Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rhetoric

Rhetorical Theory texts for Undergrads?

BlooPen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:36:36 -0800

What textbooks and/or texts would you recommend for an undergraduate Rhetorical Theory class? I’ll be teaching Rhetorical Theory for the first time next semester and have been struggling to find a textbook or some combination of textbooks for the course. Alternatively, I can choose articles and selections from primary texts to post online, so suggestions for articles and key primary texts are also helpful. The students are mostly junior English majors focusing their studies on Lit or Creative Writing, and this will be their first exposure to rhetorical theory.

This question has given me a good head start, but I'm hoping to find things that are compelling for undergraduates without overwhelming them.

Not a rhetorical question

Pants! — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:05:41 -0800

What are the best books to read to learn how to use rhetoric effectively?

Do you know of songs whose lyrics came from a speech?

Kattullus — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:58:05 -0800

Do you know of songs whose lyrics came from a speech? Having been transfixed by Michael Gregory's versions of Winston Churchill's Great Declaration and Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream I am looking for speeches that have been set to music or been turned into song.

Here is what I'm not looking for. Speeches set to music, but not turned into song. Examples of that would be Baz Luhrman's Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) or Primal Scream's Loaded. I am also not looking for examples of scripture set to music, poems, plays, bits of novels or anything else. I'm just looking for examples of speeches, rhetoric, that have been turned into songs.

It doesn't have to be the whole speech, it could just be short passage. To give a couple of made-up example: Joe Q. Imaginary chops up the bit about the puppy from the Checkers speech into a 2 minute blues number that he sings himself. Jane Q. Notreal speed-sings the entirety of Susan B. Anthony's speech about being convicted of voting for president to a prog-rock backing.

Stuff like that. Does it exist?

Help me with poetic devices....

griffey — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:13:12 -0800

In "Thunder Road", the lyric "Roy Orbison singing for the lonely, hey that's me and I want you only, don't turn me home again, I just can't face myself alone again" can be interpreted differently depending on where you break the line, before or after the word "only". Is there a name for this particular poetic device? Do you know of other examples? There are other examples of this in songs, of course...the first that I remember is from Counting Crows, Round Here:

"Maria says she's dying, through the door I hear her crying, why I don't know"

You can parse the lyric such that Maria is crying, OR that Maria is crying "Why", with the rejoinder "I don't know" answering her...which is very different from the alternative.

There's a ton more examples that I don't know, I'm sure. I suppose it's easier to hear this in song than to see it in printed word, since you can choose to hear the grammar either way. Printed forces its grammar on you. But I find examples like these fascinating! Is this a named poetic device?

Science of Listener Attention

chrisalbon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:31:12 -0800

Is the Science of Listener Attention a real thing? If not, is there anything similar I can learn? On an episode of the West Wing, Toby said this:

"You want the benefits of free trade? Food is cheaper. Food is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, steel is cheaper, cars are cheaper, phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's 'cause I'm a speechwriter and I know how to make a point. It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with "lowers" and "raises" there? It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. And that's it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest! One world, one peace. I'm sure I've seen that on a sign somewhere."

Is their such a thing as the science of listener attention? Where can I learn it? If not, is there anything similar I can learn to improve my presentations?

dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit

tim_in_oz — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:45:34 -0800

Historyfilter: Marcus Tullius Cicero is often cited as being one of the greatest orators, lawyers and public speakers of Roman and indeed Western history. Why? For bonus points, which of his many works show his rhetorical talents at their finest? And for eternal gratitude, is there any application for classical rhetoric in the modern courtroom?

Name that rhetorical device!

moxiedoll — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:56:11 -0800

Linguists and debaters! Does this type of argument have a name? There's a particular type of argumentation that I come across all the time, and I wonder whether there's a term for it. Here's an example:

Here in Country X, we have a policy of sending our boys to school while our girls stay home and clean house. Detractors of the policy, who arrogantly and snobbishly believe that scholars are better than those who clean homes, reveal their sexism by devaluing the work traditionally performed by women in our country.

Obviously this particular example is appealing to the idea of complimentary gender roles, but I've seen this form of rhetorical judo used by apologists for other forms of inequality as well. It's basically - by stating that X is disadvantaged, you are disadvantaging X.

