer were indistinguishable? If so, how and why did they separate? And, finally, have they now been reconciled?

Burke Dramatism and Obama

2008-03-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

caerglas: Looking for feedback on Obama. Also: my take on his Rhetoric.

Obama can talk, he's great. His Ethos and Pathos are strong. He sounds very sincere and caring, and what he says is often what I've felt has needed to be said, and is something I feel I can get behind. He's a modern day Cicero--and that guy was a jerk, an autocrat who made the people feel very good and pleased with themselves for doing what he wanted them to do. Or he's a modern day Saruman, to be a nerd--his logic, his policies weren't good at all, but he sounded really wise while saying it and everyone wanted to agree with it as it sounded great the way he said it.

Obama's Rhetorical style in this speech gives me pause--it gives me great pause, really. It's big on hierarchies and centralizing power into his hands. In brief: it's pretty big with Kenneth Burke's (I think) Dramaticism. That's a style that's great on Ethos and Pathos. It's a style that encourages the audience to identify with the speaker, to identify themselves (and the speaker) with his description of the current state of affairs. This description must paint the current state of affairs as flawed and troubled--but the speaker knows a way to improve the current problems and transcend the current state of affairs into an improved situation, while at the same time the speaker and the audience transcend from their current state and into an improved state--not just because they've identified with the current situation, and that situation has improved--but also through the audience's allegiance with the speaker.

Perhaps this is necessary for getting groups of people together... but it's dangerous as it throws a lot of power into the hands of the 'leader.' It's also dangerous as it causes centralization of power and 'unification' among the followers. Dramatism requires hierarchies--'you must transcend the troubled times by following me as the leader; through following me, who is one of you, we all will transcend into a better state.' And that's what's up with my concern on trusting Obama. Such charisma is not necessarily to be lauded in a leader we cannot predict, and I cannot predict him. Aside from the Rhetorical clues in his style, Obama explicitly called the present as a time for "unity," or unification. He's very much against divisive speech here.

2008-03-24T03:14:00.000-07:00

Over de retoriek van de oorlog: ‘Hollywood regisseert mee de oorlog van George W. Bush’. De Morgen 19.3.2008.

Vandaag vijf jaar na het begin van de oorlog in Irak proberen voormalige Hollywoodmedewerkers vanuit het Witte Huis het conflict in de media nog steeds zo heroïsch mogelijk te verkopen. Op de wijze van 'artificial reality imagineers' die de optredens van VS-president George W. Bush mee regisseren.

(...)

In 'De verkoop van een oorlog' toonde het Nederlandse VPRO-programma Tegenlicht maandag met dit voorbeeld aan hoe het Witte Huis de beeldvorming over de Irakoorlog manipuleerde met behulp van 'artificial reality imagineers', communicatie-experts die naast de gewone werkelijkheid een gemedialiseerde - en politieke - realiteit bouwen. Ze doen dat op de wijze van Scott Sforza, die, tot zijn vertrek uit het Witte Huis in de zomer van 2007 , de zichtbare optredens van Bush regisseerde.

Visual Rhetoric

2008-03-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Een interessante vraag over de relatie tussen retoriek en visuele geletterdheid:

Reading Response « Rhetoric and Technology - ENC 6421

Prompt 2: Drawing on at least two of the readings, explain what is rhetorical about the visual turn.

In the introductory chapter of The Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle defines rhetoric as “the technique of discovering the persuasive aspects of any given subject-matter.” Rhetoric, as Aristotle defines it, could be applied to nearly any medium, any object, anything that communicates a meaning or attempts to persuade a viewer, reader, hearer, or observer. So what is.

(…)

The visual turn is rhetorical in its very nature – visual elements communicate and persuade, whether intentionally or not.

Presidential Rhetoric

2008-03-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Off the Page: The Harvard Press Author Forum: Presidential rhetoric in historical perspective

PARTICIPATING AUTHOR: BRYAN GARSTEN

Bryan Garsten is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University, and author of Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment.

R for Rhetoric

2008-03-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

Her Scarlet Letters: R is for Rhetoric

R is for Rhetoric I once pursued a masters degree in political rhetoric. I investigated speeches and

political discourse, every day, all day, for two years.

