Enthymemes as a Pedagogical Tool to Teach Audience Persuasion
Writing enthymemes trains students to focus on audience reception
BECAUSE
The enthymeme makes explicit audience assumptions and determines
compositional structure.
Emmel, Green and Gage each discuss the advantage of teaching enthymemes in the
classroom. Emmel explains that writing enthymemes trains students to focus on
audience reception. Teaching students to use the classroom to share, discuss and
challenge ideas, and ultimately reach an agreement on conclusions, illustrates how
communication structure impacts the effectiveness of an argument (Emmel, p. 133).
Enthymemes are seen ubiquitously where forms of reasoning occurs, regardless of
our awareness, in social situations and in media, as enthymemic reasoning pervades
discourse and shapes our thinking (Green, p. 623). Enthymemic assertions used by a
student are determined by his assessment of his audience understanding and
receptivity, which allows him to incorporate terms shaped through collabortion into
the final argument (Gage, p. 40). Through discourse, students discover common
topics for which they can build the foundations of an argument.
Discussing, debating and sharing ideas with an audience leads to the discovery of
common ground and clarity on the topics argued within an enthymeme. Each aspect
of the enthymeme formation, from the mental processes to word choice in
expression, is affected by discussions between a student and his peers, and helps
form the enthymeme, which bridges the problem with the earned conclusion (Gage,
42). When conflict arises regarding agreement on an assertion’s validity, a polar
belief can only be penetrated and swayed through the use of examples or paradigms
that prove otherwise (Green, 629). Careful word selection assists in shaping claims
that are initially rejected by an audience, and unpacking terms can help draw out
mutually agreed upon terms (Emmel, 139). Discourse aids in assessing the areas the
audience agrees with the terms of the student’s argument, allowing him to offer
paradigms in support of his argument.
Compositional structure is influenced by the audience’s beliefs pertaining to the
argument, as the framework of an enthymemic argument is dependent on terms
supported by both writer and audience. Using transitive verbs in an enthymeme
lends influence to an argument as such verbs of consequence aid in supporting
implicit premises (Green, 630). Enthymemes are based on sharing, testing and
challenging ideas, which lead to more logical arguments than most formula-based
theses, hence it is advantageous to structure an argument around an enthymeme
(Gage, 38). Knowing your audience lets you gauge what can be left implied and what
must be explained when structuring commission, putting value in defining and
refining terms (Emmel, 136). The use of transitive verbs, as well as re-evaluating
terms, lends support to the claims of the enthymeme by tailoring them to offer more
implicit arguments.
Classroom discussion allows for the discovery of common topics between a student
and his peers, who serve as an audience. Once discrepancies have been determined,
a student can use paradigm to support his assertion to his peers. The structure of
the argument is molded by through reworking definition to adjust to audience
cognition, which in turn affects the form of the enthymeme. Writing enthymemes
trains students to focus on audience reception because the enthymeme makes
explicit audience assumptions, and determines compositional structure.
References
Lawrence D. Green (Feb., 1980) Enthymemic Invention and Structural Prediction
College English, College English, Vol. 41, No. 6, pp. 623-634 Published by: National
Council of Teachers of English
John T. Gage (Sept.1983) Teaching the Enthymeme: Invention and Arrangement.
Rhetoric Review. Vol. 2, No. 1 , pp. 38-50 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Emmel, B. A. (1994). Toward a Pedagogy of the Enthymeme: The Roles of Dialogue,
Intention, and Function in Shaping Argument Rhetoric Review, 13(1), 132-149.