Rhetoric/Propaganda/Persuasion Quote

Quote: 1033 "To the academician, the language of the reporter is excessively casual, trivializing, and simple-minded, if not downright wrong or silly. To the journalist, the language of the academicians is excessively passive, technical, and complication, if not downright wordy or pompous. ... Academic language strives to be informative and accurate. ... To the reporter, though, the result sounds like nitpicking; it encumbers the research with so many qualifications and exceptions that the results seem meaningless." Carol Tavris

In this quote, Tavris explains that there are two different types of using language to convey a message or an argument. The first, the language of reporters, focuses completely on emotions and rhetoric devices to persuade or inform. Tavris also explains that this causes academicians to view them as "simple-minded" and inaccurate, which may also make them seem ignorant or "silly". The second type of language, the language of academicians, does not use rhetoric devices or emotions to persuade but rather it is strictly factual and statistical. The evidence and support is extremely concrete, however, to a reporter the argument often seems "wordy or pompous" and may even cause the message to seem meaningless. With this said, I think Tavris is trying to convey that the most successful way of using our language is to incorporate both rhetoric devices AND informative facts. This way, the argument will not be overwhelmed with research and yet, it will certainly not be dismissed as "simple-minded". Therefore, the strongest argument will be one that includes both rhetoric devices to persuade and irrefutable evidence to support.