The Rhetorical Stance

WAYNE C. BOOTH

LAST FALL I had an advanced graduate The Rhetoric of Religion, through "the
student, bright, energetic, well-inform- special arts of persuasion," on down to
ed, whose papers vvere almost un- fairly naITO'" notions about rhetorical
readable. He managed to be pretentious, figures and devices. And of course \ve
dull, and disorganized in his paper on still have with us the mealling of
E1nma, and pretentious, dull, and dis- "enlpty bombast," as in the phrase
organized on Madame Bovary. On The "merely rhetorical."
Golden Bowl he was all these and ob- I Supfpose that the question of the
scure as well. Then one day, toward the role of rhetoric in the English course is
end of term, he cornered me after class meaningless if we think of rhetoric in
and said, "You know, I think you were either its broadest or its narrowest
all wrong about Robbe-Grillet's Jealousy meanings. No English course could
today." We didn't have time to discuss avoid dealing \vith rhetoric in Burke's
it, so I suggested that he write me a sense, un-der whatever nrone, and on the
note about it. Five hours later I found other hand nobody would ever advocate
in my faculty box a four-page polemic, anything so questionable as teaching
unpretentious, stimulating, organized, "nlere rhetoric." But if we settle on the
convincing. Here was a man WllO had following, traditional, definition, some
taught freshman composition for several real questions are raised: "Rhetoric is
years and who was incapable of commit- the art of finding and employing the
ting any of the more obvious errors most effective means of persuasion on
that we think of as characteristic of any subject, considered independently
bad writing. Yet he could not vvrite a of intellectual mastery of that subject.';-
-decent sentence, paragraph, or paper As the students say, "Prof. X knows his
until his rhetorical problem was solved stuff but he doesn't kno\v how to put it
-until, that is, he had found a definition across." If rhetoric is thought of as the
of his audience, his argument, and his art of "putting it across," considered as
own proper tone of voice. quite distinct from mastering an "it"
in the first place, \ve are immediately
TIle word ~~rhetoric" is one of those
lan-ded in a bramble bush of contro-
catch-all terms that can easily raise
versy. Is there such an art? If so, what
trouble when our backs are turned. As it
does it consist of? Does it have a con-
regains a popularity that it once seemed
tent of its own? Can it be taught?
permanently to have lost, its meanings
Should it be taught? If it should, how
seem to range all the way from some-
do we go about it, head on or obliquely?
thing like ~~the whole art of writing on
Obviously it would be foolish to try
any subject," as in Kenneth Burke's
to deal with many of these issues in
Author of The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961), twenty minutes. But I wish that there
Mr. Booth is a member of the English De- \vere more signs of OUf taking all of
partment at the University of Chicago. them seriously. I wish that along with
139
140 COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION

our new passion for structural linguis- Now the teacher was right, but the
tics, for example, we could point to the application of even such a firm princi-
development of a rhetorical theory that ple requires reserves of tact that were
would show jllSt how knowledge of somewhat beyond my freshman.
structural linguistics can be useful to But with all of the reservations made,
anyone interested in the art of persua- surely the charge that the art of persua-
sion. I wish there were Inore freshman sion cannot in any sense be taught is
texts that related every principle and baseless. I cannot think that anyone WI10
every rule to functional principles of has ever read Aristotle~s Rhetoric or,
rhetoric, or, where this proves impos- say, Whateley's Elements of Rhetoric
sible, I wish one found more syste- could seriously make the charge. There
matic discussion of why it is impossible. is more than enough in these and the
But for today, I must content myself other traditional rhetorics to prOvide
with a brief look at the charge that structure and content for a year-long
there is nothing distinctive and teach- course. I believe that such a course,
able about the art of rhetoric. when planned and carried through
The case against the isolability and with intelligence and flexibility, can be
teachability of rhetoric may look at first one of the most important of all educa-
like a good one. Nobody writes rhetoric, tional experiences. But it seems obvious
just as nobody ever writes writing. What that the arts of persuasion cannot be
we write and speak is always this dis- learned in one year, that a good teach-
cussion of the decline of railroading and er will continue to teach them regard-
that discussion of Pope's couplets and less of his subject matter, and that we
the other argument for abolishing the as English teachers have a special re-
poll-tax or for getting rhetoric back into sponsibility at all levels to get certain
English studies. basic rhetorical principles into all of
We can also admit that like all the our writing assignments. When I think
arts, the art of rhetoric is at best very back over the experiences which llave
chancy, only partly amenable to syste- llad any actual effect on my writing, I
matic teaching; as we are all painfully find the great good fortune of a splendid
aware when our 1:00 section goes mis- freshman course, taught by a man who
erably and our 2:00 section of the same believed in what he was doing, but I
course is a delight, our own rhetoric is also find a collection of other experi-
not entirely under control. Successful ences quite unconnected 'vith a speci6c
rhetoricians are to some extent like writing course. I remember the instruc-
poets, born, not made. They are also tor in psychology who pencilled one
dependent on years of practice and ex- word after a peculiarly pretentious
perience. And we can finally admit that paper of mine: bull. I remember the day
even the firmest of principles about when P. A. Christensen talked with me
writing cannot be taught in the same about my Chaucer paper, and made me
sense that elementary logiC or arithmetic understand that my failure to use ef-
or French can be taught. In my first fective transitions was not simply a
year of teaching, I had a student who technical fault but a fundamental block
started his first two essays with a swear in my effort to. get him to see my mean-
word. When I suggested that perhaps ing. His off-the-cuff pronouncement
the third paper ought to start with that I should never let myself write a
something else, he protested that his sentence that was not in some wa,Y
high school teacher had taught him explicitly attached to preceding and
always to catch the reader's attention. following sentences meant far more to
 THE RHETORICAL STANCE 141

