Content: Introduction The Impact of lingua-cultural rhetorical questions on dialogues general-rhetorical questions 2 Examples of rhetorical questions 15 Benefit

William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Sonnet 18

If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? The Merchant of Venice

Mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Julius Caesar

Benefits of rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions are not a necessity but they can be valuable. They can be used in many different ways to:

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  Engage the audience
  
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  Increase the variety of your presentation
  
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  Influence and persuade the audience
  
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  Subtly draw attention and emphasise specific points
  
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  Introduce topics/ideas
  
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  Make the listeners think about certain topics
  

Ask a rhetorical question to engage the audience and pause to allow them to think of an answer. This gets the audience to actively participate rather than passively listen as they create hypotheses or resolutions.

For example: asking "Why is practicing mindfulness beneficial for reducing anxiety?" would be more effective than saying "Practicing mindfulness exercises can reduce anxiety levels because..."

Speakers may start presentations with rhetorical questions to increase the likelihood of the audience staying engaged.

Make the audience feel as though you are speaking to each member individually by using "you" and "your."

For example: asking "Do you want to lose weight without feeling hungry?" would be more effective than asking "Does anyone here want to lost weight without feeling hungry?"

To get your audience to agree with you, ask a rhetorical question where the answer is clearly a "yes". Once the audience begins agreeing with you they are more likely to continue agreeing. You will be familiar with this type of persuasion in casual conversation, for example, "Nice weather today, isn't it?"

Another way to get the audience to agree with you is to show them that you're similar. Show your listeners that you have shared experiences and that you understand their problems.

For example, "We've all experienced being so stressed at work that we come home and don't feel like doing anything, haven't we?"

Make the audience feel the same way you do about something by asking questions that trigger emotional reactions.

For example, rather than saying "X has never helped our community" ask "What has X ever done for our community?" This will trigger a strong emotional response because the audience will come to that conclusion that "X haven't done anything."

After a statement has been made use a rhetorical question to get the audience to think about that statement.

For example, "The amount of plastic in the ocean is rising at a considerable rate. How much damage will it take for you to help reduce this?"

Think about your topic and audience when planning your speech. Try to predict what the audience may want to ask. In your speech use the predictions as rhetorical questions and answer them.

For example, "As a dog owner you may think 'What should I be focusing on to keep my dog healthy?' The answer is providing your dog with the correct nutrition and therefore food."

You could also introduce one or more rhetorical questions at the start of your speech and explain that you will answer them during your speech. For example: "In the next 20 minutes let's explore the answers to these questions." Asking these difficult questions and promising you will provide the answers will increase interest and attention.

Answer a question, either an audience member's or your own, using another rhetorical question. Generally both the questions have the same answer.

For example: "Have we met the targets again this year? Is the Pope Catholic?"

Try to make the second question unique and relatable to the audience because common examples can sound cheesy.

Ask multiple rhetorical questions consecutively each one more specific or more powerful than the previous. This way your content will have a greater impact on the listeners.

For example: "Isn't their skin lovely? Don't you think it looks really clear? Can you see any blemishes? Wouldn't you like to have skin like that?"

Use rhetorical questions consecutively to highlight the complexity of a topic by asking questions in which the answers provide conflicting viewpoints.

For example: "How can we reduce the crime rate in the UK? Should we rehabilitate offenders? Should criminals be punished with longer sentences? Should we create initiatives targeting atrisk children?" etc

If you start your speech with this technique, you can structure your speech or presentation around it, with each section addressing a different viewpoint.

You can also consecutively ask questions in which the answers provide similar viewpoints. This is similar to repetition which is used to continually highlight an important point.

For example: "Which company achieves over 90% in customer satisfaction? Which company provides one of the best employee benefits programs in the country? Which company scores highest in employee happiness and fulfilment? Of course, our company does!"

Rhetorical questions are an effective way to gain the support of the audience but ensure that you do your research beforehand. This means finding out who your audience are, such as, their general views, attitudes, age etc. With this information you can plan rhetorical questions that will be appropriate and tailored to your listeners.

Anyone who has sat through a speech, presentation, or sermon has stifled yawns and struggled to keep eyelids open. While the boredom of audiences might be blamed on short attention spans or poor listening skills, the real culprit is the public speaking context in which audience members are burdened with absorbing large amounts of talk with little chance of taking the floor. Presenters, however, can revitalize an audience’s flagging attention through rhetorical devices.

The strong potential for boredom in public speaking can be understood through a comparison with everyday conversation. In conversation, speaking turns are brief, and the floor regularly shifts back and forth among the participants. These conversational features keep us awake. Listening to others’ talk is essential if we are to know when to start speaking and what would be relevant to say. Habitual lapses in listening, on the other hand, impair our participation and damage our reputations as communicators. These motivations for listening are built into conversational turntaking. With no turntaking in public speaking, the audience’s motivations to listen are severely weakened.

Rhetorical devices are techniques for making a message stand out from the surrounding talk. These devices are effective in soliciting applause and laughter from audiences. Applause and laughter are powerful evidence of the devices’ effectiveness in engaging the audience’s attention and approval. Even when the goal is not getting audience members to applaud or laugh, presenters can use the devices in regularly “nudging” their attention throughout the speech.

