Rhetorical Efforts Research Articles

Philip Sidney's 'An Apology for Poetry': A Scholarly Analysis

In this article, an attempt was made to present a scholarly analysis of “An Apology for poetry” written by Philip Sidney. Sidney in his work expressed critical guidelines to create understanding about the poetry among readers. According to him, poetry is a particular form of communication, particularly when addressing complex relationships that require additional rhetorical effort, such as persuasion and art. He subdivided the creative poetry to make a clear sense to his readers and made strong arguments about the creative nature of imitative poetry. Poetry is noble to all sciences and it comes from the poet’s heart and ideas of imagination. He defended the accusations against poetry and established the environment of understanding about poetry’s importance and excellence for his readers for the sake of the audience’s stronger development in understanding and deep effective learning.

Is Donald Trump a Modern-Day Catiline?

Could the story of a failed Roman politician who organized a plot to seize the Roman republic in 63 BCE be a metaphor for Donald Trump’s political persona—his initial presidential run against the establishment, his rhetorical effort to overthrow the status quo and the natural order of things in national politics, the love affair Trump has always had with the struggling working-class voters (with the “forgotten” Americans), his constant testing the constitutional limits of our republican system of government? Could both figures be symptoms of times when a republic is in crisis and reminders of the perils that political divisiveness and civil disunion bring to a democracy?

Adam Smith on Education as a Means to Political Judgment

Even the most zealous interpreters of Adam Smith as an advocate of free markets and commercial progress have long acknowledged his support for public education. Yet the comparatively little scholarship on Smith’s educational theory never fully articulates his defense of public education, often framing it as a corrective to economic and moral problems generated by the market while ignoring its political importance. We argue here that Smith saw public education as much more than anesthesia to treat the wounds inflicted by the market. For Smith, compulsory public education not only promotes distributive justice, develops moral judgment, and cultivates good citizenship—it is vital for securing all three. A compulsory education affords citizens the opportunity to sympathize with others and be objects of sympathy while teaching them how to be skeptical of the rhetorical efforts of others. As such, this paper argues that Smith’s major works offer a potent defense of public education as a precondition for political judgment rather than a mere program “needed to offset the social costs of the division of labor.”

Film in the Composition Classroom

AbstractInstructors of writing-intensive disciplines infrequently integrate cinematic media in composition curricula. Furthermore, when instructors use films in composition courses, they often treat films merely as supplemental texts tangentially relevant to course topics and prioritize teaching content rather than media or filmmaking. This pedagogical approach overlooks an opportunity to ask students to consider how the audiovisual rhetorical efforts can meaningfully harmonize or create dissonance with the content. In this research study, the author argues that students are active media consumers engaging frequently with media as a form of composition. He navigates the limitations of Gregory Ulmer and Lev Manovitch, whose early work stressing the primacy of media literacies in composition classrooms is nonetheless seminal to the author's larger claims of film's educational import. The author relates the results of the IRB-approved research of his composition students, who offer feedback about the use of film in the class. The author calls for greater attention to film instruction and curricula development for collegiate composition classrooms, urging educators to move beyond film's supplemental use and toward more educationally fruitful practices, including teaching active watching and basic film analysis. Film is a critical form of cultural communication and media, and the author contends that it is a pivotal part of the landscape of twenty-first century literacy engagements.

The Ordinariness of Code-meshing in the Indonesian Linguistic Landscapes

Code-meshing as a strategic linguistic practice has been considered a rarity in a high-stake writing practice (e.g. academic writing). Studies in composition scholarship have demonstrated that such a practice needs arduous intellectual endeavors and extra rhetorical efforts to be realized. That is, code-meshing requires an exceptionally high linguistic adeptness, language awareness, and rhetorical sensitivity in order to be performed effectively. As such, the products of code-meshing in scholarly writing are often seen as a marked form of textual realization. This article shows that while strenuous struggles are needed to practice code-meshing in academic writing (i.e. high-stake translingual practice), such a practice can be performed as mundane, ordinary, unremarkable, and relaxed activities (i.e. low-stake translingual practice) in linguistic landscapes or signage displayed in public places. Illustrations of the code-meshed texts in the latter case will be provided, and then examined to account for their ordinariness. In light of the vibrant low-stake translingual practice, I shall develop an important notion of grassroots performativity to suggest the everydayness of quotidian language practices enacted by multilingual language users in their own community.

