Key Concepts in Rhetorical Theory

Rhetoric: The art of using language effectively and persuasively. It goes beyond mere communication, focusing on the intended effect on an audience. It encompasses all forms of discourse, not just formal speeches.
Audience: A fundamental concept in rhetoric. Understanding and adapting to the audience's needs, beliefs, and values is critical for effective persuasion. Rhetoricians consider audience as active interpreters who shape their own responses to the message.
Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Three core appeals that a rhetorician utilizes to persuade.
Ethos: Establishes credibility and trustworthiness of the speaker.
Pathos: Appeals to the emotions of the audience. Evoking empathy, fear, or joy to persuade.
Logos: Appeals to logic and reason. Using evidence, examples, and structured arguments to persuade.
Kairos: The opportune moment or timeliness of a message. A rhetorical act needs to be relevant and appropriate to the specific context and the audience's needs or concerns.
Genre: Categories of discourse (e.g., sermons, political speeches, lawsuits) that follow conventions and expectations. Recognizing the genre helps the audience and the rhetorician understand the purpose.
Exigence: The issue, problem, or situation that motivates the rhetor and prompts the speech. A critical element that links the speaker, the audience, and the message.

Key Theories in Rhetorical Theory

Aristotelian Rhetoric: A foundational theory emphasizing the use of ethos, pathos, and logos as persuasive strategies. Often focuses on the elements of a speech itself and emphasizes structure and organization in argumentation.
Dramatism: A theory focused on the symbolic actions people engage in to understand the world. It examines the motives and meanings behind communication acts, and how these acts are used to persuade.
Narrative Paradigm: Emphasizes the role of storytelling in human communication. It contends that people are essentially storytellers and often persuade through narratives rather than logic alone.
Feminist Rhetorical Theory: Examines gendered aspects of rhetoric, arguing that traditional rhetorical theories often do not adequately account for the viewpoints and experiences of women.
Critical Rhetoric: Goes beyond the analysis of a specific speech, and instead explores how power structures and social relations influence how we communicate, write, and interpret messages. It can examine issues of injustice, social inequality, or ideologies through rhetorical concepts.
Burke's Pentad: A method to analyze rhetorical situations focusing on five elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. This helps to understand the motivations, context and goals of a rhetorical act.
The Toulmin Model: A method for analyzing arguments, examining the warrants (assumptions) and backing (evidence) supporting a claim.
Decoding and encoding: Explores the communicative process, suggesting that the sender encodes the message while the receiver decodes it. Differences in decoding can lead to miscommunication, highlighting the active role of the receiver.
Intertextuality: The relationship and similarities between two or more texts. It examines how rhetorical strategies and themes are repeated and developed across different instances of communication or cultural products.
Post-modernism and Rhetoric: Modernist viewpoints of objectivity and truth are questioned, acknowledging that interpretations of rhetoric depend on the social, cultural, and personal biases of those making the interpretations.

Relationship between Concepts and Theories

Theories provide frameworks and perspectives for understanding concepts in rhetoric. For example, the Aristotelian theory highlights the importance of ethos, logos, and pathos as key rhetorical appeals.
Different theories may emphasize different aspects of rhetoric. A Dramatism approach to rhetoric may focus on symbolic action. While a Narrative Paradigm may center on the importance of narratives in persuasion.
Contemporary rhetorical theories often blend and build on earlier approaches, drawing implications from and criticizing assumptions of prior theories.
Effective use of rhetorical concepts and theories in analysis requires a deep understanding of the interplay between the audience, the context of a particular event or message, the speaker, and the message itself.