Before my first day in this class, I could not have told you what 'rhetoric' meant. Although I was aware of the word and had a vague idea of what it could mean, I wouldn't be able to product a correct denotation if I tried. Upon hearing from various classmates and seeing it multiple times in They Say, I Say, I now understand rhetoric to be the process of using writing and speech to persuade someone on a particular topic. The website provided gives an even simpler phrase for which I think is a perfect definition; "The art of persuasion" (Burton). Any further defining would simply be expanding on this idea, such as how your speech or words are delivered, or the correct use of the delivery of these words/speech. Both of these expansions focus on the effectiveness of one's words or speech, which together form the foundation of persuasion.
Being aware of the definition of rhetoric is helpful in this class since it's the basis of the exercises within class. Being aware of the usefulness of this site will also be very helpful down the road when questions concerning rhetoric may arise.
The website furthers the explanation of rhetoric by giving sub-sections or categories of rhetoric, angles of appeal, and related terms among other useful information. After skimming through each 'tree', I fell that one of the most important parts of rhetoric is angles of appeal; logos, pathos, and ethos. These three work together to create strong arguments, and every use of rhetoric can be put into one or more of these categories. Although I think these are the most important, the canons of rhetoric are important as well, because they can be seen almost like steps, or how rhetoric can be broken down. And lastly, the related terms such as oratory or kiaros are important as well because without them, we wouldn't be able to expand on. Without this website, I would have never know how complex this subject is.
Although this site was very helpful with the explanation of general topics and definitions, once I got down into the further expansions on various subjects, I found that the language and structure of the writing left me confused. With every addition to a topic, new words and phrases were introduced that I hadn't heard of before, and I increasingly became more and more unsure of the topics being discussed. The site itself was a little overwhelming as well, and I had some trouble trying to understand how to navigate the website. Without a basic understanding of rhetoric beforehand, you would not be able to quickly move from one page to another. This is due to the fact that the names of each page are specific terms related to rhetoric, something I wouldn't consider common knowledge.
Over all, I do think that this site gave me a better understanding of what rhetoric means, and I am glad to have this site to reference as a resource in the future.
Burton, Gideon O. "The Forest of Rhetoric." Silva Rhetoricae:. Brigham Young University, March
2001. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.
I also found the tree metaphor helpful in explaining and understanding the idea of rhetoric. I agree with the fact that the extra words and terminology on the side were slightly confusing and made the website seem overwhelming. But overall I found the website very helpful and will be useful in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe metaphor used by Dr. Burton when he compared rhetoric to a forest was also a great example. If we know what we're doing we can easily write a paper with so many different writing styles. But it's also very easy to get lost in researching as well. The website overall was really helpful in explaining the true definition of rhetoric research, because honestly i wasn't sure exactly what it meant either in the beginning of this class.
ReplyDeleteGreat work Lauren. I can relate to having only a vague idea of what rhetoric meant before using this website, and I thought you summarized Burton's work well.
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