Annotated Bibliograhy Precis

Precis


Quarterly Journal published "Environmental Melodrama" by Steven Schwarze in 2006, to illustrate the relevance of melodrama as a rhetorical tool and the particular scenarios in which it is successful. Schwarze analyzes the effect of melodrama within the scope of environmental issues and shows the ways in which it may be effective. Schwarze claims that a common misconception about melodrama is that it is ineffective because it oversimplifies and prevents unification, however, identification of two distinct positions can sometimes be beneficial to an argument with obscured intentions. This is particularly relevant to scholars involved in rhetoric, particularly those against the use of (excessive) ethos/melodrama in an argument, by use of (1) scholarly terminology and (2) reference to reknowned rhetors.