me at that moment, when I had some- at work in any cOlnmunicative effort:

thing I wanted to say, than it could the available arguments about the sub-
have meant as part of a pattern of such ject itself, the interests and peculiarities
rules offered in a writing course. Sim- of the audience, and the voice, the im-
ilarly, I can remelnber the devastating plied character, of the speaker. I should
lessons about my bad writing that Ron- like to suggest that it is this balance, this
ald Crane could teach with a simple rhetorical stance, difficult as it is to
question mark 011 a graduate selninar describe, that is our main goal as teach-
paper, or a pencilled "Evidence for ers of rhetoric. Our ideal graduate will
this?" or "Why this section here?" or sb'ike this balance automatically in any
"Everybody says so. Is it true?" writing that he considers finished.
Such experiences are not, I like to Though he may never COlne to the
think, simply the result of my being a point of finding tIle balance easily, h.e
late bloomer. At least I find my col- will know that it is \vhat makes the
leagues saying such things as HI didn't difference between effective communi-
learn to write until I beca.me a nevvs- cation and mere ,vasted effort.
paper reporter," or "The most important What I mean by the trlle rhetorician'~
training in writing I had ,vas doing a stance can perhaps best be seen by con-
dissertation under old Blank." SOIne- trasting it with two or three corruptions,
times they go on to say that the fres}l- unbalanced stances often assunled by
man course was useless; sometimes they people who think they are practicing
say that it was an indispensable prepa- tIle arts of persuasion.
ration for the later experience. The The first I'll call the pedanfs stance;
diversity of such replies is so great as to it consists of ignoring or underplaying
suggest that before we try to reorganize the personal relationship of speaker and
the freshman course, ,vith or without audience and depending entirely on
explicit confrontations ,vith rhetorical statements about a subject-that is, the
categories, we ought to look for what- notion of a job to be done for a particu-
ever there is in common among our ex- lar audience is left out. It is a virtue, of
periences, both of good writing and of course, to respect the bare truth of
good writing instruction. vVhatever we one's subJect, and there may even be
discover in such an enterprise ought to some subjects which in their very lla-
be useful to us at any level of our ture define an audience and a rhetorical
teaching. It will not, presulnably, de- purpose so that adequacy to the sub'ject
cide once and for all what should be can be the whole art of presentation.
the content of the freshman course, jf For example, an article on· ~'The relation
there should be such a course. But it of the ontological and teleological
might serve as a guideline for the de- proofs," in a recent Journal of Religion,
velopment of widely different programs requires a minimum of ada.ptation of
in the widely differing institutional cir- argunlent to audience. But most subjects
cumstances in which ,ve must work. do not in themselves imply in any neces-
The common ingredient that I find in sary way a purpose and an audience
all of the writing I admire-excluding and hence a speaker's tone. The writer
for now novels, plays and poems-is who assumes that it is enough Inerely
something that I shall reluctantly call to write an exposition of what he hap-
tIle rhetorical stance, a stance 'Vvhich pens to know on the subject will pro-
depen·ds on discovering and 111aintaining duce the kind of essay that soils our
in any writing situation a p'roper bal- scholarly journals, written not for read-
ance among the tlu'ee elements that are ers but for bibliograpl1ies.
142 COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION

