M. Jimmie Killingsworth's Appeals in Modern Rhetoric Ch. 6-10

Appeals to the body: since everyone has a body and is affected by similar issues associated with the body such as hunger and sex drive, advertisers frequently target body-focused messages in order to reach the maximum amount of potential customers.  In a similar manner, rhetoricians can use the same technique to guide others into adopting a new point of view.  For example, an author or speaker can describe nature or politics in terms of a human body with head, hands, stomach, etc.  In addition, bodies can also be dehumanized when it comes to enemies or emphasized when it comes to physical disabilities.  And finally, with the rise of technology, the lines between body and technology blur even further with each technological advancement.

Appeals to gender: careful attention should be made when stereotyping gender as well as sexuality.  In addition, rhetoricians should be conscious of the power dynamic such as differences in political power between the sexes.  Also, the rhetorician should beware that the line between exploitation and empowerment can be blurred and that both phenomena can even occur simultaneously.  And finally, authors should never identify one gender in terms of the opposite gender.

Appeals to race: rhetoricians should beware of “othering” people of other races or backgrounds.  This phenomenon is related to dehumanizing or demonizing, and it favors one group of people over another.  Professors should also remember that becoming a successful academic does not necessarily mean that the student should shed their familial, communal, or cultural background.  It is important that all races have an equal opportunity to learn, and an important factor between the powerful and the powerless is education. 

Appeals through tropes: rhetoricians can make appeals through tropes such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.  Basically, the four tropes can be broken down into the following categories: identity, association, representation, and reversal of expectations respectively.  An interesting book to check out would be George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By which details how the human experience is founded on our ability to create and understand metaphors.  

The appeal of narrative: narratives can take the form of illustrations, examples, and anecdotes; they are in contrast to data or statistical forms of evidence.  Whereas data-based evidence is usually the pre-dominant form of evidence in specialized fields, the narrative structure is the pre-dominant form to communicate concepts to those outside the field.  This is because people outside of the Discourse community may not be familiar with the history, logic, or technical jargon of the specialized field.  Thus, narratives require storytellers to have a sense of audience awareness to judge what each audience needs to hear.  Storytelling has three purposes: to build a community, reinforce values, and to teach life lessons.  Narratives are also more democratic than data because everyone can listen to a story and anyone can be a storyteller.  If someone has experienced a unique situation or been a part of a unique community, then that person has the authority to tell a story on that subject; that person can instruct others and allow others to change their perspectives through vicarious experience.  Thus, narratives should show rather than tell.

Commentary: personally, I have a fascination with the narrative form.  As a kid, I would always look forward to the telling of a good bed-time story.  In reference to the chapter on appeals to the body, there are channels that cater to specific groups.  For instance, SpikeTV for men, ESPN for sports fans, Oxygen for women, and Speed for racing fans are all channels that cater to a specific demographic.  I notice that the more specific the audience, the more data is used.  For example, a World Series of Poker broadcast would have multiple statistics on the screen simultaneously.  Football analysis on ESPN usually includes multiple sets of data such as completion percentage, passer rating, total yards, etc.  On the other hand, the same story meant for a wider audience such as a nightly newscast would leave out most of the statistics and focus on the narrative such as “team X rallied from behind in order to overcome team Y in the final quarter.”  Even on SpikeTV where their most famous shows are Cops and 1001 Ways to Die, both shows deliver a narrative followed by a set of data.  In Cops, after the narrative of the police arresting the perpetrator, the police officer explains the law broken and the punishment for the offender; in 1001 Ways to Die, after the narrative of how a person died, the show’s narrator explains the science behind each death.  On the other hand, the most frequent use of data-based evidence on a newscast comes from surveys and eye-witness accounts, lesser reliable forms of data.  Thus, the more specific the audience, the more data should be incorporated into the message.  This is an important lesson for rhetoricians and falls under the umbrella of audience awareness: general population should focus on narratives while specific groups should focus on data.  However, this contrasts with the techniques in Killingsworth’s final chapter where he claims that narrative works better for an audience of adolescents than data.  In addition, the specific audience of the ancient tribesmen would favor more of a narrative structure than a data-driven one.  So, even though the audience may be specific, the rhetorician should use his or her best judgment to determine whether to focus on narrative or data-based arguments.