Abstract:
Rhetoric of banking is vital for maintaining effective and fruitful relationships
with stakeholders. Even though there are several studies on the rhetoric of
banking, there has yet to be a known study on the rhetoric of loan agreements.
The present study explored banking rhetoric within the context of loan
agreement forms. I purposely sampled five loan agreement forms from five
banks in Ghana. Using Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric and Spinuzzi's genre
ecology, I analysed the content of the loan agreement forms to discover the
rhetorical strategies and ethical appeals embedded in the artefacts. I found that
the loan agreement forms employed rhetorical strategies such as syllogism,
indemnification, discretionary clauses, and conditional statements to
communicate effectively with borrowers. Also, the study revealed that ethical
appeals such as certification, authoritative statements, legal basis, and Appeal
to warranty were employed in the loan agreement forms to convey the
credibility of banks to borrowers. Moreover, I found from the views of twentyfive
participants that loan agreement forms are ineffective in rhetorical appeal
because of their linguistic complexity, text-centred variables and slang/jargon.
I recommend that banks consider revising the writing style and restrictive
clauses of their loan agreements to make them effective in rhetorical appeals
and inclusive of the rights of the borrowers.