In 11ly first year of teaching I taug11t from now until graduation, but unless
a whole unit on C'exposition:J' without the student discovers a desire to say
ever suggesting, so far as I can remem- sOluething to somebody and learns to
ber, that the students ask tllen1selves control his diction for a purpose, we've
\vhat their expositions were for. So they gained very little. I once gave an assign-
vvrote expositions like this one-I've n1ent asking stu'dents to describe the
saved it, to teach me toleration of my same classroom in three different state-
colleagues: the title is "Family relations rnents, one for each level of usage.
in More's Utopia." "In this theme I They vvere obedient, but the only ones
\vould like to discuss some of the rela- \vho got anything froin the assignment
tionships \vith the family which Thomas were those who intuitively impoited the
~10re elaborates and sets forth in his rhetorical instructions I had overlooked
book, Utopia. The first thing tIlat I -sucll purposes as "Make fun of your
\vould like to discuss about family rela- scholarly surroundings by describing
tions is that overpopulation, according this classroom in extremely elevated
to More, is a just calIse of war." And so style,'" or "Imagine a kid from the slums
on. Can you hear that student sneering accidentally trapped in tl1ese surround-
at me, in this opening? What he is say- ings and forced to write a description
ing is sornething like "you ask for a of this room." A little thought might
meaningless paper, I give yOll a mean- have shown me how to give the whole
ingless paper." He kno\vs that he has no assignment some human point, and
audience except me. He knows that I therefore some educative value.
don't \vant to read his summary of falu- Jnst ho\v confused we can allo\v our-
ily relations in Utopia, an'd he kno\vs selves to be abollt such matters is
that I know that he therefore has no shown in a recent publication of the
rhetorical purpose. Because he has not E'ducational Testing Service, called
been led to see a question which he "Factors in Judgments of Writing Abili-
considers worth answering, or an audi- ty." In order to isolate those factors
ence that could possibly care one way which affect differences in grading
or the other, the paper is worse than no standards, ETS set six groups of readers
paper at all, even though it has no gran1- -business men, writers and editors,
111atical or spelling errors and is organ- lawyers, and teachers of English, social
ized right down the line, one, two, science and natural science-to reading
three. the same batch of papers. Tllen ETS
An extreme case, you may say. Most did a hundred-page "factor analysis"
of us ,vould never allo,,, ourselves that of the amount of agreement and dis-
kind of empty fencing? Perhaps. But if agreement, and of the elements which
some carefree foundation is willing to different kinds of graders emphasized.
finance a statistical study, I'ln ,villing The authors of the report express a
to wager a month's salary that we'd certain amount of shock at the discov-
find at least half of the suggested topics ery that the nledian correlation \vas only
in our freshman texts as pointless as .31 and that 94% of the papers received
mine was. And we'd find a good deal either 7, 8, or 9 of the 9 pOSSible grades.
more than half of the discussions of But what could they have expected?
grammar, punctuation, spelling, and In the first place, the students were
style totally divorced from any notion given no purpose and no audience when
that rhetorical purpose to some degree the essays were assiglled. And then all
controls all such matters. We can offer tllese editors and business men an'd
objective descriptions of levels of usage academics \vere asked to judge the pa-
 THE RHETORICAL STANCE 143

