Forensic Rhetoric: The Force of Closing Arguments (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Clason focuses on the closing argument rhetorical practices of five trial attorneys. She seeks to 1) learn how participants utilized rhetorical strategies in closing argument; 2) better understand how they selected those strategies; and 3) examine why they employed the strategies they did through the central categories of ethos, logos, and pathos. Study participants awareness and consideration of the classical speaker, audience, and message Aristotelian speech situation as well as the power of persuasion demonstrates the continued influence of rhetoric in courts and rhetorical nature of legal discourse. The philosophical debate -- is rhetorical education the path to higher evolution and greater good, or is it to affect audiences to elicit desired responses has yet to be resolved.