Determining the Degree of Appeal to Aristotelian Rhetoric

Abstract

Here, we contribute to the extant literature by proposing and testing a model for determining a degree of appeal to Aristotelian Rhetoric. We employed content analysis as a methodology to analyse data from debate transcripts. Our core findings confirm the applicability and analytical power of the proposed model. Three ranking dimensions, low, moderate and robust appeal, were proven to systematically and comprehensively drive debate analysis. They demonstrated the underlying mechanism of Aristotelian Rhetoric in understanding the utilisation of persuasion strategy in a debate. They also demonstrated how a conclusion can be drawn on the overall appeal and intensity when the three rhetoric are collectively weighed and ranked. We therefore concluded that the validated model addresses the research gap in perfecting the traditional Aristotelian Rhetoric in the contemporary period.