pers in a complete vacuum, using only One effective way to combat the
whatever intuitive standards they cared pedantic stance is to an·ange for weekly
to use. I'm surprised that there was confrontations of groups of students
any correlation at all. Lacking instruc- over their own papers. We have done
tions, some of the students undoubtedly far too little experimenting with ar-
wrote polemical essays, suitable for the rangements for providing a genuine
popular press; others no doubt imagined audience in this way. Short of such
an audience, say, of Reader's Digest developments, it remains true that a
readers, and others wrote \vjth the good teacher can convince his students
English teachers as implied audience; that he is a true audience, if his com-
an occasional student with real philo- ments on the popers show that some
sophical bent wOllld no doubt do a sort of dialogue is taking place. As
careful analysis of the pros and cons of Jacques Barzun says in Teacher in
the case. This would be graded low, of America, students should be made to
course, by the magazine editors, even feel that unless tIley have said some..
though they would have graded it higll thing to someone, they llave failed; to
if asked to judge it as a speculative bore the teacher is a worse form of
conbibution to the analysis of the prob- failure than to anger him. From this
lem. Similarly, a creative student who point of view we can see that tlle
has been getting A's for his personal charts of grading symbols that mar even
essays will write an amusing colorful the best freshman texts are not the in-
piece, failed by all the social scientists nocent time savers that we pretend.
present, though they would have graded Plausible as it may seem to arrange for
it Wgh if asked to judge it for \vhat it more corrections with less time, they
was. I find it shocking than tens of inevitably reduce the student's sense of
thousands of dollars and endless hours purpose in writing. When he sees in-
should have been spent by students, numerable W13's and PI9's in the mar-
graders, and professional testers analyz- gin, he cannot possibly feel that the art
ing essays and grading results totally of persuasion is as important to his
abstracted from any notion of p·urpose- instructor as when he reads personal
ful human communication. Did nobody comments, however few.
protest? One might as well assemble a This first perversion, then, springs
grOllp of citizens to judge students' ca.. from ignoring the audience or over-
pacity to throw balls, say, ,vithout telling reliance on the pure subject. TIle sec-
the students or the graders whether ond, which might be called the adver-
altitude, speed, accuracy or form was tiser's stance, comes from undervaluing
to be judged. The judges \vould be the subject and overvaluing pure effect:
drawn from football coaches, hai-Iai how to win friends and influence
experts, lawyers, and English teachers, people.
and asked to apply whatever standards Some of our best freshman texts-
they intuitively apply to ball throwing. Sheridan Baker's The Practical Stylist,
Then we could express astonishment for example-allow themselves on oc-
th·at the judgments did not correlate casion to suggest that to be controver-
very well, and we could do a factor sial or argumentative, to stir up an
analysis to discover, 10 and behold, that audience is an end in itself. Sharpen
some readers concentrated on altitude the controversial edge, one of thelTI
some on speed, some on accuracy, som~ says, and the clear implication is that
on form-and the English teachers were one should do so even if the truth of
simply confused. the subject is honed off in the process.
144 COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION

This perversion is probably in the long 200 businessmen on the table of con-
run a more serious threat in our society tents, and . . . "
than the danger of ignoring the alldi- At one point I did manage to ask him
ence. In the time of audience-reaction whether the title he chose really fit the
Ineters and pre-tested plays and novels, book. "Not quite as well as one or two
it is not easy to convince students of of the others," he admited, ~'but that
the old Platonic truth that good persua- doesn't matter, you know. If the book is
sion is honest persuasion, or even of -designed right, so that the first chapter
the old Aristotelian truth that the good pulls them in, and you keep :tern in,
rhetorician must be master of his sub- who's going to gripe about a little in-
ject, no matter how dishonest he may accuracy in the title?"
decide ultimately to be. Having told Well, rhetoric is the art of persuading,
them that good writers always to some not the art seeming to persuade by giv-
degree accommodate their arguments to ing everything away at the start. It
the audience, it is hard to explain the presupposes that one has a purpose con-
difference between justified accommoda- cerning a subject which itself cannot be
tion-say changing point one to the final fundamentally modified by the desire to
position-and the kind of accommoda- persuade. If Edmund Burke had decid-
tion that fills our popular magazines, in ed that he could win more votes in
\vhich the very substance of wllat is Parliament by chOOSing the other side-
said is accommodated to some precon- as he most certainly could have done-
ception of what will sell. "The publica- ,ve would hardly hail this party-switch
tion of Eros [magazine] represents a as a master stroke of rhetoric. If
major breakthrough in the battle for Churchill had offered the British "peace
the liberation of the human spirit." in our time," with some laughs thrown
At a dinner about a month ago I sat in, because opinion polls had shown
between the wife of a famous civil that more Britishers were "grabbed" by
rights lawyer and an advertising con- these than by blood, s\veat, and tears,
sultant. "I saw the article on your book we could hardly call his decision a sign
yesterday in the Daily News," she said, of rhetorical skill.
"but I ·didn't even finish it. The title of One could easily discover other per-
your book scared me off. Why did you versions of the rhetorician's balance-
ever choose such a terrible title? No- most obviously what might be called
body would buy a book with a title the entertainer's stance-the willingness
like that." The man on my right, ,vhom to sacrifice substance to personality and
I'll call Mr. Kinches, overhearing my charm. I admire Walker Gibson's ef-
feeble reply, plunged into a conversa- forts to startle us out of dry pedantry,
tion with her, over my torn and bleeding but I know from experience that his
corpse. "Now with my last book," he exhortations to find and develop the
said, "I listed 20 possible titles and then speaker's voice can lead to empty color-
tested them out on 400 business men. fulness. A student once said to me,
The one I chose was voted for by 90 complaining about a colleague, "I soon
percent of the businessmen." "'That's learned tllat all I had to do to get an A
what I was just saying to Mr. Booth," \vas imitate Thurber."
she said. "'A book title ought to grab But perhaps this is more than enough
you, and rhetoric is not going to grab about the perversions of the rhetorical
anybody." "'Right," he said. "My last stance. Balance itself is always harder
book sold 50,000 copies already; I don't to describe than the clumsy poses that
know how this one will do, but I polled result when it is destroyed. But we all
 1-1-IE RHETORICAL STANCE 145

