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Rhetoric
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What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the study of how language is used to persuade, inform, and influence audiences, and it sits at the center of communications, English, political science, and philosophy curricula. Its academic interest lies in the tension between language and reality, form and meaning, power and reason. Students engage with foundational questions about what makes an argument effective and how speech shapes public life. Core thinkers and frameworks that appear across coursework include Aristotle's definition of rhetoric, Plato's critique of false rhetoric as it relates to democracy, Foucault's contributions to rhetoric and ideology, and the competing positions of Bitzer and Vatz on how rhetorical situations are constructed.

Papers on this topic take several distinct approaches. Some are historically oriented, tracing classical and modern rhetorical theory to compare how ideas about persuasion have evolved. Others focus on close analysis of specific texts or speeches, such as Carmichael's Black Power speech or George Orwell's political writing, using rhetorical frameworks to examine how language and power operate together. Additional papers explore rhetoric within specific domains — religion, education, and political ideology — while others work through theoretical debates about the relationship between knowledge and rhetoric or the role of rhetorical education in shaping civic life.

A strong essay on rhetoric grounds its thesis in a clear claim about how a specific use of language achieves — or fails to achieve — a persuasive effect. Evidence drawn from the text, speech, or theoretical framework under analysis carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating rhetoric as merely a list of devices; effective essays instead connect those devices to broader questions of audience, power, and meaning.

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Essay Doctorate

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and the origins of evil behavior

aggressor and victim (Enders, and Bevington). The idea of presenting violence, torture, and cruelty through fiction is a dangerous combination in which the related laws, drama, and poetry cannot present the lighter side of art and culture. The medieval authors presented the sufferings and culture of their societies. The French authors not only harmed their credibility in metaphor but at the same time the audience of these drams and fiction were also taught unethical practices. These included that finding truth through torture and violence. The creativeness within the drama and fiction was also damaged through projecting violence and the phenomenon that physical pain cannot resist language and it has to take a medium to flow out of the creative minds (Enders, and Bevington).

Paper Doctorate

Sequencing strategy and outcome in the Harborco negotiations

Sequential, opaque negotiations can provide tremendous advantage in certain negotiation scenarios involving multiple parties. This is demonstrated not only in more recent game theory developments but is also clearly observable in a variety of practical examples. A more collaborative consensus building approach can also be advantageous in some scenarios, but would not have been as effective in the Harborco negotiations.

Essay Doctorate

Gorgias' Encomium of Helen and sophistic rhetoric

The "dissoi logoi" fragment attributed to Protagoras is used to explain the form and function of Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen". Gorgias' work is contextualized within the rhetorical world of 5th century BCE Athenian legal practice--his defense of Helen of Troy is described in terms of a modern Christian offering a "devil's advocate" defense of the actions of Eve, or the snake, in the Book of Genesis. Gorgias' role within the practice of the Sophists in classical Athens is explored, and the ramifications of offering a praise and defense of Helen is shown to be an illustration of Sophistic practice by insisting that there are "dissoi logoi" or two sides to every story.

Essay Doctorate

Alain de Botton's Socratic philosophy and modern moral complacency

This paper is an analysis of The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. It focuses on the author's analysis of the death of Socrates. De Bottom argues that philosophy's greatest strength is its ability to question conventional wisdom, given that so many of what we regard as 'truths' are really unspoken cultural assumptions. Socrates became unpopular because of his questioning of the definition of values such as piety, courage and virtue.

Paper Undergraduate

Balancing agency and stewardship theory in corporate governance

Corporate governance is generally regarded as a good and honest topic but some governments are accused of going too far. On the other side of the spectrum, there are those that say that corporations need to be reined in because of scandals like Enron. This study proposal relates to exploring where the proper balance is and should be.

Research Paper Doctorate

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle's influence on Western philosophy

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the most famous of the ancient Greek philosophers. All three of them have left a deep impact on the Western philosophy. In this paper we will look at the main points of their…

Paper Doctorate

Rhetorical analysis of President Obama's second inaugural address

President Obama's "Second Inaugural Address:" Rhetorical analysis

Paper Doctorate

How institutions help states overcome barriers to cooperation

In her essay on the barriers to cooperation that limit effective communication between state actors within the international arena, Jennifer Sterling-Folker posits that three primary types of barriers to cooperation exist in the realm of international relations: Domestic, Structural, and Cognitive. According to Sterling-Folker, the domestic political climate within a pair of seemingly willing allies may preclude them from engaging in productive diplomatic negotiations, such as when impending national elections cause national policymaking to refocus on internal affairs. Structural barriers include the lack of common ground between communist and capitalist economies, and the gulf in understanding which separates dictatorships and democracies. Cognitive barriers are those which arise from ideological motivations, such as theocracies refusing to communicate with competing religions, or secular states scoffing at the religious norms of their neighbors. The liberal concept of interdependence, or providing a clear incentive to cooperate through the construction of complex institutions, is also discussed by Sterling-Folker, who observes that barriers to communication within world politics is due to the fact that nations invariably develop as autonomous entities with unique political, social, and economic structures.

Paper Undergraduate

Death and transcendence in Poe's "Annabel Lee"

A brief analysis of eight different poems written by Poe, Dickinson, Blake, Owen, Cummings, Thomas, and Silverstein. In each of the poems, a literary device was identified and it was demonstrated how one of the poems made use of the device. Devices included imagery, repetition, tone, style, metaphor, and theme.

Research Paper Doctorate

Herodotus and Thucydides in Donald Kelley's historical inquiry

Faces of History: Historical Inquiry from Herodotus to Herder by Donald R. Kelley

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