Guest Blogger: Alex Skrukrud

Writers use a variety of rhetorical and persuasive devices to establish their point. Rhetorical techniques are used by authors to convey a listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective. Examples of these techniques are metaphors, ironies, and compare/contrast. In Rhetoric, speakers use Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to help persuade the audience. Ethos, which is the appeal to character, Logos, which is the logic of the argument, and Pathos, the emotional appeal, are used along with many persuasive devices to help the speaker persuade the reader/listener to see both sides of the argument. The structure that one should use for an argument is the Aristotelian triangle, which describes the interaction among subject, speaker, and audience. Writer should consider this triangle when they prepare to write. They should get their subject and then know the audience that they are writing for. That goes the same for a speaker. They should consider what the topic is they are speaking about and who the audience is that they will be telling the speech to. Along with this structure, the writer and speaker should consider the language that they should use to suite the audience. Someone giving a speech about world hunger should not talk as though they are talking to children, and someone giving a speech for elementary school students should not use sophisticated words that they will not understand. Machiavelli, in the Prince used sophisticated language and a good structure to get his point across. Most likely the point would have been different if he had written it so that toddlers could read it. He made sure that he knew his audience, a prince, and he had a clear subject to write about. Writers and speakers should consider their audience and should follow a clear subject to persuade people to their ideas, along with using rhetorical and persuasive devices.