And I STILL can't tell you why a candidate can adjust the mental connection with an audience in an instant - or why an audience is moved to act, as opposed to just react.

Rhetoriek and Memory

2008-03-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Rhetoric and Memory. Een blog ove retoriek:

Retoriek-propaganda

2008-03-22T15:43:00.001-07:00

Een bedenking over het verschil tussen retoriek en propaganda/
Separating propaganda from rhetoric - a three-point guide « World of words

Someone asked me the other day what the difference between rhetoric and propaganda is. It’s a good question: linguistically speaking, there is little to separate the two, although they are distinct forms of persuasion.
It would be easy to trot out an answer along the lines of the old “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”, ie that it all depends on your cultural/political position – after all, no text or speech is free from cultural influence, and a speech that one group sees as rhetoric may be seen as propaganda by groups with different cultural standpoints.

O’Shaughnessy acknowledges the “very fine line between political oratory and propaganda” (p19) and Bryant (Jowett & O’Donell, p43) notes that propaganda’s techniques are “rhetorical techniques gone wrong”.

Rhetoric or Revolution?

2008-03-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Russell Goldman, ‘Rhetoric or Revolution? Obama Rev's Fiery Language’. March 21, 2008. ABC News.

Naar aanleiding van de klacht over de racistische taal van de predikant uit de kerk waar Obama geregeld aanwezig is, volgde een debat over de retoriek van dergelijke preken.

But for thousands of parishioners who fill the pews of America's black churches, the Illinois senator did not need to contextualize Wright's message of black nationalism and apocalyptic prophecy -- they hear it every Sunday.

De preek wordt geplaatst binnen een retoirsche traditie:

But beyond black liberation theology, scholars and his fellow ministers put Wright in an even older tradition, in which black ministers, like the biblical prophets, used their pulpits to chide the nation into moral action.

(…)

It is all about context, say Wright's supporters, including Obama. Parishioners raised in the church understand that preaching is loud, physical and theatrical.

"There is a performative style that accompanies black preaching," Erskine said. "You have to act it -- take the way he was fanning himself. How you say things is more important than what you say. There is a power in words and the way they are expressed."

If whites are surprised by the rhetoric, it is only because they are not familiar with the culture of the black church, Obama said in his speech Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Rhetoric of Love

2008-03-20T05:20:00.001-07:00

Liefde & Retoriek. Interessante teksten:

RHE 309K, The Rhetoric of Love and Seduction Course Homepage Spring 2004

Why Rhetoric?

2008-03-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Neem, Johann N. (2008), ‘Obama's critics overlook an important point: Ideas matter. The Seattle Times.

Een reflectie over de waarde van retoriek: daden versus woorden. Verwijten van de kanidaten: John McCain stelt dat retoriek geen vervanging is voor harde politiek, Hillary Clinton contrasteert de retoriek met vroegere beloftes.

Neem (2008) constateert: “What all these criticisms ignore, however, is that ideas matter”.

Ideas matter. Rhetoric is not just rhetoric. Words define for us — political elites and ordinary voters — what problems we are facing and what kinds of solutions we have for them.

Johann Neem gebruikt de metafoor van de “lens”:

Parties must have platforms that inspire voters. The test for any candidate is how well he or she crafts the lens voters wear to make sense of the world. Obama's challenge — the Democrats' challenge — is to do for his party what Reagan did for the Republicans.

But ideas, once accepted, create a new context.

If Obama helps the Democratic Party find focus, his followers will expect him to make good on his promises. Ideas are not effervescent. A successful idea changes how we think and what we expect; it becomes the barometer by which we then assess our leaders.

Scientific Prose

2008-03-06T02:51:00.000-08:00

A discursive examination of scientific prose by Eric Knickerbocker

This essay is designed to argue that, no matter how cleverly disguised behind technical terms any given piece of scientific writing may be, it reflects its own form of rhetoric: rehashing, reinterpreting, and reprocessing the claims made from previous scientists in an effort to cajole and persuade.

Blogs

2008-03-05T05:57:00.001-08:00

Weblogs about rhetoric, rhetoricians, and the teaching of communication skills.