Exploring Generic Features in China-Africa Corporate Advertising: A Critical Genre Analysis

Abstract China-Africa corporate advertising is emerging as an example of the corporate advertising genre in response to the specific rhetorical context of China-Africa win-win cooperation. Drawing on Bhatia’s Critical Genre Analysis (2017), this study explores the text-internal and text-external generic features of China-Africa corporate advertising by analyzing 50 collected samples. The analysis of text-internal prominence shows that China-Africa corporate advertising is unique in its frequent use of win-win-oriented and sector-dependent technical lexicons to indicate the promotional intent. It is also found that move structures vary across different sub-types of China-Africa corporate advertising. Text-externally, the findings reveal a mixture of different discourses within the discursive space of China-Africa corporate advertising. In addition, the results suggest that Chinese companies invest more rhetorical efforts in enhancing the China-Africa community than African counterparts who tend to perceive China-Africa cooperation as the main avenue to attract worldwide partnerships. The findings have some practical implications for discourse construction in the Belt and Road Initiative context and shed light on the evolving nature of advertising discourse, particularly in the China-Africa win-win business context.

Energy Islands: Metaphors of Power, Extractivism, and Justice in Puerto Rico

Energy Islands: Metaphors of Power, Extractivism, and Justice in Puerto Rico

The Normal Heart and “sickly” body: The case of Matthew Bomer’s extreme weight loss

ABSTRACT Actors often lose or gain weight to satisfy specific esthetics for their roles. When Matt Bomer reportedly lost forty pounds for The Normal Heart, public discourse went well beyond the typical explanation for the weight loss. That discourse explained Bomer’s body transformation as a part of his sacrificial duty to the gay community. Rhetors positioned Bomer’s weight loss as a sacrifice to educate, envision, and justify a united gay community that would continue to act to address the many challenges the community continued to face. Yet, the case of Bomer’s extreme weight loss also serves as a cautionary tale about how exclusionary norms, including whiteness, ageism, and ableism, circulate within rhetorical efforts to build and sustain community. The essay provides insights into the relationships among bodies, public memory, commemoration, and community.

Paul’s Rhetorical Efforts to Establish Good Will in First Thessalonians

Ancient oratory ordinarily begins with an effort of captatio benevolentiae – the rhetorical strategy of praising and lauding the audience to make them well-disposed toward the speaker, attentive and receptive to your message – especially before controversial claims or challenging demands. In First Thessalonians, such efforts are manifest not only in the introduction in ch. 1, but throughout the narration in chs. 2–3, which implies that the senders are preparing for a particularly sensitive topic. The first exhortation to appear after these efforts cease, the exhortation to sexual holiness in 1 Thess. 4.3-8, must therefore represent the primary purpose of the letter. The euphemistic language used in this request makes it difficult to understand what kind of πορνεία (‘sexual immorality’) Paul, Silvanus and Timothy are arguing against, but the most likely interpretation is that they want the Thessalonian Christians to stop using their slaves and former slaves for sexual purposes.

Rhetoric of Anaphora and Anastrophe in Tafseer Al Bahar Al Muheet (Surah Al e Imran – a model)

Abstract:
 The topic of Anaphora and Anastrophe is one of the most important rhetorical topics that reveal some aspects of the rhetorical miracle in the Holy Qur’an. So the choice came to this topic under the title: The Rhetoric of Anaphora and Anastrophe in Tafseer Al Bahar Al Muheet (Surah Al e Imran – a model). The importance of this topic is due to the study of the Qur’anic verses’s meanings according to the position of the words, and the study of the interpretation of “ Al Bahar Al Moheet ” by Abu Hayyan, which includes rhetorical efforts.
 This research aims to highlight the efforts of Abu Hayyan in revealing the topic of Anaphora and Anastrophe in Surah Al Imran, and to explain what Abu Hayyan shared with other scholars, and what he added in this field, and comparison between the opinions of Abu Hayyan and the opinions of those who preceded him and spoke in this knowledge and, those who followed him. This research depends on the descriptive analytical method. It includes the introduction, definition and concept of Anaphora and Anastrophe among the rhetoricians, applied study of Surat Al-Imran, conclusion with the required results and sources and references.

Are we there yet? Principles in advancing equity though global public health research.

