Digging Deeper into Rhetoric

   In the last most, I wrote a tad bit about my understanding of rhetoric at the time. Since then, I've learned more about the exigences, rhetors, audiences, and constraints in rhetorical situations or in writing. What if I and a group of people got together to write something or do something else? We'd all be considered the rhetors, right? Would we be just rhetors, or could we be possible part of the audience, too? I'll explain what I think by using an experience that I had. You see, sometimes when I'd write on my other blog, I'd first ask my dad to look over what I had written to see if my grammar was good and if what I had written made sense, etc. After he'd make suggested corrections, I'd look over it and then sometimes would discuss it with him. While in that discussion, I'd need to take time to listen to him talk about my post before I could continue. Sometimes, he had really good ideas of what I could write in order to improve my content. The fact that I had to kick back and listen to his suggestions is a little illustration of how I not only was a rhetor for my post, but I was part of the audience, as well.

     Many things happen throughout every day. These, in fact, are all rhetorical situations. Being aware of these rhetorical events and the constraints that they bring, can help me as a writer by helping me to figure out good times and situations for me to write in.

     Now, I want to take a moment and discuss exigence for a bit. In the book Writing about Writing, Grant-Davie asks the questions on page 510, "How would you define exigence? Why does exigence matter in rhetorical situations? (What difference does it make?)" Well, I'll answer each of these in bullet points.

• From my understanding, exigence is why or how you write something, or how or why a situation occurs.
• Exigence in especially negative rhetorical situation matters because it can help you to understand and a deal with the situation better.
• And if you don't know the exigence....Well, it just may not be the best thing if it was concerning a negative rhetorical situation because you're more likely to repeat it.

     Tia Baheri wrote a post entitled, "Your Ability to Can Even: A Defense of Internet Linguistics." She talks about that, having a well-written work hangs upon the rhetors, audiences, situation, the technology that's used, and how it is used. This article ties right in with the core subject of this unit in that it basically mentions that the rhetorical situations have a huge impact on whether a writing is good or not.

     I think I am getting a much better understanding now of what "rhetoric" or a "rhetorical situation" entail. At the moment, I don't think that there is any area that we covered in this lesson that I am struggling to understand. But, I am sure that I could improve in my comprehension of each aspect of "rhetoric."

A Glimpse into Rhetoric Writing

     The main threshold concept of the first project in the unit that I’m studying has to do with “rhetoric.” I suppose understanding what “rhetoric” is can be helpful. “Rhetoric” basically entails why a person writes something and what all is included into how they formulate their written work (e.g. what kind of person their writing to, whether their writing a formal letter or an informal letter to a friend, short or long, personal or non-personal, etc). I think “rhetoric” is actually anything that has to do with writing and has an influence on how and what you write. Before taking this course, I never put much thought into this concept. I never even looked up the word “rhetoric” in a dictionary, even though I did blogging from time to time and people enjoyed my writing.

    Based on what I have learned about “rhetoric,” I don’t think we would be able to get away from the concept of it.  The whyand howwe write part of “rhetoric” always influence our writing whether we think of it or not. It’s a reality that we often take in subconsciously. Our why’sand how’sare influenced by prier or current circumstances that are or aren’t directly related to what we are writing about.

   On page 482 in the book Writing about Writing, the question is asked, “What are warrants and why are they important to rhetorical interaction?” It may be helpful to give a little scenario. Perhaps you are chit-chatting with your best friend on the phone, and they ask you what you are going to do this afternoon. You tell them, “I think I’ll go harvest the tomatoes and lettuce in my garden because it’s going to frost tonight.” A warrantis a boundary behind the reason why you decided to go harvest your tomatoes and lettuce that is not mentioned but would be understood by your audience. Frost will kill your tomato and lettuce plants. Frost is very cold. Your best friend, in this scenario, would likely understand this. Since he or she would understand this information, it wouldn’t be necessary to mention it. They are using “common sense” as they interpret what you told them. Warrantsare important for rhetorical interaction because they help save the writer or speaker a lot of time in not having to say all the details that are commonly understood. (This is similar to a scenario in the section in Writing about Writingby Doug Downs on page 473 about warrants).

    I think the concept of “rhetoric” is one that a Christian can do well to make good practice of in their life. It is good for us to take into consideration who or what kind of person or people we are talking to in informal and formal circumstances. When presenting what we believe is truth, for example, to a non-believer, we should be careful and tactful in how we approach them and how we present the subject. Also, as Christians, it is wise to consider why we are going to talk about a particular subject before we bring it up. We can have a huge impact upon our audience for the positive or negative by our words or message that we convey.

    The aspect of this lesson that I, perhaps, have had the most trouble understanding about is the valuesin “rhetoric” writing that were mentioned (e.g. values of learning, values of rationality, values of intelligence, values of correctness, values of trust, etc.). I’m really not sure what they mean. I think I’m confused, but it seems like they are like categories that you could put different writings under. 

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    I hope that those who have read this post, will not only enjoyed it, but will be understanding towards any misunderstanding I may have in regard to “rhetoric.” I wouldn’t mind if you comment to help me understand my lesson better.