Booth and The Rhetorical Stance

A Professional Hazard

Let’s start with an activity.

Drawing on Aristotle, Booth defines rhetorical balance and explores the consequences of misusing the modes of appeal: 

“The common ingredient that I find in all of the writing I admire…is something that I shall reluctantly call the rhetorical stance, a stance which depends on discovering and maintaining in any writing situation a proper balance among the three elements that are at work in any communicative effort: the available arguments about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice, the implied character, of the speaker” (Booth, 1963, p. 141).

This means we need to consider three parts when considering rhetorical balance. Does this sound familiar at all? It should. What do these parts make you think of? “Available arguments?” “Interests and peculiarities?” “Implied character”?

Booth’s three elements are the same as the modes of appeal:

• “the available arguments about the subject itself” = logos
• “interests and peculiarities of the audience” = pathos
• “implied character of the speaker” = ethos

He finds that he admires writing that keeps these three elements in balance, a rhetorical balance , if you will. You should strive to maintain this balance whenever you craft a persuasive message.

However, this doesn’t mean you will always have equal parts of ethos, pathos, and logos. Depending on your scenario, you may need to emphasize one over the others, but that doesn’t mean you neglect the others. Instead, you need to respect them properly and ensure you don’t focus too much on one at the expense of the others.

Booth discusses rhetorical balance primarily through rhetorical imbalance: the three corruptions or perversions of the rhetorical stance. These rhetorical corruptions/perversions highlight the problems that arise when one mode of appeal is out of balance with the others. Let’s look at each one now.

The Pedant’s Stance

The pedant’s stance “consists of ignoring or underplaying the personal relationship of speaker and audience and depending entirely on statements about a subject—that is, the notion of a job to be done for a particular audience is left out” (Booth, 1963, p. 141).

Booth dedicates most of his discussion to the pedant’s stance, using professors as an example of corruption. He recognizes that, as a group, professors commonly fall prey to this corruption. This is because they tend to lecture students without ensuring their audience understands the information they are attempting to convey. Thus, pedants do not bother to adapt information carefully for a specific audience; instead, they expect an audience to interpret and prioritize information independently instead of targeting the information for a particular audience in a specific context.

The Advertiser’s Stance

Booth (1963) indicates that the advertiser’s stance “comes from undervaluing the subject and overvaluing pure effect: how to win friends and influence people” (p. 143, emphasis in original).

We can see an example of the advertiser’s stance on companies using “greenwashing” to market their products. Greenwashing occurs when a company markets its product or service so that it appears to be environmentally friendly when, in reality, the product or service does not have, or hardly has, any environmental benefits.  A good example of this is companies that sell bottled water. The images on their labels often use natural elements (mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.) even though the bottles are environmentally hazardous.

Another more recent example comes from Starbucks. Starbucks recently committed to banning single-use straws from its stores to reduce the amount of plastic waste. Instead, they would only use strawless lids. However, there are concerns that the lids will use more plastic than the original straw-lid combo. This campaign has led to accusations of greenwashing against the company. While Starbucks does not dispute that this is an issue, they stress that the plastic used for the new lids is much easier for recycling infrastructure to catch and reuse, as opposed to straws, which are too small.

Similarly, a company can boost its public image by addressing the audience’s environmental concerns. This is often done in combination with pathos (an emotional appeal).

The Entertainer’s Stance

Finally, Booth defines the entertainer’s stance as the “willingness to sacrifice substance to personality and charm” (Booth, 1963, p. 144). In communication, entertainers prioritize ego gratification over establishing appropriate relations with an audience or delivering a coherent message. Thus, entertainers often focus excessively on gaining their audience’s approval or admiration, sometimes contempt, while failing to establish their professional credibility and persuade their audience.