For this blog post, I want you to explore what rhetoric is--how it is defined and used; why it is important to know and understand; how it connects to writing; what it means to you in the class and perhaps in your major. Use the reading by Crowley and Hawhee to ground your post but also begin to synthesize (this means taking your thinking past a summary) to make connections to the class, to each other, and to yourself as a writer. You can also use this post to explore what rhetoric means today in our society--the ways in which people practice it (often without evening realizing it) and how it might be useful for you as you continue on in your education.
Homework DUE by class time on Monday, June 23, 2014. **Don't forget to respond to at least two peers.
Rhetoric is described as a necessity since people have disagreements, which are actually a positive thing because having disagreements allows people to make more important choices without having to resort to violent measures. "Participation in rhetoric entails that every party to the discussion be aware that beliefs may change during the exchange and discussion of points of view." (Crowley and Hawhee, p. 5) Rhetoric can help us to closely scrutinize debatable issues in the hopes of achieving an agreement.
ReplyDeleteIt is important that we know and understand rhetoric so that we can use it to aid us in determining the best course of action to resolve disagreements. Crowley and Hawhee highlight the idea that "rhetoric has the potential to incite ideological change" and also emphasize that "when the quality of public discourse diminishes, so does the quality of democracy." Being well versed in the subject of rhetoric will enable you as a writer to be more persuasive in convincing your target audience to consider your viewpoint. We should not just use a simple list of facts when we write an argument because this will limit the persuasive potential. Aristotle wrote that extrinsic proofs were not developed through a rhetor's use of the principles of rhetoric, but were found in existing circumstances. According to Crowley and Hawhee "networks of interpretation have persuasive potential, while facts themselves do not." As writers, invention will provide us with a set of instructions which will assist us in finding and composing arguments that are appropriate for a particular rhetorical situation.
When you as a writer clearly convey the substance of your argument then your readers will be able to understand the thoughts you wanted to express. However, people do more than just determine what a text says when they read it and that is why the style and delivery of your writing is also crucial. As writers we can only imagine who our readers are or what they might know about the topic we are illustrating. Therefore, we need to view our writing from our reader's perspective. It is vital to earn the respect of your audience and by examining all of the possible positions on the argument you are trying to make can help you to possibly change someone's opinion.
My major is environmental science and there are still many issues that are minority beliefs or practices regarding the environment. Therefore, supporting arguments will need to be more actively sought out. Ultimately, if I use rhetoric effectively then my writing could inspire my readers to lessen their impact on the environment, which could also lead them to affect positive changes in Congress.
I agree with your idea that we need consider our audiences' perspective as writers by using rhetorical method. The goal as a writer is going to spread ideas and make people understand what writing talks about. Because rhetoric can help people understand writing, it is important to be applied in writing.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Ancient Rhetoric, Their Difference and the Difference They Make,” the author shows that the definition of rhetoric is the power of finding the available arguments suited to a given situation, which means rhetoric is a good way for people to solve arguments or debates. It is because rhetorical situation can help people to feel and choose the suitable action when they have disputes on political, religious, or social issues.
ReplyDeleteObviously, rhetoric is important for writers because of the variable suitable situations for comprehensive situations. According to the author, “too often opinion-as-identity stands in the way of rhetorical exchange.” It means that most debates or communications are based on rhetorical methods in paper or speaking. So, that may be the point why rhetoric is important because people need to defend or argue their opinions by rhetorical methods. The author also shows several differences between ancient and modern rhetoric. For example, the ancient rhetoric contains more imaginations while modern one values more attention on proofs. It can help writer to create more imaginations to help audience to understand the situations or convince the opponents.
I think rhetoric can help me to improve the quality of my writing because I am often too serious about my arguments so that I think my audience cannot accept my opinions very smoothly. Since I choose statistics major, I know I need to work with numbers a lot of time. I can use rhetorical methods to make my research or work more acceptably to my audience, which means I can present statistics as another presentation style to audience.
