The first day of WEPO class I was very nervous and did not know what to expect. This would be the first core class that I would take for my major, and of course the first topic was Rhetoric. I have dreaded rhetoric since High School AP English. At first I was extremely confused, but now I believe that I possess the tools to succeed in the EWM field, and as a rhetor.
Rhetoric is very important to understand as part of the composing process. It is what will guide your work, and make your writing a success. Rhetoric can be split up into a variety of key terms and components.
Rhetorical Situation: For me, Rhetorical Situation was the most difficult term to understand. Simply put, it is what makes the rhetor write. It is his or her reason for writing. It can be a person, place, thing, or event that provokes the rhetor to make a discourse. Lloyed Bitzer states, “The presence of rhetorical discourse obviously indicates the presence of a rhetorical situation.” Simply put, if a speaker or writer discourses something, then there must have been a situation that caused it. In this class we have been bombarded with rhetorical situations. All of our blog posts, main projects, and mini projects, have a purpose, or something that calls us to complete them. This is Rhetorical Situation.
Knowledge: Although knowledge is not a common term associated with rhetoric, I believe that it can be linked to rhetorical situation. You must have knowledge to be aware of the causes of your discourse. For example, if I am not aware or familiar with an event’s occurrence, I cannot react to it or discourse about it. As a rhetor and composer, you must have knowledge of your surroundings in order to write. You must also be educated in the field of writing to even comprehend rhetoric and its concepts. Reliance on prior knowledge can be very important to composers. I think that writing constantly builds upon itself. Whenever I compose, I used newly learned concepts as well as those that date back to elementary school, such as putting a comma here, or a period there. I also believe that knowledge seems to always exist. To acquire knowledge, you must make discoveries and learn from experience, but you must also learn from those who have acquired knowledge before you. Knowledge seems to go full circle. It is infinite.
Speaker and Audience: After identifying your rhetorical situation and uncovering knowledge, you, as the speaker, must take your audience into account. Audience involves the people you are going to address with your discourse and how you want them to react to it. Therefore, speaker and audience stick together. Aristotle declares, “Knowledge of
the character of an audience can be understood by analysis…” The speaker must analyze his or her audience before composing. This analysis may include answering or addressing a variety of questions. What message do you want them to take from your discourse? Do you want them to take some kind of action? What are you persuading them to do? These are all questions thatthe speaker must ask him/herself before composing or uttering a discourse. When you know your audience, you can fully address your rhetorical situation. Thus tying these terms together: rhetorical situation, knowledge, speaker, and audience.
The Five Canons: Aristotle divided classic rhetoric into 5 stages. Each is vital to the composing process. In the first step, Invention, you (the speaker/rhetor/composer) must decide how you are going to present the information to your audience. Next, the composer arranges the discourse into four parts: the intro, statement of issue, argument, and conclusion. In this stage, the audience is also considered. Then, a style for your writing must be decided upon. What language and word choice would be appropriate and striking for my audience? Which of the rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, or logos, would be best to use? Should I use a combo of these appeals? Once again, audience is a common theme. Finally, memory and delivery are also important elements in order to get your point across to your audience. You must memorize your discourse, and deliver it in an effective way using both verbal and nonverbal cues. The five canons are ultimately what guide your composing process. They serve as an outline for how you are going to successfully complete your discourse, and address your audience and your rhetorical situation.
I chose these terms because these are what I now encompass in my composing process. From piecing together this blog post, I have discovered how much each of these terms fits with the other. You can’t have rhetorical situation without prior knowledge. You can’t have a speaker without an audience, and the speaker cannot speak unless he/she has knowledge of their audience. Once you have these elements, the speaker must use the 5 canons to complete his or her discourse. All of these elements are vital for the final product: the discourse, or composition. Each term builds upon the other, and this makes rhetoric unique.
I truly believe that through this class I have learned so much about my career path and about myself as a composer in such a short amount of time. I now understand more about the career path I have chosen for myself, as well as how to be a true composer. At this level, we can no longer sit down and write a paper in a few hours, press grammar/spell check and send it in. Because of this class, my composing process has been greatly lengthened, but the extra time that composing now entails will definitely pay off. Now I will take the time to analyze my audience, organize my thoughts, write, edit, rewrite, and editing again, until my final product, or discourse is perfect. I will also use the elements and key terms of rhetoric in my composing process. After I have finished my composition, I will also take the time to reflect upon it after I have completed it. This is important to do this in order to improve your writing for the future, but also to understand and identify yourself as the composer that you are. Through reflection, you will be able to recognize the voice you have established, and your own personal writing/composing style. This whole blog post serves as a reflection on my past weeks in this class, and I am very appreciative of what I have learned and accomplished in thus far. Also, I believe that in the next few weeks, we will continue to grow and learn as a class, and as individual composers.
Picture Citations:
"Nervous Student." Yeager. Web. 19 July 2011.
"Public Speaker and Audience." The McLean Community Center. Web. 19 July 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment