Rhetorical Analysis & Emotion

Jan 27, 2026

Rhetoric Is Not About Winning

Drew M. Loewe: While one can and should be on guard against trickery and deception, one problem with too much emphasis on the self-defense view of rhetorical analysis is that it rests on what theorist Richard Lanham dubbed the “Weak Defense” of rhetoric.

Jennifer Atkinson: Clear headed solutions focused on facts and reasons and not feelings”

There's a myth about what rhetoric (meaning persuasion) should be that it's all about persuading audience, meaning someone else. And when taken too seriously and intensely, rhetoric might become a competitive game. It, in fact, becomes about winning. I want us to challenge that notion.

What Should Rhetoric Be About

So what should rhetoric be about or what it is.

• Not just audience but it's about rhetor/writer too: personal change/transformation/ethics
• Rhetoric is about making connections (from other humans to non-humans to larger context to the environment)
• Rhetoric is about paying attention to emotion and body

In fact, the type of rhetorical analysis we should think about should focus on all these above points.

What Should Rhetoric Be About

The following comments stood out for me:

Lois: The character of the clay I believe represents how we talk and present ourselves. which dictates the character of the vessel which is the final product of an either functional society or dysfunctional one.

Sean: I think that the most powerful thing about rhetoric is that it makes us pause and truly contemplate important matters that we would otherwise just accept or not pay much attention to.

Melisa: rhetoric reminds me a lot of oil painting. In contrast to other forms of painting, oil painting cannot easily be corrected. Therefore, given that oil paintings require firm decision-making on a canvas despite uncertainty of what should go next, layers are necessary. This can lead to breaking down these complex ideas that are initially complicated into layers.

Emotion and Rhetoric

Drew M. Loewe synthesizes some powerful scholarly works about the vital connection between emotion and rhetoric. Let's look at a few of these quotes. I think they'll be beneficial for your rhetorical analysis exercise for Project 1:

James Averill: [R]hetoric and emotion share two important features—namely, both are persuasive acts and both are occasioned by similar conditions [of coordinating action in the face of uncertainty]. To these two we may add a third similarity—namely, both rhetoric and emotion are inextricably linked to values. . . States such as anger, fear, love, guilt, and the myriad of other emotions recognized in ordinary language, are infused with value—they aim at what is worth doing or preserving.

Emotion for Rhetorical Analysis

Shari Stenberg: cultural and social contexts and expectations shape both expressions of emotion and our subsequent readings of them

Laura Micciche: Emotion is crucial to how people form judgments about what constitutes appropriate action or inaction in a given situation. . . The idea here is that emotions, like reasons, move people to judge, decide, and act in certain ways, and that, consequently, emotion is central to rhetorical action.

James Averill: it is through ‘emotional animation,’ not through rational determination, that cultural beliefs and values gain force."

Your Take on Emotion and Rhetoric

Stella: Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner's climate change speech. The way in which she powerfully tapped into her emotions created a shared experience with the audience, and could potentially cause change. This is an example of how emotions are not only for an individual, and can be socially and culturally situated to evoke change.

Paola: It makes sense that thinking and feeling are intertwined, and that they influence one another. Your feelings will alter the way that you perceive situations and how you think about them. Additionally when you think for a long time about a situation, it can change the way that you feel about it.

Dao: This shows that society trains us to think emotions = manipulation. However, that belief is only cultural, not necessarily true. It can explain why people often dismiss the use of pathos even though it can be meaningful.

Agape: I do trust emotional appeals. In fact, I think of myself as a big user of this strategy when I write. Whenever I refuse to stifle my writing of its emotional aspect, that's when I feel like the writing is full, complete.

Mind-Body-Ecology Continuum

One of primary causes for the impending climate crisis is that we constantly see ourselves as separate from the planet, meaning planet is there as a resource for us to exploit and use for our own benefit. A rhetoric of separation between mind, body and ecology can exacerbate that attitude.

Ash Sanders: According to one of its founders, historian Theodore Roszak, the purpose of the discipline is to define “ ‘sanity’ as if the whole world mattered.” Ecopsychologists view the Cartesian separation of mind and body—an outlook taken for granted in mainstream medicine—as antiquated and harmful and argue that it can lead to people viewing themselves as separate from the planet they live on.

Ash Sanders: Within ecopsychology, the solution is not to pathologize patients but to help them restore their sense of control by reconnecting them with the natural world.