experience the balance whenever we here: every effort is made to involve the
find an author "vho succeeds in chang- proper audience, the au·dience of philo-
ing our minds. He can -do so only if he sophical minds, in a fundamentally in··
knows more about the subject than we teresting inquiJ:y, and to lead thenl
do, and if he then engages us in the through to the end. In short, because
process of thinking - and feelillg - it he \vas a man engaged with men in the
through. Wllat makes the rhetoric of effort to solve a human problem, one
Milton and Burke and Churchill great could never call "vhat he wrote dull,
is that each presents us with the spec- however difficult or abstruse.
tacle of a man passionately involved in Now obviously the habit of seeking
thinking an important question through, this balance is not the only thing we
in the company of an audience. T'hongh have to teach under the heading of
each of them did everything in his pow- rhetoric. But I think that everything
er to make his point persuasive, includ- worth teaching under that heading finds
ing a pervasive use of the many emo- its justification finally in that balance.
tional appeals that have beell falsely Much of what is now considered irrele-
scorned by many a freshman composi- vant or dull can, in fact, be brought
tion text, none would have allowed him- to life \\Then teachers and stu'dents kno\v
self the advertiser's stance; none would what they are seeking. Churchill reports
have polled the audience in advance to that the most valuable training he ever
'discover which position would get the received in rhetoric "vas in the dia-
votes. Nor is the highly individual per- gramming of sentences. Think of it! Yet
sonality that springs out at us fron1 the diagramming of a sentence, regard-
their speeches and essays present for less of the grammatical systelTI, can be
the sake of selling itself. The rhetorical a live subJect as soon as one asks not
balance among speakers, audience, and simply "How is this sentence put to-
argument is with all three men habitual, gether," but rather "WIlY is it put to-
as we see if we look at their non-politi-· gether in this way?" or "Could the
cal writings. Burke's work on the Sub- rhetorical balance and hence the de-
lime and Beautiful is a relatively un- sired persuasion be better achieved by
impassioned philosophical treatise, but \vriting it differently?"
one finds there again a delicate bal- As a nation we are reputed to write
ance: though the implied author of this very badly. As a nation, I would say, we
work is a far different person, far less are more inclined to the perversions of
obtrusive, far more objective, than the rhetoric than to the rhetorical balance.
man who later cried sursum corda to Regardless of what we do about this
the British Parliament, he permeates or that course in the cUlfriculum, our
with his p,hilosophical personality his mandate would seem to be, then, to
philosophical work. And thougIl the lead more of our students than we no\v
signs of his awareness of Ius audience do to care about and practice the true
are far more subdued, they are still arts of persuasion.
The Rhetorical Stance
1IIiiiiil. .1IiiiII@

Wayne C. Booth

College Composition and Communication, Vol. 14, No.3, Annual Meeting, Los Angeles,
1963: Toward a New Rhetoric. (Oct., 1963), pp. 139-145.

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