…And How it Differs from Argument

The “Sweet” Language of Advertising and

Persuasion…

Excerpted with permission from: PROSE STYLES: TOUGH, SWEET AND STUFFY by Don Nilsen and “Argument,”compiled by J. A. Stanford, Jr.

Part 1:What is argument versus persuasion?

Argumentation vs. Persuasion Persuasion is designed to create a want

or motivate an action.

It relies heavily on appeals to emotion, and often uses the same linguistic resources as poetry to achieve it end: vivid images, careful control of connotations, repetition, rhythm, even rhyme

Argumentation vs. Persuasion Argumentation clarifies a topic rather than

moving a reader.

Its function is to make a reader see things from a particular way rather than make the reader do something.

It’s a more rational skill than persuasion.

Argumentation vs. Persuasion

Where persuasion seeks to put a mind to sleep, so that its appeal to emotion will be effective, argumentation aims to awaken thought by appealing to reason.

Argumentation The core of the argument is an assertion or

proposition, a debatable claim about the subject.

The assertion may defend or challenge a position, value, or belief; suggest a solution; recommend a change in policy; et cetera.

Opposing arguments are raised, and then dispensed with.

Part 2: What styles of language are common to a certain genre?

21 8

POINT OF VIEW:

THE NOVEL: THE AD: THE TEXT BOOK:

ETHOS PATHOSLOGOS

TOUGH SWEETSTUFFY

1ST PERSON 2ND PERSON3RD PERSON

SUBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVEOBJECTIVE

INFORMAL INTIMATEFORMAL

21 9

SWEET LANGUAGESweet language is the language of advertisors.

Walker Gibson calls this language AROMA (Advertising Rhetoric of Madison Avenue).

Sweet language is listener-oriented in an attempt to seduce listeners into buying products they don’t want or need.

21 10

It is language full of innovative spellings, creative grammar, and wild punctuation.

Sweet writing contains many sentence fragments, and would rather flaunt a grammatical rule than conform to it: “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. What do you want, good grammar, or good taste?”

21 11

Sweet language is the language of sensationalism, the language of superlatives and hyperbole.

It is the language of diversion; it plays tricks on the reader with its puns, its word coinages, its humor, its packaging, its sex, and other aspects which have nothing to do with the product itself.

It is informal, or sometimes even intimate or cutesy in tone.

21 12

Contractions, clippings, blendings, and deletions abound, making it all the more cryptic and intimate.

It’s full of slang expressions like “no doubt about it,” “cut it out,” and “where else?” It can be cutesy, as in “Dry skin? Not me, darling. Every inch of little me is as smooth as (well, you know what).”

21 13

Gibson says that a common kind of coinage in sweet language is the noun-adjunct construction (a noun modified by another noun).

We see this kind of coinage in “Speakerphone,” “Fooderama living,” “decorator colors,” and “Supermarket selection.”

The Bell Company praises the beauties of its “hands-free, group-talk, across-the-room telephone.

21 14

SUMMARY OF WORD DEVELOPMENT:

THE NOVEL: THE AD:THE TEXT BOOK:

COLLOQUIAL COLLOQUIALFORMAL

SLANG: CHARACTERSLANG: AD

NO SLANGDEPENDENT DEPENDENT

MODALS GERUNDSINFINITIVESPERFECTSPROGRESSIVES

SPELLING = SPELLINGS =SPELLINGS = CHARACTERS CREATIVECORRECT

ANGLO-SAXON ANGLO-SAXONINKHORN TERMS

WORDS WORDSGREEK & LATIN

21 15

SUMMARY OF SENTENCE DEVELOPMENT:

THE NOVEL: THE AD:THE TEXT BOOK:

SHORT, CHOPPYLONG, COMPLICATED

FRAGMENTSPERFECT GRAMMAR

COMMA SPLICES

SIMPLE SIMPLELONG & COMPLEX

CASUAL PUNCTUATIONPERFECT PUNCTUATION

RHETORICALSENTENCES DON’T

QUESTIONSMAKE CLAIMS BEYOND

IMPERATIVESEVIDENCE

THEY,YOU,

21 16

SUMMARY OF USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

THE NOVEL: THE AD:THE TEXT BOOK:

AUTHOR PARTICIPANT ?AUTHOR

AUTHOR OBSERVANTOBSERVANT

AUTHOR OMNISCIENT

MAINLY TROPES: MAINLY SCHEMES:LITERAL

IN MEDIAS RES ALLITERATION METAPHOR ASSONANCEIRONY RHYMEPOETIC JUSTICE CUTESY TONESIMILESALLEGORIES