Rhetoric Website

2008-03-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

Rhetoric
This website is intended to list a variety of resources useful to rhetoricians.

While many rhetoric and composition pages on the Web are written in conjunction with writing centers or specialize in computer-mediated communication, this page also has links to works of classical rhetoric, articles on literacy and education, comprehensive bibliographies in the field and a few miscellaneous but useful things--how to suscribe to some highly-trafficked mailing lists and links to glossaries of rhetorical terms, for example.

If you have any suggestions or documents you think should be added, please use the "join" option below to join one of our editorial teams; we're particularly interested in getting more contemporary writing about rhetoric online.

Rhetoric Obama

2008-03-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

How to Inspire People Like Obama Does
by Carmine Gallo
BusinessWeek

Public speaking skills are critical to the success of every leader. Here are four techniques you can borrow from the Presidential candidate

Over the past several years, I have been interviewing, observing, and writing about business, academic, and political leaders who have the ability to influence their audience—leaders who fire up the rest of us. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is one of them. For a look at what makes Obama's public speaking skills so effective, I outline four techniques he's mastered and explain ways to use them in your own repertoire.

1. Parallel structure We can thank the ancient Greeks for this rhetorical tool—they called it "anaphora." It simply means repeating the same word or expression at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases (…)

2. Alliteration.

3. Rich Imagery Persuasive speakers have long understood the power of imagery to stir emotions—the creation of mental pictures through the words.

Exude Confident Body Language

Pay attention to what your body is saying (BusinessWeek.com, 4/30/07). Communicate confidence, competence, and control.

Use Dynamic Vocal Delivery

A monotonous speaking style lulls the listener to sleep, regardless of the power of the content. Obama knows how to enhance (BusinessWeek.com, 5/16/06) his delivery. Consider these three aspects of his delivery.

Zie verder

Rhetoric Pop Music

2008-03-01T04:19:00.001-08:00

ROCKWRITE pop music as a site for rhetoric and inquiry

WHY ROCKWRITE?

Usually people use this term, "rockwrite," to talk about writing about rock -- rock criticism, like Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Paul Williams -- some of the people who started the contemporary rock criticism movement. But it also describes the spirit of the writing they did, writing that was like rock, that rocked, even when it was not about rock. Rockwrite combines the two verbs into a new verb that can do twice as much.

Against Rhetoric?

2008-02-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

In de Washington Post schreef Michael Gerson een column 'Words Aren't Cheap' over de waarde retoriek.

In een Time Blog wordt het debat gevoerd over retoriek. Is Obama te welbespraakt? Is retoriek een vorm van zwakte? Of zelfs iets verwerpelijks?

Rhetoric A Weakness? - Real Clear Politics - Elections 2008 - TIME
Posted by KYLE TRYGSTAD

Enkele ideeën:
Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post that Clinton and McCain should not use Obama's speaking acumen in attacks against him. History has shown that vocal eloquence is no weakness, and "rhetoric" was not always a four-letter word

"Civil rights leaders possessed few weapons but eloquence -- and their words hardly came cheap. Every president eventually needs the tools of rhetoric, to stiffen national resolve in difficult times or to honor the dead unfairly taken.

It is not a failure for Obama to understand and exercise this element of leadership; it is an advantage.

Some Obama critics go even further, accusing him of inducing a "creepy," "cultish" "euphoria." A candidate delivers a good stump speech, adds a dose of personal magnetism and suddenly he is a sorcerer, practicing the dark arts of demagoguery.

But Obamamania is pretty mild stuff compared with our rhetorical history."

Toulmin

2008-02-28T12:38:00.001-08:00

The Toulmin Project Home Page

This is the Toulmin Project Home Page. This page is designed to teach interested individuals about a theory of argumentation developed by Stephen Toulmin. Toulmin's theory is used in a variety of communiaction classes including our Fundamentals of Communication course, Public Speaking, Business and Professional Speaking, Communication Theory, Interpersonal Communication, and others. This theory is also used in some philosophy and english composition courses. The purpose of the web site is to introduce students to the theory so that they can use it to evaluate arguments or to construct their own. By clicking the buttons below, you can move through the web site.

