Inquiry Blog Post 1: Inquiry Assignment

Inquiry Assignment

            For my topic of inquiry, I would like to venture into the rhetoric used in the political atmosphere.  Politicians seem to use a language and rhetorical devices that are not the norm in society.  They use complex wording not only in their speeches but in the bills they pass in congress.  I choose this topic because I became interested in how politicians word their speeches in order to move the audience and try to convince them into believing their political ideology or beliefs.  I also was watching a very old video on YouTube of Adolf Hitler giving a speech and it made me wonder how did he word his speeches and what rhetorical devices did he use to motivate his audience.  How did he get millions of people to believe in his ideas when his main idea was to conquer over all and become the dominant race in the world?  How could so many assist in the mass genocide of the Jewish race? All of these questions started popping in my head and then I came to one that I wanted to research.  How do politicians use different rhetoric and rhetorical devices in order to motivate the public into believing in them?

            I do not have much experience in political language or in politics as a whole but after doing a little research; I have a good amount of knowledge of how rhetoric is used in politics.  I already know that the language used by politicians and government officials is different from the general public.  They use more complex words and rhetorical devices in order to persuade mass groups of people into either changing their political beliefs or influence them into voting for a specific person or bill.  I need to learn more about the specific rhetorical devices that are used in politics and some example speeches or other items that can back up my argument.  The material I have found so far on the topic has given me an idea of what to look for in these articles.  After reading some of my articles I found I could go into the rhetoric used in campaigning versus governing and even the ideological side of it.  That is how do politicians beliefs influence what rhetorical devices they use when trying to get more votes from the public.  A couple questions that I have are:  How else do politicians used language to influence the public?  What major speeches used ‘heavy’ rhetorical devices to move the audience?