Do you recognize this tactic? Do you know what it's called?

Have you ever thrown a book across a room?

cgc373 — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:08:02 -0800

Have any of you ever thrown a book across a room? I read a lot, and for a long time—say, twenty years, from six to twenty-six—I read a lot of crap. Media tie-ins, trashy fantasy series, Mack Bolan books, my mom's romance novels, crappy westerns that came mixed with the romance novels when my mom bought in bulk, whatever was around. Even after I got religion in the form of John Gardner and Annie Dillard (and moreso after I read An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis), I never threw a book, or even set one down with violence. Once I learned to recognize different types of quality and to discriminate, choosing stuff I believe is better, I developed contempt and disdain for stuff I think is worse, but not so much that I'd toss a book.

Is it just a rhetorical device, akin to telling people they owe you a new keyboard/monitor/whatever?

Why, yes, I am reading the Twilight thread. Why do you ask?

What current rhet/comp issues are you into?

hpliferaft — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:04:45 -0800

Describe some current issues in English Rhetoric and/or Composition that are interesting to you. I'm a part-time composition instructor who's been out of grad school for a few years. I'm looking for research ideas with some currency in the field.

Also, an overlapping question: what noteworthy works have you read or written about the rhetoric or composition of new media lately?

What is this sort of joke called?

coizero — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:06:12 -0800

Is there a name for this style of joking? Set-up: Person A asks a question. Punchline: Person B -- by pretending to misunderstand the question -- gives an unexpected response. The Marx Bros used this style a lot, and I see it over and over on "Flight of the Conchords. " ALSO: Can anyone offer further examples of this? Thank you so much! :-)

Can You Name That Fallacy?

saulgoodman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:14:08 -0800

Is there already a precise term for the rhetorical fallacy/trick described in the following scenario: Guy A and B are arguing. Guy A makes an assertion. Guy B counters the assertion with an argument of his own. Guy A ignores the specifics of Guy B’s argument, and asserts that Guy B’s argument does not genuinely reflect Guy B’s position (i.e., Guy A says that there are certain unstated ‘real’ reasons Guy B holds the particular position he’s arguing for, and Guy A then goes on to expound on those real reasons to Guy B on his behalf). Another common variation on this rhetorical sleight-of-hand has Guy A insisting that Guy B’s ‘real’ reasons for holding a particular position are ‘unconscious,’ and so, aren’t properly understood even by Guy B himself, although Guy A at the same time somehow possesses the ability to unpack the contents of Guy B’s ‘unconscious mind’ with laser-like clarity, all without being susceptible to any undue ‘unconscious’ influence of his own.

This seems to be a variation on the straw-man fallacy, but with an especially nasty edge, so I’m wondering if it’s already got a name, or if not, if it should.

I don't do ad hominem attacks, unlike you.

suedehead — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:16:17 -0800

What's the word for saying something without saying it? Ahh! This is deluding me, and I can't use Google to find out!
There's a word, I believe starting with 'a' and vaguely sounding like 'apotheosis' that means a debate/oratorial technique to mention something without proclaiming not to mention it. Here's an example in action:

(while in debate) "I think X candidate is bad, and I want to talk about the bad foreign policy issues X has instead of debating the fact that X secretly has chronic explosive diarrhea."

Do you know anything like this? Anything similar to this? Thanks!

Political issues that have been rhetorically flipped around?

lunchbox — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:48:46 -0800

What are some instances of a political issue whose public perception has been almost paradoxically inverted through political discourse? I'm looking for examples of political issues where the advocates of one side of the issue have won by using the other side's main argument (especially in a seemingly paradoxical way).

The best way to illustrate this is through examples:

-"Support our troops" has become a tagline for keeping soldiers in harm's way.
-Spying, infringement on civil liberties to "protect our liberty"
-We should cut taxes because working-class families need their entire paychecks.

See what I'm getting at? I came up with a bunch of examples about conservatives, but I'm curious to hear if liberals have done this successfully too.

Disclaimer: The examples I posted do not necessarily reflect my personal opinion.

