Closing the Gap Further

In my last entry I discussed rhetorical distance and how rhetors can form relationships with the audience to be more persuasive. Today, as I was reading my argumentative writing book for class, I came across something called "Grammatical Person." This sparked my interest because it can be applied to so many different scenarios. There are three types of grammatical persons:

First-Person Reference: "I want you to do the dishes today."
Second-Person Address: "Do these dishes today or else."
Third-Person Reference: "Someone must do these dishes today." (Crowley, 217)

Often in writing, the third-person reference is used because of its formality, however, "first and second-person discourse creates less distance between a rhetor and an audience...because the participants in the action are referred to directly" (Crowley, 217). Clearly, first and second-person discourse is used on a day to day basis when speaking to a friend, for example. It makes much more sense to say, "it is your turn to make dinner tonight" rather than, "it is her turn to make dinner tonight." If the latter (third-person reference) is used, the intimacy distance is lost and the person you are referring to may not even understand what you are saying or if you are referring to them.

A lot of times, it would make sense that in large speeches, for example, the third-person reference would be used because the rhetor is addressing a larger audience and not just a single person. This is not necessarily true, however. In the town hall style presidential debate last week, both candidates, Obama and McCain, attempted to close the distance between themselves and the audience by patting them on the back, and most importantly by using first-person reference with sayings like "My friends" and addressing those who asked questions by name before answering the question. I thought this was particularly interesting because although the audience of this debate was the entire nation, it seems more effective to address either the one person who asked the question directly or to address the entire nation as if they were being addressed individually. After all, we are all "friends" with the candidates, right? A simple use of first-person discourse in this situation allows the rhetorical distance to close and make thousands of people to believe the candidates are talking directly to them.