Strategies of Persuasion in Deliberative Discourse: An Analysis of Kenyan Parliamentary Committee Reports.

Abstract

Parliamentary committee reports emanate from choices and collective decisions on what action to take in response to emerging situations. Because of competing interests, among legislators; parliamentary committee reports (PCRs) require clear strategies of persuasion, in order to unfold their deliberative and persuasive goals. This study analysed the rhetorical appeals used in selected Kenyan parliamentary committee reports advanced to achieve the genre’s communicative purpose. The study involved an examination of rhetorical strategies of persuasion used in PCRs including logos, ethos as well as pathos and is premised on Aristotle’s Rhetoric art of persuasion theory. Descriptive research design was used with corpora being generated from fifteen parliamentary committee reports sampled five each from selected County Assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate. Results of this study indicated that different rhetorical appeals are blended and focused on convincing and persuading legislators to adopt PCRs. The findings offer insights on the interplay between deliberative discourse styles, rhetorical persuasive patterns and contribute to the pool of knowledge on genre, communication and rhetorical analysis.