Retorica

2008-02-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Onze Taal over retorica

Wie anderen wil overtuigen, begeeft zich bewust of onbewust op het terrein van de retorica -- het klassieke systeem van regels en adviezen voor welsprekendheid en doeltreffende communicatie. Professor Grootendorst legt, bij wijze van inleiding op de volgende congresbijdragen, uit hoe dit aloude systeem precies in elkaar zit. Bovendien gaat hij na hoe het tegenwoordig funcioneert -- onder meer aan de hand van de gebeurtenissen na de dood van prinses Diana.
Oude en nieuwe retorica
Prof. dr. R. Grootendorst - hoogleraar Taalbeheersing van het Nederlands, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Journals

2008-02-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

Poroi is an online peer-reviewed journal for scholarship attuned to rhetoric in inquiry and culture.

POROI – Project On Rhetoric Of Inquiry – The University of Iowa

About Enculturation

Enculturation is a refereed journal devoted to contemporary theorizations of rhetoric, writing, and culture.

Rhetorica Network

2008-02-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

The Rhetorica Network offers analysis and commentary about the rhetoric, propaganda, and spin of journalism and politics, including analysis of presidential speeches and election campaigns. This site features the Rhetorica: Press-Politics Journal web log, comprehensive news media links, a rhetoric textbook, a primer of critical techniques, and information for citizens.
The character of Rhetorica represents the purposes and canons of classical rhetoric.

About Dr. Andrew R. Cline and The Rhetorica Network

"Oh, that's just rhetoric!" In other words, whatever the statement is, the amateur critic believes it to be simply empty or evasive language. And perhaps it is. So is it rhetoric? Certainly. Every human utterance is rhetoric because, from my particular theoretical perspective, all human utterances are speech-acts meant to persuade. In an academic, non-pejorative sense, rhetoric is the effective use of language. Effective to what end? There are lots of answers to that question, and you now know mine: persuasion. The quality of a rhetorical performance can be anything from sublime to insipid, but what is most important is to decide if rhetoric is working to persuade and, if it is, how it is working to persuade.
The Rhetorica Network, including my Rhetorica: Press-Politics Journal web log, is my attempt to explain the persuasive tactics of politics and the press.

Retoriek Clinton

2008-02-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

Arianna Huffington: Clinton, Obama And The Belief In The Magic Power Of Words - Politics on The Huffington Post

Een retorische analyse van de Clinton speeches.

Along with her "ready to lead on Day One" mantra, Hillary Clinton's favored line of attack against Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Mondale's 1984 "Where's the beef?" attack on Gary Hart. In Clinton's version, Obama is little more than a shallow speechifier -- he believes that words are all you need to lead.
She made it explicit in a speech in Providence, Rhode Island on Sunday:
"I could stand up here and say 'Let's just get everybody together. Let's get unified. The sky will open! The light will come down! Celestial choirs will be singing! And everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect!' Maybe I've just lived a little long, but I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be. You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear!"
Last week it was: "Speeches don't put food on the table. Speeches don't fill up your tank, or fill your prescription, or do anything about that stack of bills."
And her chief strategist, Mark Penn, summed up the "just words" meme this way: "She is in the solutions business while Obama is in the promises business."
Now, I agree with Clinton that it's important to look at how each of the Democratic candidates uses words and how rhetoric fits into how they've run their respective campaigns. And if you do, you'll see that one candidate does believe that words are like a magic wand: you utter them and reality changes. But it's not Barack Obama -- it's Hillary Clinton.

Obama-Clinton: indruk en toon

2008-02-26T16:43:00.000-08:00

Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words
Oratory Has Helped Drive Obama's Career -- and Critics' Questions
by Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; A01

Een indruk maken…

Een retoricus is zich bewust van zijn publiek.

"It comes from his sense of an audience," said Gerald Shuster, an expert in political communication at the University of Pittsburgh. "He's doing a lot of impromptu when he gets to the stage; he looks out over the audience and has the ability to adjust it."

