30 August 2015: Week 1

What is rhetoric?  What is the history and theory of rhetoric? What do you want to do with the content from this course?

Rhetoric is an amalgamation of a variety of tools or techniques used strategically in a composition, whether it be written, visual, or oral, that ultimately serves to enact a persuasive argument.  Rhetoric, an idea initially introduced by Aristotle, necessitates that writers consider to whom they are writing, how they desire to influence, one way or another, their audience, and how they can achieve these goals within their texts.  Rhetoric works to appeal to the readers’ emotions (pathos), to logic (logos), and to ethics (ethos).  By utilizing and arranging these appeals throughout a text, a writer establishes a certain rhetorical context through which he/she attempts to persuade readers to adopt a certain perspective when considering a specific topic.

            Rhetoric’s origin branches, as aforementioned, back to the era of the ancient Greeks, during the time of Aristotle’s life.  Initially given form to by the Sophists, who saw a need for written trading laws as the Greek oligarchy declined, rhetoric and the components by which it is defined have grown, just as cultures and civilizations have.  By the time rhetoric met Cicero and the Romans, there existed a determined set of components by which writing was defined: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery.  Cicero then re-developed the idea of “stasis theory,” which required a series of questions to be asked of the writer (or presenter) in order to understand both his aims and his definitive point of argumentation.  Following the Roman period, rhetoric continued to evolve in cadence with literacy rates, the consideration of composition as an applied practice, the development of different genres and sub-genres of texts, and the emergence of technologies within the printing and information fields. 

            The theory of rhetoric requires that one consider the historical and immediate contexts for socio-political human interaction.  How one employs him/herself within these contexts speaks to the topic being delivered, along with the message that the author intends to impart to the audience.  According to the theory of rhetoric, what hold importance in a composition (whether written or oral) are the unspoken implications and intentions behind the text itself; in short, rhetorical theory considers how individuals use certain signals in certain ways (whether consciously or not) to signify certain meanings or to evoke a desired response.  Furthermore, the theory of rhetoric suggests that any individual composer of texts can arrange his text and his ideas within in such a way that will produce an anticipated reaction or sentiment within readers; it is important to note that there are endless varieties of ways in which these arrangements can occur.

            By engaging with the content that we are learning, and that we will continue to learn, in this course, I hope to come to an understanding of composition as not a mere requirement, but as a discipline.  From my personal experience, composition has been relegated to the back-burner and often considered unimportant or a “necessary evil.”  Although my attitude toward composition is not of this nature, I hope to understand why it is as it is today, and how I, as a future educator, can contribute to it as a science.  I desire to familiarize myself with as many aspects as possible of composition, so that I might teach it effectively one day.