Researchers have identified seven devices, and this introduction illustrates three of them. The examples come from Donald Sadoway’s TED Talk in which he recounts his research team’s development of the liquid metal battery. Sadoway has just touched on the invention of a process for producing aluminum. He then highlights its consequences for the market value of aluminum with the opposing “from” and “to” phrases. The A and B arrows mark the parts of a device known as thecontrast:

And just a few short years following their discovery, aluminum changed

from a precious metal costing as much as silver         ←A

to a common structural material.                                 ←B

In an earlier part of the speech, Sadoway uses another device involving a list of three:

Today there is simply no battery technology capable of meeting the demanding performance requirements of the grid—namely

uncommonly high power,       ←1

long service lifetime,               ←2

and superlow cost.                 ←3

While the contrast is based on difference or opposition, lists operate according to a principle of similarity. All three items belong to the category “demanding performance requirements of the grid.” Lists are expected to contain three items (e.g., this, that, and the other) and serve to intensify the presenter’s message.

Finally, Sadoway turns to how the battery can be made costefficient by limiting its materials to “earthabundant elements.” Then he piques the audience’s interest with a puzzlesolution:

This battery needs to be made out of earthabundant elements.

I say, if you want to make something dirt cheap,       ←P

make it out of dirt (laughter).                                     ←S

The puzzle raises the question of how something can be made “dirt cheap.” Audience members are invited to consider possible solutions and then listen closely to the presenter’s solution. He offers a literal solution that plays on the figurative “dirt cheap.” The audience’s laughter shows appreciation for the presenter’s humor.

These rhetorical devices are pervasive in persuasive communication. People use them spontaneously in everyday conversation as they seek to convince others. Professional communicators use them in creating advertising slogans (e.g., the few, the proud, the Marines), writing editorials, and composing political speeches. Inexperienced presenters may use some devices spontaneously but not enough of them to keep audiences engaged. For that reason, I developed a twoandahalfweek unit in an advanced public speaking course to help students become proficient in using rhetorical devices. Professionals can develop skill through a selfguided course of study. Atkinson’s Lend Me Your Ears provides an excellent introduction, with many examples.

In developing the skills for using rhetorical devices effectively, start with speeches that use the devices by going to websites such as www.americanrhetoric.com and www.ted.com. Both websites provide video and audiorecordings as well as transcripts of the speeches. Listening repeatedly to the recordings, while reading the transcripts, allows students to notice how the devices are put together and delivered. Listening for pauses and vocal stress on words and syllables is instructive.

Second, practice writing and delivering short segments of speech that incorporate the devices. For example, one of my students gave a sales presentation in which she pitched radio advertisements to the audience. Early in the speech, she argues that radio has certain advantages over television, especially when television shows are recorded:

So what happens when we get to a commercial?            ←P

(Pause)

(Shows “fast forward” icon)                                       ┐

That’s exactly what we do.                                         │  ←S

We fast forward it.                                     ←A          ┘

There is no fastforward button in radio.   ←B

The presenter poses a puzzle by asking a rhetorical question. She then pauses and allows the audience to silently anticipate her solution, which is delivered visually via a PowerPoint® slide and then verbally. The argument is capped off with a statement (arrow B) that contrasts with the previous sentence (arrow A). Working with short examples can help presenters learn the best practices for each device. The parts of a contrast, for example, should be similar in content, length, and format. The contrast above could be sharpened by revising its first part. Specifically changing “fast forward” from a verb to an adjective and adding a short phrase, “We push the fastforward button on our DVR,” resembles the second part of the contrast more closely than the original. Revision is crucial in using the devices effectively.

Finally, practice writing fulllength speeches that incorporate the rhetorical devices. The following guidelines can help presenters decide the rate, variety, and distribution of devices in the overall speech.

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  Employ two to three devices per minute of speaking time (e.g., Sadoway’s speech uses 37 devices in just over 15 minutes).
  
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  Use a variety of devices to avoid an overly predictable presentation.
  
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  Since there is no timeout from “nudging” the audience’s attention, distribute devices throughout the speech: in the introduction, each section of the body, and the conclusion.
  

For Atkinson, the rhetorical devices are not just for the naturally eloquent. Our spontaneous use of the devices in everyday conversation indicates a foundation of tacit knowledge and skill upon which anyone can build. This knowledge and skill becomes explicit, perhaps strategic, as presenters apply the devices during oral presentations. This learning can be facilitated through classroom instruction or a selfguided tutorial that includes listening to model speeches and practicing the composition and delivery of the devices. In the end, presenters are equipped to meet the challenges of keeping audiences attentive and engaged.

Social structure often has a major influence on the ways of communication, the impact, and style of all rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is not different in its impact and being impacted by society and different cultural values, ideology, and styles. Symbols and other components of visual rhetoric vary in meaning from culture to culture, and even sometimes within subgroups of cultures. This is reflected in the study of semiotics. Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric are in summary, signs that can have different quantifiers such as color, perspective, line, etc. These are dictated to a culture through different vehicles, the medians of rhetoric.