Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: An Ordinary Language Approach

by M. Jimmie Killingsworth

Appeals in Modern An Ordinary-Language Approach introduces students to current issues in rhetorical theory through an extended treatment of the rhetorical appeal, a frequently used but rarely discussed concept at the core of rhetorical analysis and criticism. Shunning the standard Aristotelian approach that treats ethos, pathos, and logos as modes of appeal, M. Jimmie Killingsworth uses common, accessible language to explain the concept of the rhetorical appeal—meaning the use of language to plead and to please. The result is a practical and innovative guide to understanding how persuasion works that is suitable for graduate and undergraduate courses yet still addresses topics of current interest to specialists.  Supplementing the volume are practical and theoretical approaches to the construction and analysis of rhetorical messages and brief and readable examples from popular culture, academic discourse, politics, and the verbal arts. Killingsworth draws on close readings of primary texts in the field, referencing theorists to clarify concepts, while he decodes many of the basic theoretical constructs common to an understanding of identification. Beginning with examples of the model of appeals in social criticism, popular film, and advertising, he covers in subsequent chapters appeals to time, place, the body, gender, and race. Additional chapters cover the use of common tropes and rhetorical narrative, and each chapter begins with definitions of key concepts.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 26, 2005

Reviews

[Jake B-Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice and short introduction to the idea of a “rhetorical appeal” in modern rhetoric. Aristotle gets a few brief citations, but Killingsworth’s chief objective is to talk about modern rhetoric in ordinary language without being beholden to all of the technical terms from Western rhetorical history. That is, he wants to describe the ways that contemporary rhetoric works in language that most people will understand.

His big framework is the appeal: something that pleases someone (an appealing food) or a kind of pleading with someone (an appeal to the court). All rhetoric, he argues, is a kind of appeal, and he sets out in the book to consider different kinds of appeals in modern rhetoric: to authority, to evidence, to time, to place, to the body, to gender, to race. He also shows how those appeals function through tropes or stories (which are the last two chapters respectively).

In general, this was a wonderfully readable book that also resists the temptation to boil rhetoric down into a game of stolid categorization. At the same time, I sometimes ended my reading of a chapter mystified about Killingsworth’s main points — how I could identify a specific appeal in practice (to race, for example) and then leverage it in my own rhetorical practice. In his effort to avoid making rhetoric into a formula, he occasionally avoided giving rhetorical advice altogether. I still recommend the text, but it’s more of a starting place in rhetorical theory than a proper handbook of rhetoric.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting blend of useful and problematic.

[Gore · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is trying to type up a good paper using rhetoric strategy, I can see why my professor has required us to read this book. Very easy read with a lot of valuable support. My book is probably more stick notes than pages in this book.

[Megan RFA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only am I reading rhetoric books for fun these days, but apparently I'm also giving them four-star ratings. I don't know what that says about me or about this time in my life.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killingsworth synthesizes much of Burke and Perleman and Olbrechts-Tyteca to create his model of the rhetorical appeal. In straightforward language the book lays out how the author reaches the audience through an appeal to a value in order to bring about persuasion. This text is a useful resource for undergraduates to grasp how and when to choose examples and stories in place of statistics and vice versa.

[Jeff Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting look at Aristotle's topoi--Killingsworth attempts to update Aristotle's theory of common topics with modern appeals. He discusses appeals to time, place, body, gender, and race, as well as appeals through tropes and narrative.

Killingsworth is an engaging writer, and his exhaustive/exhausting literary examples illustrate his ideas well (even though I skipped over most of them--the principles were clear enough by themselves).

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

you know college has you in the trenches when this is the first book you’ve finished after like 3 months