What is Rhetoric? (and why should we care?)

1. What is Rhetoric?(and why should we care?) Tuesday, January 10, 2012

2. What is Rhetoric? • “Rhetoric, was, first and foremost, the art of persuasive speaking.” • Bizzell and Herzberg (1-2)

3. What is Rhetoric?

4. What is Rhetoric? • “Rhetoric is rooted in an essential function of language itself, function that is wholly realistic and continually born anew: the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.” • Kenneth Burke

5. What Is Rhetoric?

6. What is Rhetoric? • Rhetoric is a primarily verbal, situationally contingent, epistemic art that is both philosophical and practical and gives rise to potentially active texts. • William Covino and David Jolliffe, • “What is Rhetoric?” (5)

7. What is Rhetoric?

8. What is Rhetoric? • “A rhetoric is a social invention. It arises out of a time and place, a peculiar social context, establishing for a period the conditions that make a peculiar kind of communication possible.” • James Berlin, • Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century America 1

9. What is Rhetoric?

10. What is Rhetoric? • “Rhetoric selects, from the vast realm of human discourse, occasions for speaking and writing that can be regarded as persuasive in intent.” • Bizzell and Herzberg (2)

11. What is Rhetoric?

12. What is Rhetoric? • Every rhetoric. . . has at its base a conception of reality, of human nature, and of language. In other terms, it is. . .a closed system defining what can, and cannot, be known; the nature of the knower; the nature of the relationship between the knower, the known, and the audience; and the nature of language. • James Berlin (Writing 2)

13. What is Rhetoric?

14. What is Rhetoric? • “Rhetoric is the study of misunderstandings and their remedies.” • I.A. Richards • The Philosophy of Rhetoric

15. Agenda • The Big Four

16. Agenda • The Big Four • Key Concepts

17. Agenda • The Big Four • Key Concepts • Activity #1

18. Agenda • The Big Four • Key Concepts • Activity #1 • Readings

19. Agenda • The Big Four • Key Concepts • Activity #1 • Readings • Activity #2

20. The Big Four • In this class, we’ll be exploring many different theories of rhetoric in many different time periods; however, there are four key questions I’d like to ask of each primary text we encounter.

21. The Big Four • I call these “The Big Four.”

22. The Big Four • #1: How does this theorist/thinker define “rhetoric”?

23. The Big Four • #2: What are the consequences of this definition?

24. The Big Four • #2: Specifically, what are the consequences of this definition for: • a) Creators of Texts (rhetors) • b) “Readers” of Texts (audiences) • c) Locations of Texts (situations)

25. The Big Four • #3: What is the relationship between language and knowledge (epistemology) in this definition?

26. The Big Four • #4: How might this definition be applied (or not) to contemporary texts?

27. The Big Four • You’ll need to get familiar with The Big Four. Every time we encounter a new primary text, you should all be prepared to answer these four questions.

28. Key Concepts • The value in understanding rhetoric is to develop an awareness of the theory behind the production of effective, rhetorically-aware texts. We do this in order for us to become even more self-aware and reflexive producers ourselves.

29. Key Concepts • The best way to begin to understand these rhetorical theories is by defining and becoming familiar with those rhetorical principles and key terms, and observing how they work in practice.

30. Activity #1 • I’ll assign you all into groups of three or four. Each group will receive a key concept. • Each group will accomplish three tasks:

31. Activity #1 • 1) Find the concept in our readings and write a working definition in your own words;

32. Activity #1 • 1) Find the concept in our readings and write a working definition in your own words; • 2) Connect the concept to a modern text;

33. Activity #1 • 1) Find the concept in our readings and write a working definition in your own words; • 2) Connect the concept to a modern text; • 3) Draw an image to help remember the concept.

34. Readings • Chapter 1: “An Introduction to Rhetoric” • What is Rhetoric? • “A Few Definitions of Rhetoric” website

35. Readings • Before we begin any discussion about any readings, we’ll take a couple moments to gather your thoughts about what you’ve read. This will help guide and fuel our discussions. • Take a few minutes to write about your readings, you can write about: • *Your own experience reading the text (positive or negative or both); • *Something about the texts that was unclear, confusing or dense that you’d like to crowdsource to clarify; • *Something about the texts that you thought was interesting; • *Any other questions about the reading that you’d like to share with the class; Then we’ll all share and discuss what you’ve written.

36. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • Smith’s definition of rhetoric: • “Rhetoric is persuasive” (1).

37. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • Smith’s definition of rhetoric: • “Rhetoric is persuasive” (1). • “Rhetoric operates to influence behavior, change attitudes, and articulate opinions” (1).

38. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • For Smith, rhetoric is one of three major types of communication:

39. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • For Smith, rhetoric is one of three major types of communication: • 1) Informative Communication that “adds to our knowledge”(1);

40. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • For Smith, rhetoric is one of three major types of communication: • 1) Informative Communication that “adds to our knowledge”(1); • 2) Entertaining Communication that “holds our attention and fascinates our minds” (1);

41. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • For Smith, rhetoric is one of three major types of communication: • 1) Informative Communication that “adds to our knowledge”(1); • 2) Entertaining Communication that “holds our attention and fascinates our minds” (1); • 3)Rhetorical Communication that “goes beyond both by attempting to persuade ourselves and others to change actions, beliefs, attitudes, and/or opinions”(1).

42. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • What Rhetoric “does”:

43. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • What Rhetoric “does”: • 1) Since it is “intrapersonal”, rhetoric helps us understand what we experience because we must convince ourselves that our experiences are true” (2)

44. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • What Rhetoric “does”: • 1) Since it is “intrapersonal”, rhetoric helps us understand what we experience because we must convince ourselves that our experiences are true” (2) • 2) Since it is intrapersonal, it is often “converted to interpersonal persuasion”, since “the way we persuade ourselves is the way we persuade others”(2).

45. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • What Rhetoric “does”: • 3) It is epistemic—it works as “a way to come to know things that cannot be known through other types of discourse whether they be informative or entertaining” (2); it has a “making-known” function; • 4)It is epistemic—it “overcomes the limitations of other forms of discourse”

46. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • What Rhetoric “does”: • 5) It “recognizes that word choice and the building of images play an important role in gaining adherence to an idea, a policy or personal commitment” [aka ‘style’](3); it also emphasizes how delivery of messages can influence their reception

47. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • So what’s so great about rhetoric?

48. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • So what’s so great about rhetoric? • For Smith, rhetoric is important because our world involves some very important phenomena:

49. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • 1) The majority of decisions people make are “based on probable, not certain, truths” (4) • 2)As human beings, “we are decision-making creatures capable of overruling our own instincts”(4).

50. Chapter 1: “An Introduction to rhetoric” • 3)The human mind does not usually tolerate the unexplained, thus rhetoric serves to rationally order the disordered universe (4).