Evan L . Johnson

Style is one of the five “canons,” or categories, in classical public speaking theory.  The other four canons—invention, arrangement, memory, and delivery—are dealt with in other chapters of this textbook, but this chapter covers a speaker’s use of stylized language. To do so, this chapter first defines appropriate style, then discusses the stylistic goals of having clarity and correctness in our speech. Lastly, this chapter details how to make our speeches more vivid and memorable by using figurative, rhythmic, parallel, and ironic language.
Online access: https://fsw.pressbooks.pub/spc2608/chapter/stylizedlanguage/

In the field’s long conversation on conspiracy rhetoric, the most robust topic has been the theorization of the paranoid and political styles. Thus far, these styles and their evaluative criteria have been theorized as wholly separate. However, certain discourses and rhetors blend the styles. To understand this blending, I introduce the concept of pragmatism to argue that the existing styles can be synthesized. Through my analysis of three of Richard Nixon’s anticommunist conspiracy texts, I demonstrate that his rhetoric is a pragmatic synthesis of paranoia and politics. I conclude the paper by suggesting further avenues for research on conspiracy within the field, including the possibility that there may be a “pragmatic style.”

This dissertation aims to map the evolutionary history of the talking filibuster as a rhetorical form. Since Senators can forego a talking filibuster and obstruct a bill with a secret hold, filibustering is a strategic rhetorical choice. In addition to the textuality of filibustering, then, what performative and symbolic rhetorical work is done by the filibuster that secret holds do not do? I argue that the filibuster is a form of populist transcendence, an innovative rhetorical technique for transcending senatorial elitism. Chapter two studies Robert La Follette and his era: the fin de siècle. This populist agrarian used lengthy deliberation and filibustering as “temporal republicanism” to slow legislative proceedings during the social acceleration of the industrial age. In response to La Follette’s deliberative filibusters, Senate rules were changed to stymie him. With deliberation restricted, filibustering Senators had to create and maintain a scene to hold the floor. Chapters three and four study Huey Long and "Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," the personae they adopted, and the suffering they underwent to create their dramatic filibusters. However, Frank Capra’s film over-dramatized the visuals and motorized the pacing of the filibuster to create a spectacular caricature of the form for mass entertainment. Finally, in our social-media age, the filibuster has taken on a hybrid form: synthesizing spectacular drama with deliberation. Chapter five studies Wendy Davis and her ability to interact with citizens through social media. The co-creation of the filibuster by senators and citizens produced identification, empathy, deliberation, and dramatic political action when citizens went to the Texas capitol and shouted from the gallery to kill the bill. Using Jacques Rancière, I find that this new form of filibustering blurs the line between actors and audience and can emancipate spectators. Thus, social media is re-enlivening both the dramatic and deliberative aspects of filibustering. Overall, the filibuster began as a deliberative form, became a dramatic form, and now within the social media spectacle, deliberation and drama are synthesizing.

A Masters Thesis:  This study is a rhetorical analysis of Richard Nixon’s early-career anti-communist conspiracy rhetoric. In conspiracy scholarship, two tracks have emerged: the paranoid style and the political style of conspiracy. Nixon, though, as a tricky rhetor, does not fall neatly within either of those styles, instead he samples from both styles over time and even within single speeches. After synthesizing the two styles into a method, I analyze three early Nixon anti- communist conspiracy texts between 1946-1962 which span those years and cover various genres. Text one is Nixon’s “Maiden Speech” to the House of Representatives in 1947. It is mostly in the paranoid style of conspiracy. Text two is the 1960 presidential campaign pamphlet “The Meaning of Communism to Americans,” which is mostly political. The third text is the first chapter of Nixon’s 1962 memoir Six Crises – the chapter is titled “The Hiss Case.” This text constructs the communist conspiracy fully within the paranoid style while simultaneously creating a “liberalist” conspirator fully in the political style. Due to Nixon’s fluidity between rhetorical styles, I introduce the concept of pragmatic agency to account for his conspiracistic rhetoric, which falls between the political and paranoid.

This paper is rooted in archival research at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, GA. In researching seven drafts of President Carter's 1979 solar panel dedication speech, I find that in the drafting process, Carter, his speech writers, and advisors consistently adjusted his speaking style to be more and more plain. Ornamented phrases were scuttled and replaced with unvarnished, declarative sentences. This fit the plainspoken man from Plains, GA. However, the plain rhetoric about America's energy "challenges" failed to move Americans to act, and Carter later escalated it to a "crisis" in his "Malaise Speech" (aka the "Crisis of Confidence Speech"). No matter, a year later, Carter's rhetorical stuntedness fell prey to the oratorical prowess and transcendent style of his challenger, Ronald Reagan.

Around 100 CE, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote "A Dialogue on Oratory." The main characters in this dialogue are the elder Maternus--a thinly veiled stand-in for Tacitus--and the younger Aper. In this short work, Tacitus establishes the importance of true eloquence, critiques Rome's shift from Republic to Empire, and critiques modern oratory and rhetorical education for producing deficient citizen-orators. Two of the text's notable themes are comparing poetry and oratory and contrasting modernity with sentimentality for the past.

In State of Exception, Giorgio Agamben aims to produce the first complete theory of the state of exception in public law. A state of exception occurs when a political sovereign (namely a prime minister or president), in a time of alleged crisis, bypasses a parliamentary body to suspend the law or make a new law by decree. Although the state of exception has been discussed by a handful of philosophers and political theorists since World War I, it has not been fully theorized. It needs to receive a full theoretical treatment because, as is, it is vague, and considering the rise in executive orders in the 21st-century, the state of exception is more relevant than ever.

In this précis, I first briefly summarize "On Preaching" (or "Book IV" of "On Christian Doctrine"). Then I give a longer synopsis of key terms and quotations—especially Augustine’s treatment of the offices (instruct, please, and persuade) and styles (plain, moderate, and grand) of rhetoric. Finally, I provide a brief evaluation of the text, in which I laude Augustine’s deft synthesis of the offices and styles into the three-phase, or three-point sermon. Many preachers today, unwittingly, still use a reduction of Augustine's rhetorical approach to preaching.

This précis includes a summary and brief analysis of Plato's famous dialogue "Phaedrus." First, I recap the dialogue and the three speeches that structure it: 1. Lysias' speech on love, 2. Socrates' revision, and 3. Socrates' original composition on love. Following this recap, I discuss how Plato ultimately defines "rhetoric" in the Phaedrus? and if that definition is congruent with his earlier definition of "rhetoric" in the Gorgias?

One useful way to read Plato’s Gorgias is as a manual for conducting Socratic dialogues. In the three major sections of the dialogue (1. Socrates-Gorgias; 2. Socrates-Polus, 3. Socrates-Callicles), and especially in the transitions from one section to another, a number of rules governing Socratic dialogues emerge. In this summary, I discuss nine of those rules and provide textual evidenced for each.

In Quintilian's book, "Institutes of Oratory," he establishes two of his most well-known ideas: the "ideal orator" and the progymnasmata. Secondary students began the progymnasmata curriculum, which intended to train ideal citizen-orators for the future of the Republic. This précis first reviews Quintilian's definition of the ideal orator and details the step-by-step pedagogical exercises (progymnasmata) he prescribes for rhetors-in-training. I also outline the less-emphasized prerequisite courses suggested by Quintilian: music, astronomy, geometry, and philosophy. As Quintilian discusses philosophical training, though, he sketches two concepts that go beyond rhetoric. These concepts I'm calling the "ideal teacher" (or "ideal professor") and the "ideal student." He also warns against home tutoring in favor of classroom teaching.

St. Boethius’ text, "An Overview of the Structure of Rhetoric," is a very concise, yet sound, summary of classical rhetorical theory. For scholars new to the field of rhetoric, this text is an excellent entry point, since it is much briefer than Aristotle’s "Rhetorica" (On Rhetoric), the "Rhetorica ad Herennium" [traditionally (mis)attributed to Cicero], or Cicero’s "De Inventione" & "De Oratore."  This precis gives a synopsis and evaluation of Boethius’s "Overview . . . of Rhetoric."

This analysis applies Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to Ronald Reagan's "Challenger Address." First, I explain the rhetor's construction of the pentadic terms, and then I describe the dominant ratio in the speech: agency-agent. The expressed purpose of President Reagan's speech is "mourning and remembering" the seven astronauts who died on the space craft. However, the implicit act to which Reagan calls the nation is continued space exploration in the near future. The questions are who will explore and how?

