•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Application of Rhetorical Methodologies

Research in progress for SPCH 1311: Introduction to Speech Communication

Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Warren

The following essay is a rhetorical criticism written as the final project for the Collin College Honors Introduction to Speech Communication course. This student’s essay utilizes Fantasy Theme Analysis to explore the rhetorical choices of H.P. Lovecraft in his short story Celephaïs. By examining the characters, settings, and actions within the narrative, both in isolation and in relation to each other, Lovecraft’s rhetorical vision is elucidated. Moreover, this essay analyzes if and how group cohesiveness is achieved via a process coined by Ernest Bormann as “symbolic convergence.” In this rhetorical analysis, the term “fantasy” is utilized, but not in the traditional sense. In this particular methodology, the term refers to what Sonja Foss calls a “creative and imaginative interpretation of events” by a group of people. The method used in the essay stems in part from Robert Bales’ previous work on small group interaction.

The creation of this essay came after months of small group class research regarding benchmark components of more than a dozen traditional rhetorical methods including, among others, Neo-Aristotelian, Ideological, Pentadic, and Narrative analyses. Sonja Foss’ Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice, a seminal text for many collegiate Introduction to Rhetorical Methods courses, served as the primary text of the class. At the conclusion of the semester, students chose one of the methods and applied it to a text of their choice. The following essay is an exceptional example of the work produced in the class.

Faculty Mentor

Jennifer Warren - jwarren@collin.edu

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.