Een toon bij het spreken…

The stump speech is far more freewheeling than his scripted addresses, mixing the colloquial and the lofty and dotted with laugh lines that Obama often chuckles at himself, enjoying his role. Contrary to Obama's reputation as a fiery orator who traffics mainly in abstractions, much of the speech is delivered in a conversational tone, and it includes a long middle section of policy prescriptions. But what audience members tend to remember are the handful of crescendos that punctuate it, which deliver all the more punch for how slowly he builds them.

"He uses highs and lows. He has a wide range of pitch and uses it effectively," said Ruth Sherman, a Connecticut communications consultant. "He knows where to pause and stop and let his audience enjoy him, and he knows how to ride the crest of the wave and allow the momentum to evolve."

While his speeches include more policy gristle than Obama gets credit for, critics note that those ideas amount to a fairly conventional left-leaning platform and are not as novel as the package they are wrapped in.

"People are commenting increasingly on the disjunction between the elevated and exceptionally fine rhetoric and the rather pedestrian policy proposals that form the Obama platform," said Berenson, the Harvard classmate and former Bush counsel.

Obama-Clinton: Reading form a scipt

2008-02-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words
Oratory Has Helped Drive Obama's Career -- and Critics' Questions
by Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; A01

It has also allowed him to keep his speeches fresh, a challenge in a campaign in which he has given two or three a day, on average, in addition to a dozen or so major televised addresses along the way. And by continually tweaking his pitch with new material, he gives the impression that he is thinking things through in front of his audiences, instead of reciting a rote speech.

"He seems very deliberative," said Martin Medhurst, a professor of rhetoric at Baylor University. "He seems like he's actually thinking about what he is saying rather than just reading from a script."

Obama-Clinton: Xerox

2008-02-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

Finding Political Strength in the Power of Words
Oratory Has Helped Drive Obama's Career -- and Critics' Questions
by Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 26, 2008; A01

To his critics, these influences are proof that Obama's rhetoric is less original and inspired than his supporters believe. "If your candidacy is going to be about words, then they should be your own words," Clinton said in Thursday's debate in Texas. ". . . Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."

To his admirers, this magpie-like tendency to pluck lines and ideas from here and there and meld them into a coherent whole is inherent to good speechwriting and part of what makes Obama effective on the stump. It has allowed him to adapt quickly to rivals' attacks, which he often absorbs into his remarks, parroting them and turning them to his advantage.

Retoriek Ik en Wij

2008-02-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

The UmBlog: Rhetoric without a cause: Obama

Het gebruik van 'ik' of 'wij' kan anders geïnterpreteerd worden.

Obama supporters like to point his rhetorical difference in using "we" instead of "I" in his stump speeches. Perhaps, unfortunately, Americans are so far removed from England since our revolution 230 years ago, that we forget the royal "we" is the polite royal's pronoun when he means "me."

Retoriek en Onderwijs

2008-02-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Een bedenking bij mogelijkheden voor het onderwijs.
Rhetoric and the Campaign | Blogging Pedagogy

Watching the Democratic debate last week made me think this primary has been a potential goldmine for rhetoric instructors.
Throughout the debate, Clinton argued that "actions speak louder than words," while Obama insisted that "words matter."

Beyond this, Clinton's big attack was over plagiarishttp://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/21/videos.21feb.debate/
Here's a link to an article that looks at language and the Democratic primary a bit more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/25/foreman.raw.politics/index.html
I'm planning on starting my class tomorrow with a discussion of language in the debates, but would also love to know if anyone else has found useful ways to incorporate the primaries into their rhetoric class.

Retoriek: overnemen

2008-02-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama: Analyzing his stump speeches
by Christi Parsons and John McCormick
Tribune correspondents

Beide kandidaten nemen elkaars retoriek over.

Like McCain, Clinton and Obama frame the other party's ideas in their own words and then criticize them. McCain criticizes Obama as lacking in specifics; Obama responds with detail.

Een paar voorbeelden:

Over the past few months, Clinton has begun to speak proportionally in more human terms about the hardships of working people. She defines the campaign in terms of individuals, citing people with "mortgages they can't afford, medical bills that wiped out their life savings, tuition bills that cut short their children's dreams, who work the day shift and the night shift because they want the world for their children."

(…)

"I see an America where college is affordable again for hard-working families and students," she says, and where "America is respected around the world again."

