Panel organizer: Jaap De Jong

When public speakers design their presentation or speech they use stylistic techniques to render rhetorical effects. They use for instance humor to loosen up and to enjoy their audience, they use visualization to inform and impress, and they use pathos techniques to appeal to the emotions of their voters, including strong words and powerful metaphors to ensure a greater impact. Researchers and teachers of rhetorical style in various genres need to sharpen their analytical tools, and a comparison of analytic results on rhetorical style in different text corpora is needed. In this panel we will make such a comparison, by focusing on rhetorical style in conference papers and political speeches. The focus will be on discussing insights from rhetorical theory and the application research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, including Atlast.ti, a computer program for qualitative data analysis.

Contact: Jaap De Jong