The Art of Persuasion in Its Variety of Forms

Persuasion happens all the time and everywhere. Persuasion comes in a form of a well-prepared speech, like, selling a product or an idea; and in an act of spontaneous, intimate relationship. It also appears in a further well-developed formal speech to persuade public. “The word persuasion is not limited to this term; there are many words that indicate the purpose of persuasion.” (Cook, 2012). For instance, ‘entice’, ‘advise’, ‘urge. etc.’ Contemporary studies of linguistics indicate that persuasion goes way back, perhaps to the fourth century BC. “It was practiced in the time of Ancient Greece and other civilizations, such as Ancient Rome, and Ancient India.” (Cook, 2012) Furthermore, persuasion styles vary from time to time and it differs from a place to another according to its purposes. For example, a political speech is one way to reach out to audience. “Persuasive speech is defined as an encounter with a goal, a method with clear effectiveness on an individual or mass to foster something that they would otherwise refuse.” The term ‘paralanguage’ goes under analyzing ‘body language’; it goes way back to the Greeks era. ’Paralanguage’ means “by or beside language”. In persuasion paralanguage is to add enhance reaching to a goal. To illustrate, “a child would cry or scream seeking someone’s empathy. This too applies on adults. For instance, a suspect in a courtroom could shed a tear or lose temper; to persuade the jurors.” (Almeer, 2020). In addition, rhetoric comes in written or spoken forms. Freedom of speech is essentially connected with effectiveness of language. Scholar Vickers (1998) thinks that there is a connection to the rise of democracy in Athens and rhetoric. (Cook, 2012). The following essay discusses persuasion in its variety of forms. It highlights historical context, identity, styles, and strategies in rhetoric speech. Furthermore, it goes through evaluating the effectiveness of persuasion speech. Finally, it analyzes Obama’s speech in 2002 as Illinois State senator.

“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” (Plato). Three essential perspectives Aristotle thought to differentiate persuasion. More than 2,000 years ago philosopher Aristotle had put to his view in persuading audience into three persuasion methods: ethos, logos and pathos. These strategies depend on different characteristics. In addition, these strategies are still valid and used in today’s persuasion approaches; especially, in politics and sales promotions, such as advertisements and public relations. First, ethos, a significant character in Ethos’s strategy is that it depends on writer’s or speaker’s credibility. Moreover, an effective message will only be well received as long as the speaker is worth trusty. The background and previous deeds of the speaker are very important for the judgments of the listeners. For example, when a speaker is an old woman or man, they would make use of their wisdom by saying “In my long, long experience”. In other words, the speakers make use of their credibility, in this sense, it is their age and experience .Second, logic and reasons are the basic in building trustful bridge between a speaker and an audience. In this concept, the speaker has to present a well-constructed logical argument called logos; that is based on evidence. For instance, audience may raise questions in comparison to the intention of the speaker’s, namely, “Was it true, is it true, will it be true” (Toulmin, 2003). Moreover, logical strategy is applied in academic arguments. However, it is not limited to it and it could be seen in commercials and political attempts. Third, pathos is an emotional technique in moving people's sensations. In an effort trying to grab audience attention; speaker would use words, phrases and sentences to proceed to mass senses with words filled with feelings. For example, a speaker would present an emotional story or an event to persuade crowds. In particular, a story about 'war, illness, death' works and moves people emotions in a great way. These three techniques in their vary characteristics differ in their approaches. Thus, they are used separately or combined, and more effectively when they are all presumed together.

