King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
E-mail: ypsi@itl.auth.gr
King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
E-mail: ypsi@itl.auth.gr
King Saud University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
E-mail: ypsi@itl.auth.gr
Abstract: Persuasiveness is an area of discourse that finds wide application in almost every aspect of human life, spreading from every day domestic discussions, Human-Computer interaction (Guerini, Stock and Zancanaro, 2004) and national or international government policies. The study of writing application letters is considered as an instance of persuasive discourse which may provide useful insights on the persuasive strategies employed by individuals of a given background and culture, at a given setup. In this light, this systematic, supported by empirical evidence study, part of a larger in depth investigation on Arabic persuasion, seeks to explore and register the persuasive strategies used by academic female Saudi Arabs. Seventy six, first year university students were asked to write a letter of application for a fictitious scholarship in an authentic academic environment. The language that appeared in this specific speech act was analysed at the level beyond the sentence structure, concentrating on the writer’s persuasive strategies. Data were evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. The frequencies of the independent and the dependent variables are initially offered followed by the relationships among the variables. It was found that despite the extensive use of religious references, perhaps expected in this specific situation, a number of other more global persuasive strategies were employed by most applicants, which were grouped according to the Aristotelian Logos, Ethos and Pathos framework. Strategies employed were clustered in groups aiming at constructing a map on persuasion of this specific speech act which would help increase global awareness in international communication.
Keywords: rhetoric, discourse analysis, stylistics, Arabic, persuasion, persuasive strategies.
Rhetoric and Communications Journal, Issue 40, July 2019