Canadian engagement in global and public health includes a long history of centering issues of equity in practice, policy, and research. In 2015, through a series of deliberative dialogues about what ethical standards should guide how people engage in global health research, the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR) released a set of six equity-centred principles and critically reflective questions. These principles offered a platform for identifying equity implications and choices about theories, methods, approaches, partnerships, or practices in global and public health. In 2022, as questions of how to unsettle systems of power and move beyond rhetorical efforts to advance equity action continue to grow, Canada's global public health research community is turning a critically reflexive gaze at our own practices and ways of working, recognizing excellence as necessarily integrating equity in research pursuits, processes, and outcomes. In this commentary, we reflect on the contexts that led to the evolution of the CCGHR Principles for Global Health Research and highlight their current reach and impact, including their integration in the Canadian Institutes Framework for Action on Global Health Research. We invite others to embrace a lifelong commitment to equity work as an act of solidarity and investment in our collective futures.

Legitimating the Belt and Road Initiative: evidence from Chinese official rhetoric

This article examines how China sought to externally legitimate the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by means of official rhetoric. The BRI is a notable Chinese policy initiative with a focus on infrastructure provision. It has been gaining traction worldwide but is simultaneously dogged by controversies and contested by a widening array of actors. Departing from the predominant focus on the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the BRI and China, this research focuses on an important yet under-explored aspect: sustained and highly coordinated rhetorical efforts on the part of China with a view to asserting legitimacy for the BRI. Leveraging an analytical framework with fine-grained distinctions between legitimacy types and sources, the study conducted a fully integrated content analysis of 644 Chinese official texts on the BRI. It first identified inductively the set of recurrent legitimacy claims articulated by Chinese officials. A subsequent quantitative analysis showcased how different legitimacy claims featured in the official rhetoric and evolved over time. The findings have practical relevance for China’s external communications on the BRI and foreign actors’ (counter-)narratives and policy responses to the Chinese initiative.

Al-Alusi and his rhetorical efforts in Surat Hud and Yusuf

Al-Alusi and his rhetorical efforts in Surat Hud and Yusuf

Melodrama, William Barr, and the imperial presidency

ABSTRACT This essay argues that study of William Barr’s melodramatic imagination best illuminates his rhetorical effort to craft an imperial presidency for the conservative movement. In three speeches given between October 2019 and February 2020, the then-Attorney General blended traditional conservative ideas and strategies with Trumpian hyperbole and conspiracy. By exploiting the discursive resources of the melodramatic mode, Barr sacralized the founding, polarized good and evil, and engorged the executive. The social order and imperial presidency Barr’s discourse created undermined the liberal democratic norms he claimed to defend.

“Never Say Never?” Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Lesbian Women’s Accounts of Being Childfree

Feminist scholars have identified a “motherhood imperative” in Western cultures, when heterosexual women are understood to both want and to have children. However, social shifts have resulted in a decrease in pronatalism as well as an increase in social recognition of the parenting desires of same-sex parents. Despite a resurgence of interest in childfree identities, research to date has predominantly focused on heterosexual women’s explanations for being childfree and their experiences of marginalization. Our aim in the current study was to explore how childfree heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, and queer women negotiate their childfree lives and identities in the context of their personal and social relationships within changing cultural contexts. Data from 23 interviews with women in the United Kingdom, who responded to a call for childfree participants, were thematically analyzed. We constructed two themes: (1) Never say never? Negotiating being childfree as ever precarious, which shows how women constructed being childfree as requiring constant revisiting and renegotiating to maintain and (2) An ordinary life: Constructing being childfree as rational and reasonable, in which we identify the rhetorical efforts of participants to establish their being childfree as an ordinary, reasonable, and rational position. We conclude that for these women, childfreedom was constantly in flux and that maintaining a positive childfree identity required considerable identity work in order to manage intimate personal relationships and wider friendships. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/pwq/suppl/index

Rhetorical Legitimation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Evidence from Chinese State Media

ABSTRACTThis research examines throughout the rhetorical efforts of Chinese state media to externally legitimate the AIIB. To that end, it builds an analytical framework of legitimacy comprising four general dimensions—external, institutional, procedural and performance, each of which is substantiated by legitimacy claims specific to the AIIB. Empirically, the article is based on an in-depth content analysis of 730 AIIB-centric articles collected from four state media. The study finds the following: (1) Chinese state media grounded the AIIB’s justificatory rhetoric primarily on institutional legitimacy and external recognition, and more specifically, the bank’s utility, complementarity, and growing membership/support; (2) Chinese state media intensified rhetorical efforts following the UK’s announcement to join and increasing international attention on the new bank. The framework built and conclusions drawn herein can shed some light on China’s rhetorical legitimation of its emerging institution-building behavior.

