Rhetorical figures in headings and their effect on text processing: the moderating role of information relevance and text length

IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication - Tập 45 Số 3 - Trang 157-169 - 2002
B.A. Huhmann1, D.L. Mothersbaugh2, G.R. Franke2
1Department of Marketing, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA
2Department of Management and Marketing, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Tóm tắt

Professionals involved in the creation of text-based communication face a number of challenges. These include overburdened and often uninterested users juxtaposed with the writer's desire to communicate relevant topical information. Uninvolved users are likely to ignore the message. This may be exacerbated by increases in text length designed to increase the amount and/or detail of information to be communicated. An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of rhetorical figures in text headings as to how users read and process the text (hereafter readership, as used in marketing). To the extent that higher levels of text readership increase user knowledge and skills, enhance topic-related attitudes, and facilitate beneficial topic-related behaviors, higher readership should yield desirable communication outcomes. Headings with rhetorical figures were hypothesized to enhance readership, particularly under conditions generally associated with relatively low readership, namely, lower perceived information relevance and longer text. Results generally support rhetorical figures' abilities to enhance readership, especially with longer texts.

Từ khóa

#Text processing #Context #Face #Marketing management #Personnel #Writing #Manuals

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