Rhetoric is using language productively in forms of writing and speaking. Rhetoric is necessity in persuasion and its devices distinguish in their forms and needs. These devices carry out their writer’s or speaker’s aims. To consider any of the rhetoric kinds, the occasion in itself must be considered. For instance, writing or speaking in memorial of a politician man would differ from speaking in students’ graduation ceremony. Moreover, the tone of the speaker would change the whole message that is meant be sent. In choosing a certain tone in persuasion, such as formal or informal, direct or indirect; the tone in this case is as significant as the context. In other words, in aiming to formulate the ideal speech, the spokesperson should know the audience. Therefore, the tone along with the context would be either stressed or slightly delivered. Furthermore, every aspect should be looked at, wither “the speaker would want to enforce a grand style and overwhelm an audience, or leave them with simple or plain rhetoric manner.” In addition, there are different perceptions toward rhetoric. Philosopher Cicero argues that practicing rhetoric activities is virtuous and beneficial to people. However, rhetoric should be learned through school channels. On the contemporary time, “the U.S teaches rhetoric in their educational institutions. In contrast, Plato suggests that Socrates thinks that rhetoric is a manipulative device and that he favors simple approach in persuasion.” (Cook, 2012). Moreover, a negative view is looked at when politicians fail their promises using rhetoric in grey areas. This is also call ‘propaganda’. The term is associated with being unclear with people ‘misinformation’.

There are numerous rhetoric devices that are used in all types of persuasion. Some of these devices, namely, rhetoric question, allusion, repetition, parallel, etc. They are highly used and recommended in public speaking, advertisements and public relations. Firstly, rhetoric question is addressing a question in public speech. In addition, the question is not meant to be answered neither by mass and more often nor by speaker. For example, in his speech Churchill says “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer that in one word: victory.” (Cook, 2012). Subsequently, another type of rhetoric device is allusion. “It is when mentioning a well-known figure to public, a place, a concept or an idea, cultural or historical, significant political event and literary references.” (Miele, 2017). For example, “Job teaches us about trusting a sovereign God in trials.” (Bible, 2020). Importantly, religious rhetoric allusions are very strong; especially when they are used in the right place for the right audience and by the right person. Furthermore, when a speaker uses allusion as a rhetoric device, the speaker tends to make use of ‘social identity’. In addition, the presenter would addresses to the audience saying words like “we and us.” in significant to unites the two, the speaker and the audience as ‘one’. For instance, “leaders who use mutual ‘social identity’ in their speeches through their use of ‘we’ and ‘us’ are predictable to be successful in reaching out to the public.” Thereafter, a different rhetoric tool is repetition. It is utilized to emphasize an idea by repeating a word or a phrase in a private or public speech. In particular, this tool is constantly applied in political speeches. For example, in his speech Abraham Lincoln repeated the word people “That government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Lastly, applying parallel device or ‘parallelism’ techniques in rhetorical. Parallel is using non identical words or phrases in overt sermons. For instance, “We were told to either vote online or find the nearest voting center.” In addition, words like ‘either and or, neither and nor’ are typical parallel words. It is worth mentioning that these words are followed by a verb.

Rhetorical techniques in present time are highly utilized in advertising. Nevertheless, “the emotional methods are extremely enforced in marketing to convey and convince costumers. The repetitive style in advertising is also called wholesale repetition.” (Cook, 2012). For example, “Here is your place, here is your meal, here is your satisfaction.” The richness of repetitive and emotional phrases could be seen as a replacement of the rational approach (logos). On the other hand, outreach department is one of the faces of public relation. “Its job is to improve the image of the organization; inside its environment and outside with clients.”To illustrate, an annual staff dinner would be thrown to enhance relationships between management and employees. On the other side, public relation department extends their relation by association with consumers through emails, phone calls and surveys. Additionally, Moloney (2000) states that public relation has include both faces to the coin “positive and negative.” (Fawkes, 2007). Moreover, a comparison between personal persuasion and public argument is done by Erftmier and Dyson (1986) that it stated that formal persuasion is well-prepared with carefully chosen words. In contrast, intimate approach would be spontaneously done by a child. Furthermore, in evaluating persuasion, Haliday thinks that human beings ability to using language is a magnificent feature to socialize and persuade their requirements. A good or bad persuasion depends on abundance of evidence and reasons. In his comparison to inquiring emotional approach that it normally seeks individual’s interest. Halliday raises questions in the ‘argumentation theory’ asking: “What was the intention behind this? Are there enough evidence used here? Will it reach to the purpose?” Halliday considers criteria and type of language in the argument. Furthermore, types of language like formal and informal. While the specific fields, such as medicine or law. Finally, he thinks that ‘cultural differences’ determines the success of debate “A speech in Japan could be interpreted differently somewhere else.” (Cook, 2020).

