Abstract
Emotionalism in public address is treated in many ways by many thinkers. Thonssen, Baird, and Braden maintain that the issue of the use of emotion in speaking is not settled to the satisfaction of the majority of the rhetorical theorists and speech teachers in our century. It is my position the emotionalism is much too strong a word to use if we are to reach any agreement on the nature and use of this mode of appeal. We often dismiss a speech as pure emotionalism and, therefore, unworthy of our attention. It is interesting to note in passing that we usually dismiss as emotionalism those speeches or speakers on which or with whom we disagree. Yet we are able to find all sorts of logical arguments and perfect logical structure in those speeches or speakers with which and with whom we do agree. Perhaps we should find and use generic terms that are not as charged with "emotion" as "emotional” or "logical" to describe the rhetorical appeals of speakers.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Speech Communication
Volume
15
Issue
1
First Page
25
Last Page
31
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Myers, Russel M.
(1983)
"Speaker Inspiration as a Basis of Criticism,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 15:
No.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol15/iss1/6
Copyright
©1983 Iowa Communication Association
