The impact of rhetorical devices in text on public displays

Abstract

Passers-by prefer video and images as content types on public displays. Despite of this preference, text has its added value for transmitting messages via public displays. In this paper, a comparative study is described that aims to uncover the quantifiable effect of using rhetorical devices in text on public displays with respect to attractiveness, which can be subdivided into attention, readability and understandability. Research shows that in general - hence not specifically for public displays - rhetorical devices increase the attractiveness of a text. This paper describes a case study that involved texts on a large public display on a square in a city center, which showed three variations of the same message: an anaphora (repetition of words at the beginning of successive sentences), a parallelism (the use of an identical structure in successive sentences) and a regular text without rhetorical devices. Although the rhetorical devices show higher percentages of viewers for the public display, the difference in attention is not significant. However, results indicate significant increase in readability on the public display for the anaphora in comparison with the regular text.