Background

Anne Katrine Lund PhD in rhetoric has together with Pernille Steensbech Lemée MA. in rhetoric and media science, developed the rhetorical compass.

The rhetorical compass is used for analysis of communication as well as for planning communication.

The compass is a suitable tool, regardless of whether you need to compile a website, a folder or a whole campaign. It can thus be used for both large and small tasks. 

About the model

The compass consists of a core and 8 needles that show you the direction of your communication.

The core of the model is the receiver. The rest of the compass is built around the receiver. This indicates that the recipient is important when we work with communication as it is the recipient we want to reach with our messages. So the first step in communication is to know who our recipients are.

Each of the eight needles represents conditions you need to be aware of in a communication process aimed at the recipient.

We shall now review each of the eight needles individually. 

The first needle is sender. It is about the image of the sender. The sender must in the eyes of the receiver be competent and secure, committed and living, honest and compassionate. As a sender it is important to make clear who you are and pay attention to your image. You have to look at yourself as the sender and be very clear about who you are - and how you want to appear.

The second needle is Purpose. Purpose of communication can be sales, enlightenment, propaganda, information etc. You must be fully aware of the purpose of your own communication. You should also try to understand your target audience's purpose in participating in the process.

The third needle is subject. The subject the sender chooses to send is of great importance to the communication towards the receiver. Is the subject communicated clearly, concretely and alive? Is it spicy with "pictures" and "concrete examples". Is it convincing, and does it appeal both logically and emotionally.

The fourth needle is the channel sometimes called media and is the means or ways of transmitting the messages from sender to the receiver. There are many types of media communication. These may include television, newspapers, posters, radio, leaflets, magazines and websites to name a few. Any media sets special requirements. You can speak or write easily or use technical language. Pictures say more than a thousand words and in some media content people expect film or pictures. The use of humor is extremely difficult on all media. Never talk and never write down to people. You can only avoid the pitfalls if you know your target audience.

The fifth needle is genre. Genre is about language usage. It is the content that determines genre or narrative form. You can talk, write or make storyboard in a fair, dramatic, humorous way, and so on.

There is no right or wrong genre. An SMS correspondence between two teenagers will typically have a genre of slang. A letter from a lawyer is often stiff and very correct. The annual speech from the head of state is usually very serious. It will be the recipients who in the end judge the result.

The sixth needle is Progress. You must think about the purpose of each and every section of the communication. What is the purpose of the beginning - should it provoke, create an overview or a good mood!

What is the purpose of the ending? Is it to start a thinking process, to create debate or get the recipients to conclude or act in a certain way!

In “Progress” we also consider the process that the recipient is going through from the beginning to the end. On a website you will find yourself in the users' place and think about how they get information through a website as they click through. 

The seventh needle is Form. The form must live up to the four virtues of the language.

• Appropriate is the first virtue – the language meets the requirements of the situation and is therefore adapted to all the compass factors
• Clarity is the second virtue – it requires focus, clear disposition, understandable language and concrete examples
• Properly is the third virtue - requires that grammar, word choice and pronunciation basic are in order
• Vivid is the fourth and last virtue - requires examples, orality and small, surprising glimpses

The eighth and last needle is Context. Context is about physical and mental frameworks, such as time, motivation and mood of the recipients. We need to place our communication in a context where the recipients are ready to receive the communication.

Once we've been through all 8 needles we've made sure that our communication has been worked out and thought through with the recipient as the center of our thoughts and actions - and hopefully it will affect the receiver as we wish.

Criticism of the model. 

The model gives no explanations of which of the eight needles are the most important. 

The model does not provide a clear indication of how the individual needles affect each other

The model also does not provide a clear indication of which needle one should start with and in which order they should be reviewed

The model is a unique tool to remind you of all the important steps to go through and think about in your communication, but it is not a guarantee that your communication will be as effective as you wish.