4th Edition
Rhetorical Public Speaking Social Influence in the Digital Age
This textbook offers an innovative approach to public speaking by employing the rhetorical canon as a means of constructing artful speech in a multi-mediated environment.
By stressing how contemporary public speaking continues the classical art of persuasion, this book provides a foundation to guide students in constructing and delivering messages that address matters of concern and interest to their audience. This edition features contemporary as well as historical examples to highlight key concepts and show how rhetoric works in practice. It not only emphasizes the traditional skills of face-to-face oratory, but it also includes a chapter solely dedicated to highlighting the techniques and tactics of digital social influencing that adapts public speaking to online platforms. Each chapter includes speech excerpts, summaries, and exercises for review and retention.
This textbook for courses in public speaking and rhetoric will particularly appeal to instructors wishing to foreground speaking as engaged citizens on public and political issues.
Online resources include an instructor’s manual with discussion and test questions, video links, and sample materials.
Chapter 1. Rhetorical Public Speaking
The Canons of Rhetoric
The Rhetorical Situation
Speech Genres
Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
Practical Judgment
Chapter 2. Digital Social Influencing
How Not to Influence Anyone
Three-Point Photography Setup
Techniques for Video Recording and Editing
How to Become a Social Influencer
Chapter 3. Memory and Delivery
Memory
Delivery
Delivery Form
Visual Aids
Speech Anxiety
Chapter 4. Invention
Resources for Invention
Finding Sources
Documenting Sources
Topics
Stasis
Chapter 5. Arrangement
Specific Purpose
Introductions
Body
Conclusions
Outlining
Chapter 6. Style
Schemes
Alliteration
Repetition
Parallelism
Antithesis
Tropes
Metaphor
Simile
Synecdoche
Metonymy
Irony
Chapter 7. Ethos
Persona
Evoked Audience
Identification
Distinction
Polarization
Chapter 8. Logos
Rhetorical Argumentation
Principle
Generalization
Analogy
Sign
Causation
Fallacies
Chapter 9. Pathos
Understanding Emotions
Constructing Narratives
Categories of Pathos
Events: Utopia/Wasteland
Actions: Virtue/Vice
People: Saint/Sinner
Objects: Idol/Abomination
Index
Biography
Nathan Crick is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. He is the author of seven books, including Dewey for a New Age of Fascism: Teaching Democratic Habits; Rhetoric and Power: The Drama of Classical Greece; Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming; and The Keys of Power: The Rhetoric and Politics of Transcendentalism.
"Like a good parallel construction, which students will learn about in this book, Rhetorical Public Speaking admirably balances two important objectives. While it makes the rhetorical tradition accessible to modern students, it also demonstrates the enduring practical value of the liberal arts for the digital age. From classical speech genres to new media situations, the text illustrates the perennial adaptability of a rhetorical education." – John J. Jasso, Ave Maria University, USA
"Rhetorical Public Speaking is simply the best public speaking textbook I have ever read. It is sufficiently comprehensive without being overwhelming or needlessly technical. It uses a range of examples and explanations more relevant to contemporary college students than those found in other books. Rhetorical Public Speaking is the first textbook of its kind that I would enthusiastically recommend, and I expect it to become one of the most widely used public speaking textbooks at the college level for many years to come." – Calum Matheson, University of Pittsburgh, USA
"Simultaneously an incisive public speaking handbook and a cogent primer on the rhetorical tradition, this lively and thoughtful text teaches students not only how to speak, but why we speak. It is a manual for teaching students to become both artistic producers of and thoughtful, engaged audiences for public discourse in an ever-shifting media environment. " – Nicholas L. Stefanski, Alfred State College, USA
Praise for the third edition:
"A thoughtful, methodical and inspiring handbook that shows students how to become engaged citizens by means of the spoken word, that is, eloquent transgressors of silence and public apathy." – John Poulakos, University of Pittsburgh, USA
