Tantalize Readers with the Ancient Art of Persuasion

Writing content that kicks butt? Can't teach this 2,000 year-old dog new tricks.

Despite today's rise of automated, AI-generated content such as art, journalism, and my Spotify Wrapped analysis (which has somewhat condescendingly designated me as a "Time Traveler"), effective communication is far from a new conversation. In fact, I'd be willing to wager that ever since our distant simian ancestors were thumping coconuts against rocks, trees, and other simians, we've had our fair share of communication issues ("You want a coconut Ungo? We'll how about you take THIS coconut you nosey troglodyte"). Our shortcomings are long and historic, but notable flashes of post-coconut clarity throughout history have helped us to analyze how we interact with others.

Now, whether there simply aren't many coconuts to fight over in the Mediterranean, or the folks over there are just posing to seem better than Ungo and the rest of us (you tell me which), the Greeks that today's classical educators know and love went wild for this sort of stuff. Notably, a good old, olive-skinned guy named Aristotle talked about a lot a few thousand years ago: science, communication, even philosophy—the man had a lot of time on his hands. And, while he turned out to be dead wrong about how many scientific elements existed... by, like, a lot... we'll give the guy a pass for being spot on about rhetoric, or what you might know it as: the art of persuasion.

Essentially, Aristotle's idea was that the effectiveness of your message didn't only rely on what it is you said, but the "logos, ethos, and pathos" that you implemented within your arguments. There it is: all you need to know! The end, fin, arrivederci, bonum finem.

But, I hear you wailing "What do those strange words mean, fancy man?!"

Well, let me break it down a bit further.

When I was in college (ouef, "time traveler" indeed), the image we would refer to for all of our rhetorical shenanigans looked something like this:

I am using this image from On Point Communications in compliance with fair-use copyright law, as it is being used for an educational purpose, describes factual information, and I can't be bothered to create a diagram like this myself. Please refer to their wonderful article for the source image, and more information.

In a world of fast-paced, near instantaneous communication, it's more applicable and important than ever to adhere to this chart. Writers who do can create well-rounded content: the kind that convinces readers why they should trust an author's message in the first place. Ensuring that you understand the relationship between Author, Audience, and Text will strengthen whatever you write. But until Artificial Intelligence overruns the internet with better content than you or I can offer, the weight rests on our shoulders to analyze what we create and polish it ourselves. How do we do that? Let's look at each of the different sections in this Rhetorical Triangle.

Who is the Author?

This is fairly straightforward. It's probably you! The author is a party who creates information to interact with an audience. If there is content being created, the author is the mastermind pulling all of the medium's strings. Think of the author as a composer, or architect: they make all creative decisions, and choose how to frame language, craft documents and arguments, and make decisions about any and all external considerations.

What is an Audience?

You may or may not want them every time you create, but it's almost impossible not to have one eventually. An audience can be defined as any and all who are receptive to the Author. You can have one, or many at the same time, or even audiences you may not have even anticipated for your content. The audience can be thought of as any entity that receives your ideas, wanted or not.

What is the Text?

The text is an artifact that authors use to communicate with their audience. It can be anything: an academic paper, speech, talking to a friend, tweeting—but it operates as a medium that incorporates certain, specific characteristics to transport and convey content. You would normally implement a text after examining what constraints an audience requires. Commonly, authors may slip up and fail to accurately read the requirements of their audience. These silly goofs have probably happened to anyone who texts their boss smiley faces, anyone who thinks someone under the age of 27 will answer an unknown caller on their phone, or those who insist that oxford commas aren't really needed (and are hopefully bonked over the head with fibrous drupes from an equally cultured simian).

What is the Context?

Context surrounds all three points of our Rhetorical Triangle: the author, audience, and text. It is made up of all the rhetorical circumstances surrounding our triangle's relationships, and basically describes environment. Are you writing a letter to your landlord to kindly ask him to eat rocks for raising your rent again? Is your heater stone cold in the middle of winter while you write? Did your frozen ink make the letter look more aggressive and manic? These factors could describe, not only the surrounding situation that has spurred you into action, but the motivations behind the entire interaction to begin with.

Context can help shape the strategies that the author implements to create a specific text for an intended audience.

In conclusion, the best way to write is to not only consider each of these elements by themselves, but how they each interact with each other: how should the Text interact with the Audience? Should it present them with conventions that they are used to? How should the Author interact with the Audience? Should they write content that is expected and persuasive to an Audience they expect to read their work? How should the Author engage with their Text? Should it reflect the information, presentation, and constraints that the Author wishes to convey? Finally, how should all of this interaction be affected by the motivation and environment spurning things into motion? What role should Context play in the act of creation?

If you want your message to reach the best of its potential, you would be wise to construct your information in ways that takes these relationships into account. Until then... well, I guess we're all just banging rocks together.

Like what you've read? Be sure to check out my entire poetry collection at https://allpoetry.com/Chris_Dyrland-Marquis, or my newest love poetry book, Bitter Blossom Thunderclouds on the Apple iBook store! You can also see all of my available texts here on the site's "Available Books" section.

Yours,

Christopher Dyrland-Marquis