Constitutive Rhetoric as an Aspect of Audience Design: The Public Texts of Canadian Suffragists

Written Communication Jan 2010 Open Access

Constitutive Rhetoric as an Aspect of Audience Design: The Public Texts of Canadian Suffragists

Katja Thieme University of British Columbia

Abstract

This article offers a way of using the theory of audience design—how speakers position different audience groups as main addressees, overhearers, or bystanders—for written discourse. It focuses on main addressees, that is, those audience members who are expected to participate in and respond to a speaker’s utterances. The text samples are articles, letters, and editorials on women’s suffrage that were published between 1909 and 1912 in Canadian periodicals. In particular, the author analyzes noun phrases with which suffrageskeptical women are addressed, relying on the theory of constitutive rhetoric to highlight the interpellative force with which the audience design of this public political debate operates.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2010-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088309353505
Open Access: OA PDF Green
Topics: multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

Thieme (2022)

A Play on Occlusion: Uptake of Letters to the University President

Rhetoric Review
Petersen et al. (2018)

Bridging Analysis and Action

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Branch (2015)

“Taste Analytically”: Julia Child’s Rhetoric of Cultivation

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Oddo (2013)

Discourse-Based Methods Across Texts and Semiotic Modes

Written Communication

Cites in this index (1)

Park (1982)

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College English

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