PB2A

Rhetoric is the use of language and how it enhances speech and writing. We all employ rhetoric in our everyday lives; talking to your friends you will use slang, in section for a major specific class you will use jagons specific to that class, or even the actual diction you use in your speech. An academic research paper will make use of different rhetorical devices than an email that you send to your TA. The rhetorical devices that you use will determine the flow of your writing and either strengthen or detract from your argument.

In a publication by The Journal of Business Communication about how large-group writing occurs there are rhetorical devices that can be noticed right off the bat, such as tone, diction, and a thesis. Each of these serves its own purpose and builds upon the other rhetorical devices employed to establish how the article is written. The writer establishes a serious tone by starting off with to-the-point information. The intro, or abstract, to the piece is simply a description of the research methods used with no “fluff” inserted to add length or create an air of sophistication. The first sentence orients the reader and after that jumps right into a description of the study, “This study is based on a five-year ethnographic study…” This tone continues after the abstract as the writer explains what he is studying. Once again there is no added fluff and he uses language that strictly lies within the constricts of academic writing, which brings up the next important rhetorical device: diction.

Diction is one of the most important rhetorical devices that a writer has in his arsenal. Everything spoken or written has diction, and it is diction that determines tone and clarity. To establish this academic tone the writer chooses powerful diction with word choices like “process-focused management” or “many credit checks were conducted.” In each of those instances the writer could have changed his diction to sound more colloquial. In the first instance he could have written “on-task management” or “competent management;” in the second scenario the writer could have written “credit checks were made” or “there was a credit check on all customers.” By using less colloquial diction the writer was paying attention to who his audience would be: an academic. This knowledge of the audience influences a writer’s decision making whether it be with diction, how he creates his tone, or a thesis statement.

Another important rhetorical device present in any kind of academic writing is the thesis statement. In an academic setting a thesis is more than likely the most important aspect of one’s writing. The thesis is what the writer centers his argument around, in this case the writer’s thesis is posed as a question of whether or not groups tasked with writing together will follow the functional group perspective model of communication. The thesis is normally restated in a sense in the conclusion, in the case of an academic journal where the thesis is a question rather than a statement the thesis is answered in the conclusion and its tendrils can be noticed throughout the piece. In this case the writer states that architecture, or how each group structured their work (another example of diction choice), had a great impact on how the teams were able to complete their work. The way the thesis works in this piece is by presenting a question the writer thinks needs to be answered, then written account of how he answered that question, and finally what his findings from the research performed were and an answer to his original thesis question.

One conveys meaning through rhetoric whether it is academically or personally. Some of the most important rhetorical devices are tone, diction, and a thesis. It is easy to tell that these are so essential because they are present in almost every form of language there is. When you have an argument with your friend you choose a specific tone to reach them, you use diction to display you are learned on the topic, and you have a thesis that you are trying to argue for or against. When you write a paper the tone you choose changes how your audience reads the paper, the diction influences how intelligent your reader perceives you to be, and your thesis is a brief summation of your argument. Without the use of these devices one cannot argue, or write coherently.