3 Chapter 1 : Introduction

Overview –

This chapter is about Rhetoric and its history, practices , and theories and what the term means overall. Rhetoric is seen as useful and needed by many, but it is also seen as problematic by many as well.  Whether it’s positive or negative , rhetoric is still studied as an important topic in today’s world which confuses many. As rhetorician  James Herrick stated, Clearly, rhetoric arouses mixed feelings—it is a term of derision and yet a widely studied discipline, employed as an insult and still recommended to students as a practical subject of study (Herrick 1 ed 6). In this chapter you will come across rhetoric and how it evolved and made its way through centuries. The bashing goes as far back as Plato’s work called Gorgia’s which was written when rhetoric was very popular in Athens.

Rhetoric’s Involvement Of Persuasion –

Rhetoric is known to go hand in hand with persuasion. Persuasion itself isn’t always seen as  a positive thing, someone can easily steer anyone in the wrong direction by persuading them. All you have to do is think about the last time someone tried to persuade you and you noticed. That might have caused you to resist being persuaded in that moment because you might feel bothered because that person can just be telling you what you want to hear to get you to agree. Or you can also feel them slowly but surely convincing you. These types of feelings raise suspense to persuasion and can lead to the mistrust of rhetoric if it’s involved in the act of persuasion being used against you.

Defining Rhetoric:

Many different scholars have created their own opinion on Rhetoric. The definitions differ from it being language that influences actions and decisions, reliable techniques and theories , or as advice to others for future language use. Some also think that rhetoric is just a part of who humans are.

Symbols

Let’s explain one specific definition which is that language influences , the definition created by George Kennedy. In shorter words he believed that rhetoric develops in symbols which are used to describe different languages. Language is the main symbol that humans use to communicate with each other but other like activities/arts that can be used as well. Rhetoric can be found in these arts.

Music:

Music can stand as a symbol to deliver messages to the listeners. Movie soundtracks are a good example of this, songs are chosen for specific scenes to communicate meanings to the viewers. A good example of this is the horror film Halloween with Michael Myers. Michael Myers is associated with a specific sound to know that he’s coming and it means danger. When this sound is used throughout the movie it stands as a symbol to the audience. Its use of rhetoric makes the audience understand what the music is trying to portray to them.

Painting

Paintings can also stand as symbols with the dark or bright colors used to create them. If a painting is made with dark colors like for example black, and gray , these colors signal to the viewers that the painting is portraying some type of disaster or storm.If the colors for the sky were bright colors like bright blue for the sky and yellow for the sun ,the painting portrays a more pleasant drawing.  People usually fear storms but love bright sunny days so the artist uses colors to display their intent to the audience.

The Disclosure of Rhetoric :

Rhetoric is said to be a well thought out process with six characteristics. The characteristics are planned, adapted to the audience , shaped by human motives , responsive to a situation, persuasion-seeking, and concerned with contingent issues. However that doesn’t mean that every rhetoric writing pertains to this criteria but in this explanation each will help better understand, and identify to rhetoric.

Planned

No matter what the goal of using rhetoric is, it takes planning and forethought. With planning you’re able to think about what the audience might think or choose. It promotes thinking in advance about problems that might come from the audience like what evidence best supports the idea, what arguments to advance , or how you will arrange your evidence and arguments. The term inventio was used by the Roman writer Cicero to describe the process that happens when discovering the evidence and arguments for a persuasive case. He also went over how effective it is to order appeals and arguments which he referred to as dispositio. An example of this would be planning and laying out a speech the days prior to gather your thoughts.

Adapted to An Audience

Rhetoric is always planned with some type of audience in mind because you’re creating your speech to enlighten a group of people on your argument. There has to be an educated guess on the type of audience you might be speaking to.  A writer before they write a book has to think about a certain audience he wants to speak to. A boss has to think about the employees they’ll be speaking to at work. If a student is writing a letter to their professor  the student has to think about what would be appropriate and what wouldn’t. The “imaginary audience” is the main thing present when someone is creating a message.  It takes effort to be able to estimate the audience because many times no matter how experienced the speaker or writer is,  they can easily be mistaken about their audience. Rhetorical disclosure forges links between the audience and the views of the audience and of the rhetorician. The only way to reach the audience is to attend to their beliefs, values, and experiences etc.

Revealing Human Motives

In response to the motives of people they start to act symbolically. Rhetoricians address audiences with goals that they have already thought of in mind. Planning comes from the desire to achieve these certain goals. Examples of this are having the last word, or forging agreements to make peace. There are however, good and bad motives, and they’re usually concealed or admitted. A phone company might say that their latest phone will benefit the buyers more because of new key features it has and they genuinely want that for their buyers, but they won’t admit that there is really no difference, they just want people to purchase the new phone. In rhetoric the real motives may be made clear or they may stay hidden.

Responsive Rhetoric

The fourth characteristic is responses to rhetorical statements or situations. This means that rhetoric is used to create a response to different sets of circumstances that include audience, problem , location and particular times. Different controversial topics make way for rhetorical responses. like abortion, religion, Welfare etc.  These along with many more promote response making. Rhetoric is also known for response inviting, the expressions can elicit a response from people with opposite views. Rhetoricians are aware of these inviting responses and they often start to invent their own rhetorical appeals. They might start to create what they feel like the audience would say , in order to be ready to respond back. Statements and responses made by the rhetorical interaction making it own of rhetoric’s main characteristics .

Persuasion

Earlier in the chapter we went over how persuasion is most associated with rhetorical disclosure. Rhetorical disclosure influences the audience to accept an idea and act on it after.  If you wanted your friend to go on a vacation with you , you would do your best to convince them on why they should go and buy their ticket because it might be a price that it won’t ever be again. You’re expecting for them to agree and then buy the ticket.

Rhetoric disclosure is able to achieve  this goal through the assistance of arrangements, appeals, arguments,  aesthetics, and arguments. Arguments are made when reasons support a conclusion made. To make them you need support before you  present your argument. Suppose you want to persuade your employer to offer child care for their employees. You can support your claim with the reason that employees will miss less work if they can bring their children with them. Appeals are different strategies of language to trigger emotion or engage in an audience’s values. For example, a commercial can display a family around a Christmas tree with children happily opening gifts. It can have a caption about grabbing toys early for your children and how important the holidays are. Arrangements are the planning of the order to achieve persuasion Similar to organizing a show, there’s thought of the order the scenes should be displayed.  Most shows leave the cliff hangers for the ending to leave suspense for the next episode.

Elements that add beauty, form and  force to symbolic expressions are called aesthetics. Writers and speakers always want to present  appeals and arguments in a way that is memorable , shocking , or attractive. Martin Luther King is an example of this. He used allusion, and repetition to make the I Have A Dream speech more memorable and moving.  The use of words applies rhetoric as it is persuasion and planned disclosure.

Contingent Issues

The philosopher Aristotle believed that rhetoric came into play when people were faced with particle questions that are able to confront everyone. These types of questions require weighing of options and not proofs. For example, rhetoric will never question if we will have a Christmas , or if the summer time will come because these are questions that have obvious answers. These questions are either facts or “could never be” cases.

Conclusion:

In this chapter we reviewed the different terms of the word rhetoric which went back and forth between persuasion, beautiful language, or just talk with no meaning. The involvement of symbols in rhetoric was also reviewed. Rhetoric refers to the disclosure made by the 6 different characteristics , adapted to audience, responsive to circumstances, being planned, etc. We also spoke about the involvement persuasion has in rhetoric and how it can easily be mistaken as just that. Overall this is an introduction to what you’ll be further learning in the textbook,  what rhetoric is, how it was discovered, and what it means today.