I think rhetoric will have more effects to modern society because people need less time to accept tremendous information nowadays. Rhetoric can make things simple for anyone which is the most important point for this modern era.
I agree with what you wrote in you second paragraph, the way you used to differentiate the ancient and the modern rhetoric (the example), and how it can help us to create different ways to convince our audience
DeleteI agree with you that in modern society rhetoric makes more sense because now people "need less time to accept tremendous information".
DeleteCrowley and Hawhee explore the existence of rhetoric as well as the origins and loss of ancient rhetorical teachings. Rhetoric exists because human beings disagree, yet it is not just an argument. It is how you word your argument as well as your argument. Similarly two authors could make the same point, yet one totally miss their audience because of a disconnect in tone or language which the reader can understand. Consequently when there is rhetoric, there is an entertainment value as "shows like Crossfire seem to exist to dramatize conflict solely for entertainment purposes," (Crowley and Hawhee 3). Yet as entertaining as rhetorical dialogue may be, there is an issue that someone not probably exposed to rhetoric could see the speaker as the message, when in some cases that may not be the case. Consequently it is additionally vital to be aware of the speaker, but to not let that detract from the message. This results in effective rhetoric, as you are not influencing your decisions on the person, but the message.
ReplyDeleteThe influence of the speaker on the reception of the message, Crowley and Hawhee argue, is undermining the American political system because of such polarized viewpoints (5). This reflection on other's opinions was actually deemed invention by ancient rhetoricians, a portion of analysis many people are afraid of in today's day and age because of fear of stepping on someone else's toes (Crowley and Hawhee 6). In order to be a productive society it is imperative that there is some dissent as it produces effective compromise and spreads the power of language equally.
The inherent difference between ancient rhetoric and modern day teaching is the value of individual opinion (Crowley and Hawhee 8). Rhetoric was previously seen as partially the sum of the community's opinion, which to some extent would parallel things we take as concrete fact in writing now. Opinion is meant not as a common idea, for example, 'I enjoy icecream,' but more as 'Icecream freezes at 32 degrees.' Additionally the more arguments you have based not on testimony, but on fact, will aide in your composition. The end goal of your writing should be to explain yourself in detail so that your audience understands exactly what your point is..
ReplyDeleteTo the uninformed, “Rhetoric is characterized as “empty words” or as fancy language used to distort the truth or tell lies”. But in reality “Rhetoric is of no use when people determine to use coercion or violence to gain the ends they seek”. Rhetoric is any type of composition where the author is trying to create some type of discourse between him and the recipient. It is that perfect way of trying to change somebody else’s point of view. When rhetoric is working efficiently it is able to change the way people think or at least make them ponder about it.
Rhetoric has changed meanings with the pass of time, but it has always been used. During the fifth century in Athens rhetoric was utilized to convey the importance of certain issues they were about to vote on. With the passage of time rhetoric changed a few more times, later on during the fourth century it meant “an expert in politics” and eventually meant “skilled in public speaking”. Now a days we’ve come to know rhetoric as the ‘art’ of utilizing words to convey a message of importance and depth. Rhetoric is important to every single person, without it, it would be quite difficult to try to make somebody understand your position.
As a future law student rhetoric will be one of the most important tools in my arsenal. It will be that tool that would help me argue my case. Thanks to rhetoric I will be able to persuade my audience to think differently and in my favor. I will try to get people of different backgrounds to agree with my side of the story, all thanks to rhetoric. Honing my rhetoric skills early in my education will let me become an excellent rhetor by the time I graduate law school. Thanks to a better understanding of what rhetoric is, I will be able to play around with different styles and genres of rhetoric so I can better understand which one is better for different audiences. In the future, as I encounter different rhetorical situations I will be able to better react to them and I will know which genre to use to be more effective against it.