Baldassare Castiglione’s 1528 text, The Book of the Courtier,  inform renaissance men—and women—how to behave in medieval European courts. The aim of the text is to teach the customs and manners of an ideal courtier. In this précis, I first offer a summary of the text and a detailed synopsis of key concepts, before ending with a brief evaluation and synthesis of the text with the work of Christine de Pizan and Madeleine de Scudery.

Written circa 46 B.C., in the last years of Marcus Tullius Cicero's life, "Brutus" is a dialogue that functions as a historical catalog of the great orators of antiquity. Although this text is tedious at times, Brutus has some utility in a course on Roman oratory or the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition. This review identifies the book's purpose, thesis, and scope before providing a brief analysis. The historical context in which this text is written is primarily that Rome is at war, the republican senate has been dissolved, and an emperor is leading the country. The fear of republicans, such as Cicero, is that even when the war ends the emperor will retain emergency powers, repress free speech, and render the senate vestigial. This fear eventually came true.

Despite being nearly fifty-years-old, Roman Polanski's 1971 "Macbeth" is the most recent full-film version, and it stands the test of time. Overall, the acting, cinematography, and sets are high quality, and the screenplay, also written by Polanski, was nicely adapted from Shakespeare's play. In this movies review, I give a brief summary of the plot, followed by a synopsis of the film that highlights the adaptations made in transferring of the play to the screen. Lastly, I discuss Polanski's rhetorical choices: abbreviating some aspects in the play, while amplifying other aspects on screen.

John Steinbeck was prolific during the Depression and War years: 1930-1945. Not only did he write twenty-seven books, but he put his journalist training into action. As an embedded reporter he performed primary research for his novels, “on the front lines, observing and reporting on the major events of his century: the Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam” (Parini 2004).  In this essay, I claim Steinbeck more profoundly reflected and affected American politics than any other author from 1930 to 1945. As evidence, I provide succinct precis of Steinbeck’s three Depression and three World War II novels.

The scope of Hamilton’s project is not historical reconstruction, but an “attempt to show what the Romans were as they appear in their great authors” (263). Hamilton’s aim is to pinpoint the peculiar Roman qualities that distinguished them from the other cultures of antiquity (263). In order to do this, Hamilton takes her readers on a thirteen-chapter whirlwind tour of the most influential Roman writers—describing their texts and the Rome in which they lived. The book is written in four rough sections: the establishment of Roman letters in the comedies of Plautus and Terence (chapters 1-3); the Republic and Caesar as depicted by Cicero (chapters 4-6); the age of Augustus as depicted in the poetry of Catullus and Horace (chapters 7-10); and the elevation to romantic literature before the bifurcation and disintegration of Roman society (chapters 11-13). In each chapter, Hamilton makes the case that Roman writers were “Romans first” and “individual artists only second” (264). Her thesis is that in the end the differences between Roman authors were “superficial compared to their fundamental resemblances” (264). All followed “the Roman way.”

"The Political Style of Conspiracy" examines texts from mainstream conspiracy rhetors in the antebellum era. Prominent figures--including Abraham Lincoln--used anti-slave power conspiracy discourse to unite the young Republican Party and win the presidency in 1860. While the paranoid style of conspiracy has dominated previous scholarship, Pfau claims anti-slave power conspiracy rhetoric was mainstream and falls outside the bounds of paranoia. Grounded in ideological, narrative, and rhetorical-historical analysis, Pfau convincingly argues that there is an alternative to the paranoid style of conspiracy: the political style.

Little is known about Homer. Tradition tells us that he is the author of the epic Greek poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, which detail the mythic history of ancient Greece. These works, the oldest extant literature in the Western world, shaped Greek education, were recycled throughout the Roman Empire by way of Virgil’s Aeneid, and continue to be influential today as cultural touchstones (Enos 1996). In this entry, I detail Homer’s biography, the origins of his major texts, and lastly, the way rhetoricians have alternately excluded and included Homer in the rhetorical tradition.

The concept of topoi, the topics or commonplaces, has a long history with a long scholarly conversation. Multiple fields have engaged this conversation (Zompetti 2006). In this entry, however, the concept of topoi is restricted to the field of rhetoric, in which the conversation is both theoretically robust and practical in its goal of training student rhetors. This entry covers the definition and uses of topoi as a rhetorical concept, traces a brief history of the concept and its resurgence in the second half of the twentieth-century, and discusses contemporary contributions to topoi theory and praxis.