Rhetoric of Apology

A formal acknowledgment of wrongdoing. The rhetoric of apology also can be employed with the underlying intent to win favor with an audience or to diminish the perception of fault.

The earliest known form of the rhetoric of apology is the apologia of Ancient Greece; classical figures such as Socrates composed and delivered apologiae in the courts in self-defense. Elements of self-defense and self-promotion in the rhetoric of apology can be found in former President Richard Nixon's resignation speech in 1974.

Apologies in the rhetorical manner have been issued by representatives of nations, sometimes decades or centuries after the fact—among them, that made by Pope John Paul II for centuries of Christian persecution of the Jews. In 2000, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover, a member of the Pawnee nation, issued a rhetoric of apology for 175 years of mistreatment of Native Americans by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. For more information, see Buck (2006) and Wilson (1976).