The goal of most speech is to persuade the audience to believe or do something. For instance, public speakers use strong and emotional language to make us believe that they are right and use a variety of techniques to grab our attention, to establish credibility and trust, to stimulate desire for the product or policy, and to motivate us to act (buy, vote, give money, etc.). Osborn and Osborn (1997) define persuasion as “the art of convincing others to give favorable attention to our point of view” (p. 415). This definition gives us two components of persuasion, namely it acknowledges the artfulness of persuasion and delineates the ends of persuasion—to convince others to think favorably of our point of view. Specifically, Persuasive …show more content…
Accordingly, there is a focus on persuading function of political discourse and the kinds of persuading strategies employed by the political leader in their speech.
2. Review of Related Theoretical and Empirical Background
Theoretical framework for the analysis is Aristotelian approach, the Greek philosopher, who divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories-Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. I will review the theoretical foundation and define the key words that make the analytic component of the research.
Persuasion
As Charteris-Black (2005) notes rhetoric is the art of persuading others, therefore rhetoric and persuasion are inseparable since any definition of rhetoric necessarily includes the idea of persuasion. The essential difference between the two is that rhetoric refers to the act of communication from the hearers’ perspective while persuasion refers both to speaker intentions and to successful outcomes. Hearers are only persuaded when the speaker’s rhetoric is …show more content…
Therefore, it puts the speakers in a position where they can more easily persuade the audience about their cause. The speaker may appear as a credible person by displaying (a) practical intelligence, (b) a virtuous character, and (c) good will, then his suggestions could not be rationally doubted. In short, ethos is “persuasion through personality and stance” (Beard, 2000); and according to Crowley and Howhee (2004) “Rhetors can construct a character that seems intelligent by demonstrating that they are well informed about issues they discuss”