Pretty harsh words

LobsterMitten — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:45:25 -0800

Seeking a word: Is there a term other than "euphemism" for couching an insult in fancy-sounding words, so your insult sounds less harsh to the inattentive ear? A student of mine is confused about what "euphemisms" are. The example we're looking at is "Mr. Jones is a notorious zealot". To my student, those words are unfamiliar, so he feels like they are cloaking the speaker's true insult in $10 words. Now, "notorious zealot" isn't a euphemism. In fact it's a harsh thing to say. But is there a word for what my student is getting at -- dressing up one's insults?

Yes, I've read Plato already

StrikeTheViol — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:03:50 -0800

Help me find debates with a clear winner. I'm looking for written or spoken debates or arguments, regardless of particulars, where someone prevailed through sheer strength of argument and debating competence, and even supporters of opposing viewpoints would concede one side "won that one". I'm not looking for a "professor versus four-year-old" mismatch, but something where argumentative skill was clearly on display.

What is the Latin name of this rhetorical device?

whir — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:18:20 -0800

What is the formal Latin name of this rhetorical device? I've been wracking my brain trying to remember the name of a rhetorical device in which you bring up a subject under the guise of dismissing it. For instance, "of course, we won't mention my opponent's well-publicized drinking problems, as they have no relevance to this debate."

I'm quite certain there is a Latin name for this particular device, but I can't remember it and my Google-fu is failing me. I believe it is usually classified as a form of ad hominem fallacy, but I can't seem to dig it up.

Not just a rhetorical question

parmanparman — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:16:00 -0800

Where do I find a ranking of graduate programs in communications arts and sciences in the United States? I am looking at the possibility of doing a graduate degree in communication focusing on rhetoric, but not necessarily so. Regardless, I have found list of graduate programs but I can't find a current ranking of good and bad programs.

Greatest living orators?

shivohum — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 09:43:07 -0800

When I look at the amazingly eloquent, sophisticated speeches of the past (think those of Milton, Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, and many more), I wonder: who are the towering orators of our generation -- the combined profound thinkers, moving speakers, and verbal artists of exquisite capacity?

"idea obfuscation?"

oigocosas — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:42:13 -0800

i think there is a term--rhetorical or otherwise-- for the way "conspiracy theory" can serve to cloud the environment of ideas thereby rendering politically unpopular notions inert regardless of their veracity. anybody know what im struggling to effin describe and label?

Guides to Rhetoric

New Frontier — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 10:16:03 -0800

Can anyone recommend any good books on rhetorical devices? I'm interested in works that classify the different types of rhetorical devices, and provide examples of their use.

What restrictions exist an emotional appeals in a court of law?

Embryo — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 18:12:26 -0800

How far can attorneys go in appealing to a jury's emotions? Is there any restriction, formal or informal, on the use of such tactics? What precedent is there for their excessive use? Watching coverage of the Moussaoui trial, it's been shocking to see how far the government prosecutors have been willing to go in appealing to the jury's emotions. According to the BBC, prosecutors have presented to the jury a cockpit tape from United 93, photographs of burned bodies from the wreckage of the pentagon, a recording of a man's final phone call made in his WTC office
(complete with "synchronized video" of the towers collapsing"), and testimony of former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani about what he witnessed during the day of the attacks. (Did I miss anything?) None of these things are directly related to actions that he took, even by his bizarre confessions.

Is this just the government giving in and joining Moussaoui in making a mockery of this insane spectacle, or are they just going death penalty For The Win? But more importantly, can this really happen? I haven't seen any commentary on this at all, either. It just seems ridiculous to me that this kind of manipulation could be allowed to occur in a trial that would then continue to a verdict and its enforcement. But, maybe it's commonplace. Drop some science.

MP3: Excellent Attorneys

prettyboyfloyd — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 10:25:50 -0800

Anyone know where I can find MP3s of succesful oral arguments of skilled attorneys? Okay, so I should ask a law librarian, but y'all are just so handy! I already know of, and am exploring Oyez and American Rhetoric.

Generic Terminalogy eg Hoover / Kleenex

goatdog — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:46:25 -0800

Kleenex = any facial tissue. Xerox = any copy machine. "There are thousands of Milky Ways out there."

What's the word for using the name of a specific thing to refer to all things in its class? It's metonymy, right, but is it synecdoche? Is it antonomasia? Help!