A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Editorials of Newswatch and Tell Magazines

Editorials are comments on news items that are of national interest and which attract the attention of the editor. Such news items may be political, economic, educational, religious or general socio-political issues that border on the welfare of the people. An editorial expresses a personal opinion of the editor on such matters and it is like an essay written by an individual editor, during which the editor exhibits his personal creative style. This variety of style that is commonly exhibited in journalese is known as House Style. This paper belongs to a significant aspect of the English language study known as Stylistics. Stylistics is a central component of Rhetoric which is a linguistic activity that treats the devices that convey meaning in language. It studies the persuasive and emotional effects of language and attempt to understand how linguistic devices create these effects. It emphasizes essentially the linguistic devices, the social aspect of language and its impact in a particular context. Rhetorical Stylistics identifies and isolates the linguistic features that constitute the style of a text. This paper uses stylistic models to examine the rhetorical devices in Newswatch and Tell Magazines which constitute a House Style that is different from other forms of writing. The paper concludes that rhetorical devices are essential components for embellishing thought and to reflect the local colour of language.