How Giuliani Used Rhetoric to Engage his Audience in His Speech to the United Nations

September 11^th, 2001 was a tragic day for New York City, the United States of America, and all free nations of the world. The deliberate attack on freedom by terrorists inspired numerous reactions that manifested in diverse art forms. Some mourned the victims through poetry and songs while others called for action in the form of letters and speeches. One specific reaction was Rudy Giuliani's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly addressing the acts of terrorism. His speech incorporates specific techniques that can be deemed more effective in spoken rhetoric as opposed to written rhetoric. According to Carrol C. Arnold, spoken rhetoric involves engaging the audience "humanly, particularly, and interactively in a special kind of context, with unique commitments of the self..." (64). Giuliani's speech, though not always obvious, utilizes three rhetorical strategies that are especially effective in spoken rhetoric: ethos to establish "humanly" connections with the audience, repetition to emphasize "particular" points, and rhetorical questions to "interact" with the audience.

In the beginning of his speech, Giuliani uses ethos to establish a trusting relationship with the audience and appeal to their "humanly" desire for trust and honesty. Though Giuliani's speech includes numerous instances of ethos, it is especially effective when he acknowledges that New York City is "the most diverse City in the world" and that "more than five thousand innocent men, women, and children of every race, religion, and ethnicity are lost." Taking into consideration that his audience is the United Nations, a diverse entity itself, it is only fitting that Giuliani emphasizes the "diversity" of the city. By addressing his genuine concern for the people of "every race, religion, and ethnicity," he enhances his credibility. The word "innocent" also displays his respect for the "men, women, and children" that lost their lives to the heinous attack on freedom (Giuliani). The members of the General Assembly are more likely to accept or at least listen to his speech because he has established this essential bond. Furthermore, Arnold noted that Aristotle believed that "indications of ethos exhibited during rhetorical speech formed the most powerful influence in spoken rhetoric." Ethos has an extremely strong short-ranged power on the listeners' attitude and willingness to accept a message. In a way, ethos inhibits a listener's innate desire to question or doubt the speaker. Furthermore, ethos is essential to spoken rhetoric because the speaker must establish a connection with the listener or else they will almost unconsciously disagree with him. It is also necessary to emphasize the speaker's integrity to convince the reader to keep an open mind and consider what the speaker has to say. In written rhetoric, this connection is necessary but not as essential because the reader still has the hard evidence, the written words, in front of him or her to analyze. Essentially, ethos allows Giuliani to convey his own integrity and "capacity to relate himself to others" in a way that compels the audience to accept his message (Arnold 54-56).

While Giuliani employs ethos to emphasize and project a "humanly" connection with his listeners, he also integrates the rhetorical strategy repetition to increase the importance of "particular" concepts. The repetition allows for strengthening certain messages, making them more memorable. In his speech, Giuliani repeats the phrase, "religious, political, and economic freedoms" (Giuliani). The repetition of these different freedoms focuses on even the diversity of the types of freedoms. This in turn, is repetition of a much greater theme that is prevalent throughout his whole speech, diversity. The repeating of specific or "particular" themes, such as diversity and freedom, stress more general beliefs. In this speech, Rudy Giuliani is incorporating this technique to engrave the notion that the terrorist attacks are a threat to freedom and democracy. By repeating the word freedom, he is essentially establishing a stronger memory connection. This technique is especially important in speeches because there are no written words for the reader to instinctively glance back on and reevaluate what he or she has just read. During a speech, a listener only has one opportunity to capture and understand the speaker's message and intentions. But repetition is basically a loophole around this rather restraining rule. It allows the speaker to reiterate essential points and arguments so that the audience does not get caught up in the specific details but are captured by the "particular" concepts and overall message. This technique can be considered more effective in spoken rhetoric as opposed to written rhetoric because repetition can seem redundant. But when used in speeches, repetition is an extremely powerful device to strengthen a message. Guiliani utilized this technique to highlight his "particular" purpose of eliciting anti-terrorist actions by the United Nations (Arnold 64).

Though Guiliani uses the repetition to focus on "particular" points, he incorporates rhetorical questions to effectively "interact" with the audience. This interaction is the final point made by Arnold in "engaging" the audience and establishing a deeper connection with them. In his speech, Giuliani poses the question of whether they were either with civilization, which is "democracy" or with the terrorists, which is "tyranny" (Giuliani). By posing this rhetorical question, he is engaging and "interacting" with the audience, which draws them further into his speech. The question interacts with the audience because it prods them to further analyze the problem at hand rather than blindly listening to the speaker. This strategy allows Guiliani and other speakers to guide the audience towards a specific conclusion through experiences, feelings, and rationality. The listener, if allowed to form his or her own conclusions, is much more likely to accept and believe it. Sometimes, these conclusions are strong enough to compel them to take action, which is exactly what Giuliani wants. Arnold also believed that the interaction between the speaker and the listener must be "exposed" and "personal" (51). Giuliani "exposes" the interaction with the audience by asking them a rather blunt and direct question. He is basically asking the General Assembly if they want to promote "executions" and "mass murder" or "respect for human life" (Giuliani). The most common answer would obviously be the latter but by asking such a direct question, he is essentially "exposing" interaction (Arnold 51). The almost ridiculousness of the question strengthens his point because the answer is so obvious. This then compels the listener to think understand exactly what he or she needs to do. In Giuliani's case, the General Assembly will be more inclined to favor action against terrorism. This interaction is certainly much stronger in a speech than in written rhetoric, because in an essay, the writer cannot truly "engage" the audience in quite the same way as through spoken words. The rhetorical question included in the speech allows Giuliani to successfully "engage" the audience "interactively" (Arnold 64).

Through the use of ethos, repetition, and rhetorical questions, Giuliani effectively exploits spoken rhetoric to its extreme and is able to direct its unique, yet powerful, assets to his benefit. His use of rhetorical devices fit almost perfectly with Arnold's concept of engaging the audience "humanly, particularly, and interactively" (64). Furthermore, the devices that Giuliani utilizes in his speech can reasonably be considered more effective in spoken rhetoric than in written rhetoric. The connection between the speaker and the listener is significantly different from the relationship between the writer and reader. According to Arnold, "the differences emerge in consequence of the unique human relationships that constitute the conditions of orality" (64). Simply put, spoken rhetoric is different because "human relationship" and "interaction" form its foundation.

Arnold, Carroll C. "Oral Rhetoric, Rhetoric, and Literature." Philosophy & Rhetoric 40 (2007): 48-64. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. 30 Oct. 2007.

Giuliani, Rudy. "Rudy Giuliani - Opening Remarks to the United Nations General Assembly." American Rhetoric. 1 Oct. 2001. 17 Oct. 2007 .