“Thank a Veteran”: The Elevation and Instrumentation of U.S. Military Veterans

The adjustment and reintegration of military veterans following deployment has proven challenging since the wartime founding of the United States. Those challenges differ in their nature and intensity depending on social role. Veterans, family, support networks, and members of social institutions and society at large have very different experiences of, and perspectives on, deployment and its aftermath. This paper presents reasons the perspectives of veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom are frequently unvoiced or unheard as they reintegrate following deployment. These muted voices permit others to consolidate and condense veterans’ perspectives and interests on their behalf. Buber’s I-it relationship serves as a framework for exploring this process of discursively rendering veterans as non-agentive political objects, as when recent opponents of Syrian immigration invoked neglect of veterans’ resources to argue against providing assistance to refugees. The paper concludes with recommendations to counter the monologic nature of these rhetorical efforts and to enhance dialog with veterans.

The Art of Feeling in Seventeenth-Century English Sermons

ABSTRACTThis article suggests that the early modern English sermon teaches an art of feeling through rhetorical efforts to arouse emotion. Since “natural” emotions were understood to be contaminated by original sin, preachers saw it as important that their sermons teach their audiences how to feel godly emotions, emotions that the preacher himself was supposed to feel as he preached. The sermon genre, therefore, offers a mimetic theory of the emotions to its hearers and readers, a theory that we can understand more fully through the concept of intersubjectivity. By reading or hearing a sermon, individuals could understand themselves as constituted within a faithful and feeling community of Christian believers, and selfhood itself as defined by the process of relating one’s inside views and emotions to outward experiences and teaching.

Online Antagonism of the Alt-Right in the 2016 Election

Buoyed by the populist campaign of Donald Trump, the “alt-right,” a loose political movement based around right-wing ideologies, emerged as an unexpected and highly contentious actor during the election cycle. The alt-right promoted controversy through provocative online actions that drew a considerable amount of media attention. This article focuses on the role of the “alt-right” in the 2016 election by examining its visual and rhetorical efforts to engage the political mainstream in relation to the campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In particular, the alt-right’s unique style and internal jargon created notable confusion and also attracted interest by the media, while its promotional tactics included the use of social media and Internet memes, through which the movement came to epitomize online antagonism in the 2016 election.

Empowering the Party-Crasher: Donald J. Trump, the First 2016 GOP Presidential Debate, and the Twitter Marketplace for Political Campaigns

This article argues that an important political marketplace of keywords expands in social media around campaign events such as a debate; that rhetorical efforts to define the situation in which a campaign event occurs are met in this marketplace by user responses that more or less echo the keywords, thereby enhancing or diminishing the political power of their “caller” or speaker; and that social media monitoring platforms can enhance our understanding of public opinion influence competitions among candidates through the careful selection, tabulation, and inspection of words and phrases being voiced. In the case at hand, an analysis of Twitter volume data and a reading of a sample of 1200 tweets between July 30 and August 15, 2015, a period enveloping the first 2016 Republican presidential candidate debate on August 6, 2015, helps us understand how Donald J. Trump escaped political punishment from party and media elites for subverting Republican and U.S. norms of candidate behavior. Elite voices greatly disapproved of Trump’s debate performance and conduct, a traditional augury of declining public support. But the presence of social media voices enhanced Trump’s capacity to succeed with an insurgent marketing strategy, one he would continue into his election as president fifteen months later. Specifically, comparatively high user volume on a debate-oriented section of Twitter (i.e., posts with the hashtag #GOPDebate) for Trump’s name, slogan, and Twitter address, and for such advantageous keywords as “political correctness,” “Megyn Kelly,” and “illegal immigration” relative to terms and phrases favoring other candidates and Republicans as a whole indicates the presence of heavy and active popular support for Trump. The contents of the corresponding tweet sample exhibit Twitter-savvy techniques and populist stances by which the Trump campaign solicited that support: celebrity feuding, callouts to legacy media allies, featured fan comments, a blunt vernacular, and confrontational branding. The contents also illustrate ways in which users manifested their support: from the aforementioned high keyword volume to imitative behavior and the supplying of evidence to verify Trump’s contested claims during the debate.