Interestingly, as the campaign continues, each candidate's rhetoric adapts to acknowledge that of the others--almost as if evolving into a three-way conversation.

Clinton says that "speeches don't put food on the table," and Obama echoes the idea in short order with his own spin.
Clinton tells voters, "Your voices are the change we seek," an idea similar to Obama's "We are the change that we seek."

Hoog-plat

2008-02-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama: Analyzing his stump speeches
By Christi Parsons and John McCormick
Tribune correspondents

Hooggestemede kritiek roept ‘platte’ reacties op.

Ambitious speakers in the past have found themselves vulnerable to the criticism. Robert F. Kennedy was questioned about who would actually pay for all of his noble plans. Gary Hart spoke grandly about "new ideas," only to be hit by a blunt rejoinder quoting a hamburger commercial: "Where's the beef?"

Obama-Clinton: vlot

2008-02-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama: Analyzing his stump speeches
by Christi Parsons and John McCormick. Tribune correspondents

"Yes they are filled with platitudes, but they discuss policy as much as his opponents' speeches do".

Goed spreken is belangrijk. Men kan echter ook te vlot zijn want dat creëert dan weer wantrouwen.

And that may be what helps to fuel the criticism from detractors that Obama speaks mostly in "platitudes."

"Is it a fair criticism to say they have a lot of platitudes in them? It's accurate," said David Zarefsky, a Northwestern University professor who studies campaign rhetoric. "That's what stump speeches do. They're to capture an audience, to motivate people."

By reaching that height too well, he says, a stump speech can actually fail.

"There's a deep-seated cultural ambivalence we have about eloquence," Zarefsky said. "We seek it out, especially from leaders in times of crisis. On the other hand, we're suspicious that someone who is talking really well is putting something over on us."

Burke Links

2008-02-22T16:27:00.001-08:00

Burke archive at

This blog, even in its nascent stage, could easily be thought of as a blog specifically on the ideas of Kenneth Burke rather than rhetoric generally.
That’s not my intent, but it’s no big surprise that it might appear that way. Look at most of the deeply important concepts that have emerged in rhetorical criticism over the last century, and you’ll see the majority of them were created by Burke or draw heavily on his ideas.

Oboma: rhetoric & events

2008-02-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

Analyzing the enthusiasm gap. Seatlepi

But Obama's appeal is not simply that he is charismatic and delivers a good speech. Political rhetoric resonates only when it is tied to causes or shifts in real values. In other words, great rhetoric is made by great causes, not the reverse.

Rhetoric Clinton body language

2008-02-22T14:02:00.000-08:00

N.Y. senator's rhetoric fails to shift the balance - The Boston Globe

"She dogged him on the respective merits of their healthcare plans and did not waiver in her claim that he is insufficiently prepared to be president. And while Obama was dialing down, she raised the volume a bit. Her tone of voice - which can tend toward the monotonous - rose with passion when talking about healthcare and drooped with sorrow when discussing the failures of the Bush administration. She even added a new hand gesture, cupping her hands and reaching out to the crowd."

Obama:rhetoric versus content

2008-02-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

Obama's fresh rhetoric covers up old ideas. News-Leader

Much of his rhetoric is lighter than air — almost content-free. It's the past versus the future, hope over fear, one nation not two, yes we can, turn the page, and so forth. But when you get past the music and really focus on the lyrics, Obama emerges as an utterly conventional, down-the-line liberal Democrat. He claims to be all about the future, but his policy ideas are about as modern as disco and the leisure suit.

Rhetoric: Words, words..

2008-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Words should inspire people....

Yale Daily News - Fad of hope rhetoric blind to existential reality

For those of you who may have missed it, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama staged a watershed moment in the history of stupid presidential campaign rhetoric earlier this week in Wisconsin. Two days before the state’s primary, the Bloomberg headline read: “Clinton, Obama Trade Barbs in Wisconsin Over ‘Hope.’ ”

That’s right: barbs. About hope.

“It will take more than just speeches to fulfill our dreams,” Sen. Clinton said, really going out on a limb. “It will take a lot of hard work.”

