Katie Cervoni

App log
Dramatism
Dramatism focuses on the motives of a speaker, or a person in control of
communication. This can be done in many ways, but a speakers motives can be
identified using 5 screeners., these are who Is the speaker, where is the speaking
happening, why are they speaking, to whom are they speaking, and what is their
communication method? When the speaker is speaking, you can also identify their
motives by looking at how God and Devil words are used and defined. This will
show what the speaker believes to be the most positive and most negative
alternatives and words throughout their argument. Lastly there are three concepts
that create this theory, one of which is identification. This is seeing the connection
between the audience and the speaker. The second is dramatic pentab, which is the
usage of God and Devil words. And lastly is guilt reduction, the idea that all
persuasive effort or rhetoric is used to relieve guilt.
The most common way I have experienced this theory is through the idea of
God and Devil words. This is never something that I thought of until reading this
chapter. There is so much importance placed on the words we choose as speakers to
be the most positive or negative because it paints a clear picture to our audience of
how we truly feel and where we really stand. In many circumstances I have found
that God and Devil words are used in speech, but the positive and negative
importance is unaligned with the speakers main idea or goal, which can reduce their
credibility.