According to the online Rhetoric provide by Dr. Gideon Burton, Silva Rhetoricae, "Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion. And many other things". This is by far, the best, and the most accurate definition for rhetoric that I have ever heard. Based on the knowledge I had about rhetorical from high school, and the fact that I am attending a rhetoric class right now, I have to agree to what Dr. Burton said. Through books, and historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Ho Chi Minh, Tuong Gioi Thach, I have learnt that rhetoric is the art of persuasion, a way to get people to agree with the same idea as yours. In the website, Dr. Burton also gave us a list of vocabulary from Latin to Greek, and I have found one of the best word to describe rhetoric, which is anamnesis. According to the website, anamnesis mean to put in mind again, which is exactly what the speaker, writer, who try to persuade the audience into believing their idea and thought wanted to do, come the term rhetoric.
With that being said, would I consider using this source to further my knowledge about rhetoric in the future? Yes and No. Essentially, this is an amazing website with a lot of information and vocabulary, a vast collection of interesting facts, and ideas for someone who really want to dig deeper into rhetorical. This would be helpful for me in my future writing assignments, or speech as I can utilize information such as the Canon of Rhetoric, Rhetorical Ability, Persuasive Appeal, and Branch of Oratory, to further advanced my project.
But there is always a moth in the wood, although this website contain many valuable information about rhetoric, and it background, the ways Dr. Burton explain it, and put it, sort of difficult for me to keeping track, and understand. One of the example using metaphor such as the forest and the tree at the beginning of the website "sometimes it is difficult to see the forest (the big picture) of rhetoric because of the trees (the hundreds of Greek and Latin terms naming figures of speech, etc.) within rhetoric" confused me for a little bit, and took me a few minutes to concentrate my thought together to be able to picture the metaphor he using. In the future, if I need help in giving an example, or to vividly understand a topic, this would not be the first source I would look into since it will take me more grey matter to completely process what Dr. Burton trying to say.
In conclusion, Silva Rhetoricae is a perfect website for those who already developed a large understanding in the English language to further advanced their knowledge in rhetorical. The website used many advanced term, vocabulary, and metaphor in their sentences, which is good in some ways, but, unfortunately, bad for non-native speaker like me to be able to fully grab the idea, and understand it.
Burton, Gideon O. "The Forest of Rhetoric. "Silva Rhetoricae:. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, 26 Feb. 2007. Web. 23 Jan. 2016.
While reading your post, the statement "But there is always a moth in the wood" caught my immediate attention. As you mentioned, this website was extremely helpful, however, with the amount of complex vocabulary it may difficult to understand. A point I brought up within my post was asking the question of who is the intended audience?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the website provides a lot of nice information about rhetoric, and I also agree with you that the information they provide is not important. Overall nice job on your thesis statement and backing your claims with evidence.
ReplyDeleteI personally think you're exaggerating when you say that this website is perfect. I thought it didn't explain some of the concepts well enough such as the "branches of oratory" or "canons of rhetoric." It used too much unnecessary things that did not help me understand the concepts better. Finally, don't get too discouraged because you're not a native speaker. I'm sure you'll do just fine.
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