The 44th U.S president Barack Obama presented a sermon when he was the senator of Illinois State on anti-war in Oct, 2002. The congress had not vote for war in Iraq yet. In analyzing Obama’s speech in further details; he starts with addressing the main issue that “he is not against all kind of wars.” Firstly, Obama speaks in the first person narrator right from the beginning “I stand before you”. He connects with his listeners and indicates to being honest, standing face to face, and in a direct confrontation with them. Secondly, Obama uses prepetition device many times. For instance, he repeats the phrase “I do not oppose” three times in this transcript. In addition, he then affirms in renewing the repetition by saying “I am opposed”; it is repeated five times. This emphasizes the message he wants to deliver. Third, on using a personal experience, Obama mentions his grandfather. The context behind using “ethos” is to hint to someone who participated in a national calling; a call for duty. Furthermore, Obama is proud here saying that he comes from a family that was part of protecting America. Moreover, in an emotional attempt (pathos), Obama reminds his people of Pearl Harbor. A quite important historical incident is carrying its significant emotional traces to the modern day. Furthermore, Obama moves to recall the consequences to that war by voicing out load the word “bomb”. Such intense word in its context leaves its impact on listeners with a feeling of a threat of what happened in the past, what could happen in the present and in the future. Additionally, Obama goes further using allusion technique by evoking a strong army figure like “Patton's army.” this allusion magnifies the influence of such ‘hero’. “George S. Patton fought the Nazis during WWII.” Asides from the reference to a ‘war hero’, the incident in itself is superior. Likewise, the word ‘enemies’ its impact is powerful on Americans. In mixing between rhetoric styles and strategies of pathos and ethos, Obama well castes down his people; filling his lexical with emotions and references.

In gathering between emotional and rational approach; Obama refers again to his grandfather saying “He fought in the name of a larger freedom.” In other words, that fight was everybody’s aim; it was for a bigger goal and ahead of its time. Thence, you people are privileged today. Although, Obama does not state this directly, he links the power in that army to the modern democratic America. Further, he recalls on the outcome of that ‘fight’ by glorifying the victory they gain from that war against their enemy. Additionally, “I am opposed.” is used several times. This shows the repetitive device Obama is using. It also utilizes “The rule of three; to ensure the message is memorable”. (Cook, 2012). Moreover, Obama goes on in explaining why he is opposing war. “Weekend warriors.” he refers to temporary warriors that do not last for long time. They only do it for the sake of their own interests. These personal agendas lead to killing people from their throats, though he uses “Our” in this sentence and does not say the word killing or chocking. But the meaning is well transmitted. Thereafter, he directs a rational reason in his slightly grand tone. He directly addresses issues like insurance or prosperity life. “Poverty is spread among many, even those who managed to have jobs.” In addition, he points out that Americans are being ‘distracted’ by their enemy. He continues his repetition manner and draws a straight forward problem with reason to his point ‘The Stock Market.’. Author Shehu thinks that “Poverty, money and financial issues are often used by public speakers; especially in politics.” In an attempt to exaggerate in his speech; he throws phrases like “The Great Depression.” Obama reminds the listeners of such sensitive era. Moreover, “Dumb was rush war.” using striking words like these; is to emphasis on his point of view in a logical way. Finally, he goes back to what he rejects as “dump war” by advises his attendees to use their minds in rational thinking and leave their emotions a side.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the art of persuasion has a long history. Rhetoric devices and its language have a great force in pursuing a desired end. Persuasion has different views and theories. In analyzing Obama’s speech, he offers several rhetoric styles. He approaches it in intellectual, emotional and across the benevolent renown. Finally, the president applies different devices, such as repetition, good reputation and alluding to a significant historical event in a grand speech.