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Obama retorted. “If we don’t inspire the country to believe again, then it doesn’t matter how many policies and plans we have.”

Clearly, Obama is the worse offender here. At least Hillary, with all of her experience, knows that getting Americans of all ages “involved,” and “energized,” is cruel because it will inevitably lead to disappointment. This explains the cautionary tone of her rhetoric: Nothing scares away hip young voters like the threat of “hard work.”

Burke cases

2008-02-22T01:58:00.000-08:00

The Rhetoric Garage: Callin’ Out Cousin Pookie: Clinton and Obama’s Rhetoric at Selma
http://rhetoricgarage.blogspot.com/2007/03/callin-out-cousin-pookie-clinton-and.html

The pentad: scene in both speeches. "... it’s obvious that scene plays a major role in both speeches. They are giving speeches in Selma about an event that happened there. Their audience includes people who actually participated in this event. They speak in African American churches that evoke the genesis of the Civil Rights movement. When speakers are commemorating an event at or near the site of that event, it’s a safe bet that “scene” is going to be one of the central terms.

So, the next question is what is the other half of this central ratio of terms in each speech?

I suggest that Clinton and Obama’s speeches pair “scene” up with two different terms, and for understandable reasons. These choices shape the very different speeches they give.

In Clinton’s case, her speech centers on the purpose/scene ratio (with “purpose” being the dominant term). Obama’s speech centers on the act/scene ratio (with “act” being the dominant term)".

Semiotics

2008-02-22T01:54:00.001-08:00

Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/

Semiotics
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/semiotics.html

Analysis Links

2008-02-22T01:51:00.000-08:00

Logical Fallacies: The Fallacy Files
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/index.html

Guide Links

2008-02-22T01:31:00.000-08:00

Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

This online rhetoric is a guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. Sometimes it is difficult to see the forest (the big picture) of rhetoric because of the trees (the hundreds of Greek and Latin terms naming figures of speech, etc.) within rhetoric. This site is intended to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years).

RHETORIC

A fast-paced introduction to the study of rhetoric, from Aristotle to the present,
with an emphasis on argumentative strategies and on rhetorical and stylistic analyses of essays, stories, speeches, poems, advertisements, lawn ornaments, t-shirts, and other forms of discourse.

A Short Handbook on Rhetorical Analysis | by William P. Banks

"He who does not study rhetoric will be a victim of it"
found on a Greek wall from the 6th Century B.C.

Throughout the numerous texts and treatises dealing with rhetoric in the classical tradition, much space is dedicated to the theories of invention, what Aristotle would claim as the different methods for "finding all the available arguments" in a given situation. Likewise, current textbooks that seek to "rediscover" the classical rhetorical tradition …

Corax: The Crow's Nest

"Corax: The Crow's Nest" is the website of Thomas J. Kinney, graduate student in English at the University of Arizona. It is named after Corax, the ancient Greek rhetorician who is said to have invented the art of rhetoric and whose name means "the crow." For more information, see my overview of rhetoric.

Currently, I am a PhD candidate in the Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English program, where I study rhetoric, composition, literary and cultural theory, and literature.

Texts

2008-02-22T01:30:00.001-08:00

Aristotle's Rhetoric

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~honeyl/Rhetoric/

This online version of Aristotle's Rhetoric

Aristotle's Rhetoric. Notes.

Aristotle's rhetoric has had an enormous influence on the development of the art of rhetoric. Not only authors writing in the peripatetic tradition, but also the famous Roman teachers of rhetoric, such as Cicero and Quintilian, frequently used elements stemming from the Aristotelian doctrine.

BLogs

2008-02-22T01:21:00.001-08:00

The Rhetoric Garage

At the Rhetoric Garage, we put current political and cultural texts up on the lift and check them out with a variety of rhetorical tools and discourse diagnostics. And don't forget to have your ethos changed and your tropes rotated every 30,000 words!

http://rhetoricgarage.blogspot.com/2007/03/callin-out-cousin-pookie-clinton-and.html

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Unfrozen Caveman Rhetorician

Unfrozen Caveman Rhetorician blends a semi-scholarly take on rhetorical analysis with political commentary and, hopefully, a bit of humor.