Visual rhetoric is the ”persuasive power of images that shapes our impressions and understanding of events” (Ramage, et al. 57). It is tough to guide a reader’s mind into the circumstances that we expect to with simple words, so we need to use some techniques to attract audiences’ eyes. For instance, a strong thesis statement can surprise readers easily and even change their views of our subject, so it is necessary for us to imagine how the audiences would view the subject before reading our articles.
In the story, What is Rhetoric by William Covino and David Jolliffe, there are a wide variety of topics discussed that are inextricably interwoven with the concept “rhetoric.” Rhetoric, as defined by the authors, is “the study and practice of shaping content.” Consequently, my first thought was: Ok, this is a rather broad and opaque description; my successive thought, however, was one of astonishment, inasmuch as the authors went on to further elucidated this jargon. In doing so, the authors distilled the most crucial elements of what is rhetoric— the prevalence of discourse community, and how appealing language is often a precursor to persuasion.
Writers use rhetoric to communicate their specific point of view or argument in a speech or text. A reader analyzes the writer’s use of rhetoric to evaluate the effectiveness of the given argument or point of view. In his “Interfaith Prayer Vigil Address,” President Barack Obama argues the need for more restricted gun control by using emotional appeals to compassion and paternalism, collective diction, and structure, which reflect the influence of a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Our lives are influenced by visual rhetoric on a daily basis. Rhetorical components go unnoticed unless one is intently searching for them. Companies carefully work visual rhetoric into advertisements and use it to their advantage to lure in potential consumers. The German car company, Bayerische Motoren Werke, or more commonly known as “BMW”, uses a clip from NBC’s Today Show in 1994. In the clip, the characters are discussing the newfangled idea of the internet. BMW uses nostalgia of the 1990’s as bait to attract an older audience who remember the ‘90’s and when the internet was a new invention. BMW uses the rhetorical elements of character, dialogue, and focus to sell their product.
The author’s main argument in “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making” is that rhetoric does not need to be complicated if writers incorporate certain elements to their writing. Downs further analyzed the elements that contribute to rhetoric such as symbols and signals, motivation, emotion, ecology, reasoning and identification. The author emphasized that writers can learn how to deliver their writing effectively once they are more aware on how rhetoric works. Downs constantly assures that rhetoric is quite simple and does not need to provoke fuzziness. Even though the term rhetorical is applied to everything, the author of the article made it clear that the “rhetorical” thing is situated. The example provided by the author in this article, further guides our understanding on what rhetoric
After reviewing this week’s episodes of serial, and given our topic, I found that the Rhetorical Appeals are directly linked to the court cases. These Rhetorical Appeals (Ethos, Pathos, and Logos), are used throughout both cases. From Jay’s case, it’s clear that Pathos and Ethos are two main elements supporting his defense. However in Adnan’s case, Logos was the prevalent appeal when defending his innocence.
The political cartoon displays an aerial view of a man explaining to a woman that the United States Capitol building has been working with a split down its center before the earthquake occurred. In the center of the image, Uncle Sam is hanging onto an edge with one hand as he is going to fall in the large crevice through the ground in front of the Congress building. The author exemplifies how the bias of Congress cannot understand the citizens’ interests; he attempts to describe that excessive favoritism harms Congress which makes it difficult to complete anything when neither one of the political parties agree to a compromise. The meaning of the picture is that Congress has recently been divided into two parts, and an earthquake was not the
This photograph, taken in 1967 in the heart of the Vietnam War Protests, depicts different ideologies about how problems can be solved. In the picture, which narrowly missed winning the Pulitzer Prize, a teen is seen poking carnations into the barrels of guns held by members of the US National Guard. This moment, captured by photographer Bernie Boston symbolizes the flower power movement. Flower power is a phrase that referred to the hippie notion of “make love not war”, and the idea that love and nonviolence, such as the growing of flowers, was a better way to heal the world than continued focus on capitalism and wars. The photograph can be analyzed through the elements of image as defined by ‘The Little Brown Handbook’ on page 86. There are a total of nine elements that contribute to the communicative quality of an image. The message that this particular image tries to convey is the strong sense of way that conflict should be handled; by way of guns or by way of flowers. The ‘way of guns’ is violence and excessive force which heavily contradicts the ‘way of flowers’ which is a more peaceful and diplomatic way of handling conflict or disagreement. This photograph depicts these ideologies through its use of emphasis, narration,point of view, arrangement, color, characterization, context and tension.
In the essay “Ways of Seeing” written by John Berger, Mr. Berger makes his attempt to inform an audience with an academic background that there is a subjective way that we see things all around us every day and based on our previous experiences, knowledge, and other things that occur in our lives, no two people may see or interpret something in the same way. In the essay Mr. Berger uses art as his platform to discuss that we should be careful about how people look at things. Mr. Berger uses rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos. These rhetorical strategies can really help an author of any novel, essay, or any literature to truly get the information they desire across to the audience in a clear and concise manner.
This is a compare and contrast rhetorical analysis paper focusing on a print billboard advertisement and television commercial. The billboard advertisement is centered on a smoking death count, sponsored by several heart research associations. In addition, the television Super Bowl commercial illustrates how irresistible Doritos are, set in an ultrasound room with a couple and their unborn child. The following paragraphs will go in depth to interpret the pathos, logos, and ethos of both the billboard and the television advertisements. Clark (2016) suggests that rhetoric isn’t limited to oral communication, but currently has a permanent foothold in written works: magazine or newspaper excerpts, novels, and scientific reports.
to Writing. The Basics. Visual Rhetoric. Readings. Ed. Dore Ripley. Pleasant Hill: DVC, 2013 83-89.
In that light, it is interesting to analyse what it is that made these artistic words such a difference. A difference that persuaded people to change their behavior. Thankfully, human history has created a term to define these great speeches. It is called rhetoric. In this essay we will try to determine whether rhetoric is an art, or merely a
For my assignment four visual rhetorical analysis I choose the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. My thesis is this paper will analyze the directors use of ethos, logos, pathos to reach his intended audience. Rhetorical appeals that I plan to use in my paper include ethos, logos, and pathos. I believe I have enough information for all three and that it will help me support my thesis. For ethos, I can write about how he was the vice president of the United States for 7 years and that he is a very well known politician. For logos, I can write about how he uses real events such as hurricane Katrina, different graphs, pictures, and animations, and all the different places of the world he mentions and
Rhetoric is the art of effective speaking or writing, and persuasion. Most people use rhetoric numerous of times in their everyday life without their concern or knowing.
The battle for superiority and dominance between words and images is long and on-going. Both can be found everywhere, mostly in books, magazines, television, paintings, and movies. However, in more recent years, the dominance of images over words can be seen. In a world where better, faster, and easier communication is necessary, images are a far better option than words. Mitchell Stephens in “By Means of the Visible: A Picture’s Worth,” Ward Churchill in “Crimes Against Humanity,” and the director of Within These Walls, Mike Robe, concur that images such as gestures, symbols, and pictures have a widespread and profound influence. In truth, “painting is much more eloquent than speech, and often penetrates more deeply into one’s heart” (Stephens 473). Thus, images are more powerful than words because they communicate more clearly and concisely, cater for a wider and more diverse audience, and connect with people on a deeper level.
Fried, Gregory. "True Pictures." Understanding Rhetoric. A Graphic Guide to Writing. The Basics. Visual Rhetoric. Readings. Ed. Dore Ripley. Pleasant Hill: DVC, 2013. 91-93. Print.