The market for high-tech services is expanding, and writers will have to create more documents to market these services. Researchers note marked differences between traditional goods marketing and services marketing. A rhetorical framework for high-tech services marketing will give writers a tool for creating effective marketing messages. This study examines the five canons of rhetoric in their classical context, and then examines how the first professional teachers, the Sophists, used rhetoric to promote their services. The canons of rhetoric are then analyzed to show their modern significance. This study also considers visual rhetoric and how writers can use it effectively. This study shows that companies should promote service quality and strong service relationships through the rhetorical element of ethos. This study examines services marketing samples through a visual and verbal rhetorical framework, providing rhetorical insights that writers can use in their work.

Political advertising on television is a relatively “new” phenomenon in South African general election campaigns (circa 2008). The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare the three sampled 2009 and 2014 African National Congress (A.N.C.) political television advertisements, with a specific focus on the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric in the communication of election campaign messages. To achieve this goal, the study reviewed literature in the subject of rhetoric and post-colonial perspectives in the areas of Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism, focusing specifically on the seminal work of the Afro-centrist, Molefi Asante, and the anti-Western-centric scholar, Samin Amin. The study uses social semiotics (as both a theoretical approach and a research methodological framework). As a theoretical approach, the social semiotic approach was conceptualised by Valentin Voloshinov (1973) and Michael Halliday (1978), and it argues for the creation of social meaning within a text and within a society. The study focuses on the former, the creation of meaning within a text, that is, the content of the three sampled political advertisements. As a research framework, the approach was adapted by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (1996). The study favours their social semiotic research method which provide the interpreter/researcher with dimensions, or “tools’, with which to explicate and deconstruct textual meanings. Thus, in this study, social semiotics as part of the broader field of discourse analysis, was used to deconstruct the latent and manifest ideologies of the non-verbal, verbal and visual rhetoric of two 2009 and one 2014 A.N.C. political television advertisements. Using this combined theoretical framework (rhetoric, social semiotics and Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism), and, research approach, it could be determined whether the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of these three A.N.C. political television commercials represents Afrocentric and/or Eurocentric post- colonial The main findings of the study show that both the visual and verbal rhetoric of the sampled A.N.C. political television commercials represents a combination of a varying ideological constructs, namely the “nationalist”; “socialist”; “liberal feminist”; and, “liberal capitalist ideologies” (cf. Haywood 1998; Thompson 2003). Furthermore, the findings of the study point out that the verbal, non-verbal and visual rhetoric of the selected A.N.C. political television commercials, are neither exclusively Afrocentric nor Eurocentric in nature. Both post-colonial perspectives are represented, in varying degrees, in the sampled A.N.C. commercials. The study makes a significant contribution to the political communication landscape in South Africa, in that, it is an exclusively qualitative content analysis, as opposed to previous, quantitative content-analysis studies (cf. Fourie 2008; Fourie & Froneman 2003; Fourie & Froneman 2001). It is also important to note that as far as can be determined, that this is the first study to use social semiotics, as either a theoretical framework or a research method. The key limitation of the study is that, it only focuses on three purposely sampled A.N.C. election campaign television advertisements, and does not include the political television advertisements of opposition political parties, such as the Democratic Alliance. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

Studies show that young adults do not see public sector as an attractive employer. There is an incorrect view that needs to be treated with correct information. Ovanåkers municipality has therefore requested an information material that highlights them as employers. Public sector need to comply with laws and directives in their external communication. But how can these rules coincide with visual and verbal rhetoric, in order to maintain both the tune of the authority and yet influence the target audience? Previous research shows that visual and verbal rhetorical figures and tropes can affect the receiver so they look at the sender and the message more positively. However, there is no previous research on which rhetorical figures or tropes that works best in text and image, or how rhetorical figures and tropes can interact with language in public sector. This study has through comparative analysis and testing on the target audience come to the assumption that there are 11 rhetorical figures and tropes that work better than others with language in public sector with an informative purpose, and that there are six figures and tropes that should be able to interact to some extent with language in public sector, for example in images. Of these figures and tropes, this study indicates that public sector could use rhyme in heading, epanaleps in the introduction, antithesis in body text and hyperbola in image if they want their target audience to positively be affected by the information. The visual rhetoric should subsequently complement or say the same as the verbal rhetoric in order for them to work together. / Studier visar att unga vuxna inte ser på offentlig sektor som en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Det finns en felaktig syn som behöver bemötas med korrekt information. Ovanåkers kommun har därför bett om ett informationsmaterial som framhäver dem som arbetsgivare. Offentlig sektor behöver förhålla sig till lagar och direktiv i deras externa kommunikation. Men hur kan dessa regler samverka med visuell och verbal retorik i syfte att behålla både myndighetstonen men ändå påverka målgruppen? Tidigare forskning visar att visuella och verbala retoriska stilfigurer kan påverka mottagaren så att de ser på avsändaren och meddelandet mer positivt. Det finns dock ingen tidigare forskning på vilka retoriska stilfigurer som fungerar bäst i text och bild, eller hur retoriska stilfigurer kan interagera med myndighetsspråk. Denna studie har genom komparativ analys och utprovning på målgruppen kommit fram till antagandet att det finns 11 retoriska stilfigurer som fördelaktigt borde kunna samverka med myndighetsspråk i informativ text, samt att det finns sex stilfigurer som till viss del borde kunna samverka med myndighetsspråk, exempelvis i bilder. Av dessa stilfigurer indikerar studien att offentlig sektor kan använda rim i rubrik, epanaleps i ingress, antites i brödtext och hyperbol i bild – om de vill att målgruppen positivt ska påverkas av meddelandet. Den visuella retoriken borde sedan komplettera eller säga samma sak som den verbala retoriken för att de ska kunna fungera tillsammans.