Chapter 4 Elements Of Rhetorical Analysis

Part of Chapter 4 discusses the Rhetorical Elements and Cognate Strategies. The Rhetorical Elements applies to verbal or speech, however, it provides foundation toward writing. A combination of the speech fundamental and the understanding leads to good writing. The following contents will discuss five of nine elements that will promote good business writing.

Background: Rhetorical Element identified as Logos, Ethos, and pathos. Each of these elements includes three cognate strategies, where Logos includes clarity, conciseness, and arrangement; Ethos includes credibility, expectation, and reference; the final element, Pathos includes tone, emphasis, and engagement(McLean, 2010).

Clarity

The word clarity is direct and implies superior quality.

This word holds such an important meaning we understood by heart, no other word can express it. The credibility can be built by display the consistency and the ethical value. To apply to business writing, we must show the consistency by comparing our data against a recognizable standard or historical data. If our data measure up to the standard, the readers will feel confident in our company. The ethical value will also add the credibility to the company. Several years ago, my company was campaigning for “go green” theme. My colleague and I wrote a letter, summarize our “go green” activities for our department. Our plastic collection (by weight) has increased every year since the initial year, more collections station expanded and we received an appraisal for that effort. We also received positive feedbacks stating that they appreciate our effort and thank you us for doing a good thing for the environment. I believe that we’ve earned the confidence and credibility from our colleagues when it comes to the “go green”

Reference is the source of origin. We will strengthen our case if the right references were used. My work in the technical environment requires technical report writing where the reference is the heart and soul of everything we wrote. We must identify where our data came from, where our specification came from, etc. Without referencing the reliable sources, our conclusion will have no credibility. A few years back, I was tagged to write a rational report on one of our products. We develop product A, with a little modification, there comes Product B. Then we develop Product C that was equivalent to A and B. Product A and B subjected to serious testing with incredible time and money spend. If the rationalization that Product C is equivalent to Product A and Product B, the company will not be required to conduct the experiments. I spend a good deal of time to investigate/research/verify the technical reports and their references, finally the rational report completed. My manager was pleased to see the report with all references pointing to previous data, associate drawings, specifications, etc. We received the approval from FDA (Food and Drug Administration) that