Writing in Noninterpersonal Settings Rhetorical Choices by Nonprofessional Writers in Letters to a Senator

摘要

What affects the rhetorical choices people make when writing to an audience they do not personally know? We believe the answer is to be found in the rhetorical situation and in certain writer characteristics. Furthermore, we suggest that the choices writers make reflect implicit theories of persuasion (Roskos-Ewoldsen). To test these notions, we analyzed 405 letters written to a United States senator with the apparent intent of affecting the senator's positions and votes on two emotionally charged topics, health care and gun control. We selected letters on those topics because they provided examples of persuasive appeals and the largest volume of constituent messages and, thus, the most substantive body of data available during the data-collection period.