Response to Longaker and Walker

Rhetorical Analysis: A Brief Guide to Analysis begins by introducing readers to the world of rhetoric, including its history dating back to ancient Greece, and its contemporary use. Through describing the history of how rhetoric is used, a 'classical' definition is presented. This classical definition the author's describe as the 'art of persuasion'. However, they explain that the definition of the term in its contemporary use is contentious, as over the course of history its meaning has been explored and defined. Longaker and Walker argue that they will further this exploration, and will arrive at their own definition of rhetoric.

This is the bulk of the second chapter, as the authors break down the term in order to arrive at a satisfactory definition. This dissection is extensive; the authors introduce numerous technical terms in order to fully capture the full experience of the speaker-to-audience relationship. Terms such as implied rhetor, actual rhetor, intended audience, and actual audience all dictate a technical graph which is intended to display, on paper, the rhetorical situation. The authors introduce another, however not-so technical sounding, technical term, called 'kairos'. This, they describe, is the specific timing of a rhetorical situation. It is the influence that a specific setting has on how successful a rhetorical situation will be. The authors exemplify kairos by asking the reader to imagine telling a racy joke to their friend, with an extremely positive response, and then telling that same joke at the family dinner table with your parents and grandparents; not such a positive result. This, they claim, is the importance of 'kairos'. 

The second chapter concludes with an example analysis of two pieces of literature: one is a famous letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the other is a 1960's Volkswagen advertisement. The authors use multiple analytic tactics to create a rhetorical interpretation of both pieces of work, and explain the importance of each in very different terms.