All quotes are from the reading: "Ancient Rhetorics: Their Differences and the Differences They make" by Crowley and Hawhee.
I completely agree that rhetoric will be vitally important in your future career as a lawyer. Rhetoric is a unique way to appeal to everyone and it can easily be modified to fit the particular audience you are expressing your opinions toward. I think that with a solid foundation in rhetoric, you will be a successful lawyer if you can persuade others to believe in you and if you present factual evidence to support your case based on the particular rhetorical situation.
DeleteYou make a point that the audience needs to not just think in your favor, but think differently. I think that's a very valid point, because you could be "preaching to the choir," which is ultimately accomplishing nothing. Also you mention finding similar situations for rhetoric, which is a good tactic for developing your response. I think that in law you'll find that there will be many cases where there has been a case that reflects one you may be working on, and you use there testimony and rhetoric to support your rhetoric if it is applicable.
DeleteWhat you say about rhetoric and how it should make people think is one of the best ways to look at it. In keeping with your interest in law I think this is a great explanation, I share this view because I expect to be doing slot of explaining in my future line of work.
DeleteIn the article"Ancient Rhetorics", authors Crowley and Hawhee introduce that in ancient rhetoric is defined as "the power of finding the available arguments suited to a given situation" and "people used rhetoric to make decisions, resolve disputes, and to mediate public discussion of important issues." In my opinion, rhetoric doesn't help solve divergences, instead, it helps people understand the different ideas of others in more polite or more acceptable ways. People often disagree with others, but people always need to make agreement on some issues. As a necessary tool, rhetoric helps people make others believe them, at least a temporary belief during their reading or speech.
ReplyDeleteFor my class or further study, rhetoric could help me express my ideas in more vivid or more efficient ways. For example, as we practiced in the last activity, in my college life, there are many occasions when I need to communicate with others and sometimes ask for help. Rhetoric makes my writing or speech more polite and formal. Especially when I need to write an email or academic papers, understanding the importance of rhetoric and having good command of rhetoric make my papers more attractive to audience and make my use of language more suitable for the requirement.
I major in International studies, although I haven’t started my core courses, I know in the future, I do need rhetoric to make my writing more political since rhetoric is used very frequently in politics. Without understanding of rhetoric will make me hard to understand some political speech or some issues. In one word, rhetoric can make my academic life more successful.
I agree with your idea that rhetoric helps us understand more, but I also think it still can help in arguments or debates because rhetorical situation can make the arguments more clear so that people would immediately recognize which one is the most suitable one.
DeleteI also think that rhetoric can help us closely examine our argument/disagreement with the aim being to solve a disagreement or even agreeing to disagree in a friendly manner rather than resorting to violence.
DeleteI have been reading about rhetoric for almost 5 years and every time I need to define it I still have a different definition, and for today I’ll say that rhetoric is a technic of convincing the audience, an art of speaking or transmitting a message in the most clear and easy way to understand. In the beginning of the article, Ancient Rhetoric’s: Their Differences and the Differences They Make, the authors stated that rhetoric is often associated with politics and is characterized as being “empty words” or as fancy language to distort the truth or tell lies, which is not entirely wrong it is just the result of the lack of knowledge about the subject. During my high school I learned that rhetoric’s was in the beginning used in the past mostly by politicians and teachers, and this fact was spread along with the concept of the rhetoric, reason why people say that, although they don’t know why. And about the characterization made that it is a language used to distort the truth is because it is mistaken by the method of Socrates that was created almost at the same time that also didn’t consisted in distort the truth but in saying the things in a more complicated way in order to make people look for more knowledge about the things because Socrates believed that we (human being) were very similar to what we call today ignorant. Anyway this is not very relevant for this reading.
