Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Use of Language to Manipulate


The part of this chapter that I thought was very interesting was the use of language to manipulate people. I never really thought of all the ways in which we use words to make people think or feel a certain way about something. The chapter explained how manipulation can be carried out through the use of emotive language, rhetorical devices, or deliberate deception. Emotive language is used to elicit certain emotional impacts, which basically means you use certain words or phrases in your speech to invoke either positive or negative emotions in people. There are several rhetorical devices but, similar to emotive language, they use psychological persuasion to sway others thoughts. Deception can be described as the use of misinformation to affect someone’s thoughts or feelings on a matter. I think what I really enjoyed about this chapter was that it got me to think twice about the things I say. I’m going to try to be more mindful of how I might be using language to manipulate others.

2 comments:

  1. Hello blog cobb! I really liked your post for a number of reasons. First off I like how you used manipulation as the topic and touched base on multiple rhetorical devices. Second I also appreciated how you mentioned the rhetorical devices that include psychological persuasion aspects as well. As a business major I know that deception and manipulation is a huge negative connotation that lingers over business in general. It is great to have read your examples and others in the book, that give ways to inform ourselves, and therefore be mindful of, how manipulation can be used in language. Thanks again for the great post!

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  2. I also found the use of language as a means of manipulation interesting. I’ve noticed that a lot of what I’ve read in this book has allowed me to learn more about just having effective communication. I’m glad that you were able to decipher the difference between emotive language and deliberate deception. This chapter also got me to pay closer attention to what I say and noticing the way I state things. Now, I am more aware of whether or not the way I communicate with others is coming across as sarcasm or anything else. Being self-aware is highly important!

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