Let's begin our discussion of style with some figures that ask the audience to do some mental work. Basically, asking them to interact with the message. Allusions and rhetorical questions are figures that gain their power from listeners helping to create meaning. So let's go ahead and begin with illusions. [MUSIC] Sorry, allusions, allusions. An allusion references another word without naming it. The audience needs to figure out the reference. Benjamin Netanyahu made a pop culture allusion in the 2015 speech the U.S Congress. Then, he pulled the rabbit out of the hat and did an illusion. No, here, listen to this allusion. >> Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire, first on the region, and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire. In this deadly game of thrones, there's no place for America or for Israel. >> As rhetorician Jeannie points out, the fact that only certain audience members with the same cultural experiences can recognize and understand an allusion, shows that they can be powerful audience construction devices. You're calling together those audience members that get it. President Bush had many biblical allusions in his speeches, including this one from his 2000 inaugural address. >> And I can pledge our nation to a goal, when we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side. >> So that reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan is doing a lot. It's highlighting his shared values, and the audience is doing some work to reveal the deeper meaning of this phrase. And when we ask a rhetorical question, we're also asking the audience to fill in some missing information. So a rhetorical question, sometimes called an erotema, involves asking a question where the answer is obvious or implied. It's a question for a effect. Now, at a basic level, a rhetorical question also helps you replicate some of the conventions of conversational speech. It can serve as a way of setting up a point you want to make. So, for example, let's say you're announcing an award. And you're like, but of all the people that tried, only Eric succeeded. Now, why is this? Because only Eric had the experience to know that, so on and so forth. Not only does that allow for more conversational writing, but the question intonation breaks up the sound of the phrase. And, of course, rhetorical questions can also help cultivate a shared sense of audience identity. President Ronald Reagan was particularly adept at this type of rhetorical question. So listen to this bit from his 1980 speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. >> Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, well done? >> No! >> Can anyone compare the state of our economy when the Carter administration took office with where we are today and say, keep up the good work? >> No! >> Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, let's have four more years of this? >> No! >> Not only is this serving us away making it a general argument, but it places political opponents in a position of having to defend that which has been framed as indefensible. Now, in the US, we had one famous rhetorical question that marked the end of a political era. So back in 1954, the US Senator Joseph McCarthy held an investigation of the US Army and it became an unfortunate high water mark in McCarthy's abuses of Senate power and anti communism. Now, as the hearings came to a close after 30 days of high profile television coverage, McCarthy accused a young lawyer of communism. And the lawyer for the army, Joseph Welch, had finally had enough and he chastises McCarthy, as we'll see here. >> Now, I give this man's record and I want to say, Mr. Welch, that it has been labeled long before he became a member, as early as 1944. [CROSSTALK] >> Let us not assassinate this land further. [CROSSTALK] You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? >> I know this hurts you, Mr. Welch. >> Mr.McCarthy, I will not discuss this further with you. You have sat within six feet of me and could have asked me about Fred Fisher. You have seen fit to bring it out and, if there's a God in Heaven, it will do neither you nor you cause any good. I will not discuss it further. I will not ask Mr. Cohn any more questions. You, Mr. Chairman, may, if you will, call the next witness. >> [APPLAUSE] >> So after that, things turned pretty bad for McCarthy. He lost popular support, he was centered by the senate, became an alcoholic, and he died of hepatitis at age 48. Now, the rhetorical question didn't accomplish all of that, but it did make a sharp point. Welch could have just as easily have said, you have no sense of decency left. But it won't have been as powerful. Welch's exasperated tone with the question belittles McCarthy, hugely. It's hugely effective. So it's not surprising that techniques like allusion and rhetorical questions can often be overused. But when they're used well, they can help create an audience. The audience fills in the gaps and, in so doing, moves closer to the collective that we want. [MUSIC]