ReplyDeleteRhetoric teaches people to accept different ideas and to respond to different ideas and different situations so that I believe that every human being should learn how to respond rhetorically, because being a sociable being, these are values that we must have such as the ability to convince others and talk with propriety. However being one I do not believe that rhetoric will be important in the Electrical Engineering Major except for may be in the defense of the thesis and some small assignments. I believe that nowadays the rhetoric has more importance for us as members of one society then in our education with the exception of some majors in which you constantly need to respond to something.
I found it interesting that you mentioned, “Rhetoric teaches people to accept different ideas…” This is a very important point and aspect of rhetoric that I feel most people fail to miss when analyzing rhetoric’s value to society. With rhetoric people have the opportunity to accept or reject others opinion and this eventually leads to change within society. Although this change can be positive or negative, rhetoric has the ability to ignite new beliefs within a community which I find to be very powerful.
DeleteI think that when rhetoric is used efficiently it will allow your readers to think differently about what you are saying and if they can do this then it is possible to alter their previous opinions.
DeleteI do agree with you that now rhetoric plays a more important role in social life than it does in education.
DeleteRhetoric is an important thing to understand because it is one of the few good ways to solve differences or settle arguments. Rhetoric is defined as a means to convey ones ideas about a certain topic, this of course is highly dependent on the individual and the situation they are replying to. Now I've said that rhetoric is a way of replying to a topic, but there are other way to do this so why is understanding rhetoric so important?
ReplyDelete"All parties to a rhetorical transaction must be willing to be persuaded by good arguments. Otherwise, decisions will be made for bad reasons, or interested reasons, or no reason at all." This is a good explanation. An argument that is just two unwavering sides trying to show that only they (respectively) are right is little more than bickering.
Rhetoric is very important in writing because when we read or write we hope to either gain a new perspective or give someone else our perspective. Without the concept of rhetoric, what we wrote might only apply to us and what we read might not click depending on the authors own views. I think that rhetoric has different implications for everyone, for myself it is useful because I will be doing a lot of writing in the near future, so I might as well hone my writing to better appeal to my audience.
I liked the quote you used in the second paragraph, it supports that we must be mind open to accept different ideas that are well supported and that have logic instead of block the acceptance or understanding of different ideas and I agree with your idea of why rhetoric is important
DeleteAccording to Crowley and Hawhee, rhetoric was invented so members of society would have a “means of judging whose opinion was most accurate, useful, or valuable.” Rhetoric exists because it gives humans the ability to express our opinions, argue or agree with others, and most importantly work through our differences and “discover new resolutions.” In this course it is vitally important to understand the meaning of rhetoric and the evolution that it has experienced throughout history. Throughout history, one of the most important aspects of rhetoric is that it gives human beings the ability to convey power onto others. With rhetoric, humans have been able to change others minds, express their opinions, and ignite change in many cases. Additionally, rhetoric has always been cognizant of audience and in this course we have looked at the importance of rhetoric and genre.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what major or educational path one chooses, rhetoric is extremely important because it gives us a way of displaying our findings in our particular field of interest and it allows us to argue and try to convince others that our findings are valuable. In every profession, from engineering to foreign policy, rhetoric is very important to understand because everyone will have to be able to write at some point in their career and will need to know how to appeal to a certain audience and make convincing arguments.
You mention discovering new resolutions, which is a huge part of rhetoric. Innovation and defining a genre happens all the time, we are only conscious of it after the fact because it has created an entirely new style. Additionally I believe that in general, professions which do not directly have a large amount of writing have a large amount of rhetoric constantly during the day. Engineers are constantly debating what way to approach a problem or how to develop a solution.
DeleteRhetoric is a way of expressing ideas, by presenting content such as arguments or ideas, all in order to prove a point or to respond to a certain subject by writing. It is very important to know about it because it allows us to pay attention to how are we going to express ourselves, since it will determine the level of success transmitting that message.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is very important to pay know about rhetoric because it not only allows us to improve our writing, but also to increase our capacity to analyze and argument to levels were we can be able to express ourselves effectively, and avoid problems such as misinterpretation.