Rhetoric for Change
Climate Change Leadership
– Power, Politics and Culture
Mika Hietanen
Associate Professor in Rhetoric
Dept. of Literature, UU
Feb. 12th, 2014
What is Communication?
Berlo’s Source-Message-Channel-Receiver Model (1960)
Berlo,'D.'K.'(1960).'The$process$of$communication.'New'York,'New'York:'Holt,'Rinehart,'&'Winston.
What is efficient communication?
I. The successful delivery of an uncorrupted message
The audience to understands our message as we intended.
Two questions towards success:
a) What exactly do I want to say?
Tip: summarize the core of your message in one
sentence and also in an elevator pitch
b) How should I say it in order for the receivers to
understand it correctly?
– the right content (topic, selection) and
the right format (language, level, format, scope)
– depends on the audience
… (cont.) What is efficient communication?
II. Visible consequences
The receiver begins to think or act as intended by the
sender. –> What changes or results do we want to see in
our listenders or readers?
!
To summarize:
• if you don’t know exactly what you want to say, the
audience will be confused as well
• if you cannot match your content and form to the specific
audience, they probably cannot understand you either
How does a speaker or writer
achieve success?
!
Cicero’s three “duties”
of a speaker:
• docere (teach)
• delectare (entertain)
• movere (move)
!
Aristotle’s ”artistic” proofs:
• logos
• ethos
• pathos
!
Aristotle’s ”non-artistic”
proofs:
• laws, documents,
testimony, etc.
The classical disposition of a speech
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Greetings (exordium)
– evoke the audience’s goodwill, trust and interest
Introduction (narratio)
– give enough background and context to make your
presentation understandable and relevant
Thesis (propositio)
– what is the main idea or suggestion in your message
(if this part is unclear after the presentation, all is lost)
Argumentation (argumentatio; refutatio)
– give varied support for your thesis: research, examples,
statistics, graphs, comparisons, and consider relevant
objections (ethos, pathos logos, and non-artistic proofs)
Conclusion (peroratio; recapitulatio)
– implications, next steps, connect with the audience
Nine points of advice
COMMUNICATION & SLIDES
Using slides – Nine points of advice
1. For each slide, ask yourself: how does this help the
listener to appropriate my message?
!
2. Be mindful of content and form, they should support
each other in a clear way.
!
3. Do not write out your manuscript in PowerPoint
form (only bullets, quotations, graphs, pictures).
Using slides – Nine points of advice
4. Do not let the slides come between you and your
audience.
!
5. The spoken word should be primary, while text and
pictures complement and amplify your message.
!
6. Ideally, the presentation summarises your message
and works as a visual, dispositional and
mnemotecnic aid.
Using slides – Nine points of advice
7. It is difficult to listen, read and write at the same
time.
!
8. Consider handouts if you need to share larger
pieces of text or data.
!
9. When using slides, consider Aristotle’s definition
of rhetoric: ”the ability in each case to find that
which is most persuasive.”
Suggested reading
Everything’s an Argument
Andrea A. Lunsford & John J. Ruskiewicz & Keith Walters,
Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 6th edn 2012
!
Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social
Sciences
Michael Billig, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2013