I want to talk about: A rhetorical analysis of the introductions of 40 speeches about engineering - Ron Choi ENG 574

Van De Mieroop, Dorein, J. De Jong and B. Andeweg. "I want to talk about: A rhetorical analysis of the introductions of 40 speeches about engineering." Journal of Business and Technical Communication, v22 n2, 2008: 186-210.

In this journal article, the authors describe a rhetorical analysis of 40 speech introductions by technical professionals.  They analyzed the introductions using an exordial model based on three main functions:

1. Attentum – techniques to garner the audience’s attention
2. Benevolum – techniques to garner the audience’s sympathy towards the speech/speaker
3. Docliem – techniques to enable the audience to follow or understand the data/information

In their analysis, the authors determined that rhetorically complete introductions (those using all three exordial techniques) were rare, and that the speakers placed a much greater emphasis on a docilem or content-oriented approach.  This would seem to correlate with the expectations of engineering audiences, as determined by a previous survey.   The authors even theorize that the use of benevolum techniques might even reduce the credibility of the presenter with this audience. 

This study has many similar elements to my own research project.  I would like to examine the rhetorical methods of engineers as they have done, and my theory is similar to what they have shown – that both engineering rhetors and their audiences put different priorities on different rhetorical techniques.  But, I also found a few potential issues that I would like to try and address in my own research.  The authors note that one potential issue in their study is the experience level of the speaker – this could easily have an effect on the use of rhetorical techniques.  Another potential factor in the use of rhetoric in the introductions was the rhetor’s perception of the presentation’s intent.  The authors found that engineers tend to think of their presentations as informative rather than persuasive, which would reduce the perceived need for rhetoric.  Thirdly, although the study did show that the speakers had a distinct preference for the docilem technique, there was no comparison made against other, non-technical speeches.