A Rhetorical Analysis Of President Barack Obama's Election Campaign Speeches

Based on Aristotle's theory of three appeals,this thesis chooses the Presidential Election Campaign speeches delivered by American President Barack Obama dated from August 28,2008 to November 4,2008 as research subject and aims to investigate rhetorical strategies in his election speeches.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in this thesis.To meet the purpose of investigation,one corpus of President Obama's election campaign speeches has been established.One thing needs to be especially pointed out is that the data used to compile the corpus are authentic and vivid languages in actual communication.They are not created by the writer of this thesis simply for the sake of analyzing.The data come from Mr.Obama's presidential campaign website.They are official and formal.It is found that rhetoric theories may serve as sound explanatory tools for persuasive means in public speeches.In any persuasive discourse,the three persuasive means of ethos,pathos and logos may be employed solely or predominantly,or as a combination of any two or all of them at the same time.We separate them from one another just for the convenience of analysis.Actually,in public speaking,these three means are often used simultaneously.In addition,findings guide public speaking in academic fields of rhetoric and linguistics can be used to guide persuasive writing.