Rhetoric Discourse

The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.

According to Porter, “A ‘discourse community’ is a group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated. A discourse community shares assumptions about what objects are appropriate for examination and discussion, what constitutes ‘evidence’ and ‘validity’ and what formal conventions are followed (38-39).” These five texts collectively constitute a community of discourse through their application of common language norms, characteristics, patterns and rhetorical strategies. All of the authors are writing about corresponding ideas and discussing their identical goals; the prevalence of gender inequality in the legal profession and the unjust consequences derived from it. Similarly, all five sources intentions are to oppose the standard viewpoint that gender inequality has diminished and provide evidence to support this claim. Their ideas of remedying gender inequality in the legal profession overlap as well as contradict one another.

The game I saw was the Boston Celtics on TNT. I saw the game for ten minutes, and in those ten minutes the Gatorade logo was shown a total of five times. First, it was shown two minutes into the game, there were two big containers with the Gatorade logo. The next time I saw it was a person with a Gatorade bottle. Then I saw a person with a Gatorade shirt. Then the cameras pointed at another big set of containers on the other side from the other two containers I saw in the beginning. The last time I saw it was on the backboard of the

Collectively as a society most people support the improvement of mankind; we support the advancement of medicine, technology, education, etc. But at what point do we stop moving forward, or is it human nature to constantly improve and push the limits? It seems like us humans can achieve anything we sent our minds to-after all in a span of a few decades we went from simple flying machines to taking our first steps on the moon. In a smaller span of time, humans might take the next big leap for mankind.

Plato once said, “Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” Through all the time that has passed since those words were first said, rhetoric has been used millions of times in millions of different ways, from a heavily thought out presidential speech to a kid trying to convince his parents to let him eat another cookie from the cookie jar. It is also used heavily in advertising campaigns. The purpose is to convince the audience that they are the best presidential candidate, that they deserve that extra cookie, or that they are providing a great product that you don’t just want to buy, but need to buy. Rhetoric rules the minds of men, and women, for that matter. Multiple rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques, such as color choice,

We use rhetoric every day without even realizing it. Correctly using rhetoric on a specific group of people can drastically increase an arguments’ strength. Benjamin R. Barber wrote an article conveying his research on the failing school systems in the U.S titled America Skips School published in Harper’s Magazine. Barber uses rhetorical elements like ethos, pathos, and logos to build his argument. He establishes his credibility and then emotionally connects with his audience and explains who and what is to blame for the lack of quality education in America. Once he establishes a solid connection using these

According to John Swales (1990), there are six characteristics that are adequate and important for recognizing a discourse community. Firstly, a discourse community has standard public objectives that they strive to achieve. Members of a discourse community all share the same common goals they are anticipating to attain, and they do not have individuals with separate goals. For instance, the Salvation Army public goals are “to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.” They offer spiritual, physical, and emotional service to the public, as well as the opportunity to donate. Secondly, a discourse community has various techniques of communication for members to correspond with each other. For

All great minds think alike, a common cliche we have all heard at some point or another, but is this true? Well yes, some minds do think alike and, when they organize, we may call them a discourse community. A discourse community is a specific collective that compares and converses. It is a thought-provoking group that promotes common ideas and benefits its members. Any true discourse community can be identified by six necessary characteristics, as described by Swales. First, “a discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.” Second, “a discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.” Third, “a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.” Fourth, “a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.” Fifth, “a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.” And finally, “a discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.”

In Grant Davie’s “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents,” he stresses the importance of both the rhetoric and the audience in various situations.

Recognizing a speaker’s intended audience is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of rhetorical appeals and the overall argument. If I am able to successfully identify the intended audience of a speaker, I will be able to more thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of the speaker’ rhetorical appeals and devices (Lunsford et al. 92,93).

serve their society. A variety of rhetorical strategies and modes contribute to the overall role of

A discourse community is a group of people who share the same beliefs, who conversate, or have a discussion over a topic of the groups choice. Football teams, school clubs, and activist movements are examples of different types of discourse communities. Religion is a very interesting discourse community. Judaism, Amish, being Catholic are just a few out of the many types of religions. All religions believe in God(s), which makes them a discourse community; which also is one of the requirements that they share a belief.

Rhetoric is a course in which students are taught the values of persuasion. And yet, behind this course is the utmost power to corrupt the world, changing it into a world of our own policies. This power, even though seldom discussed, has lead to many intriguing discoveries. One such discovery is how people are able to shape the world they live in simply by choosing the right words. Therefore those who would want the world to be a better place must protect this power. If in the wrong hands this power could cause serious damage. Several authors have striven to protect rhetoric and its power. Few agree on the matter of defining rhetoric, but they know that they must protect rhetoric from dark souls. A single definition of rhetoric must maintain a simplistic nature while incorporating every aspect of rhetoric. However, I argue that rhetoric is a means of persuading audiences of a situation and a particular reality through language and personal appeal. In order to prove this definition I will discuss how rhetoric creates a situation, the shaping of a different reality, the audience, the use of language, and the personal appeal. Finally, I will demonstrate the absolute need for rhetoric.

In the world that we live, what we know, how we perceive and how we act are due the symbols created by us and the ones we encounter in the world. When we watch movies, talk to friends and relatives, read billboards with advertisements and buses, when we listen to a political leader addressing people or when we choose furniture for our houses or place of work, we engage ourselves in thinking about symbols, how this symbols work and their impact on us. We prefer to communicate in a way basing it on our discovery .The process is called rhetoric criticism .This essay will describe how to use rhetoric criticism to analyze symbols.

Lessing addresses that it is crucial that both are aware of this divide and make an effort to bridge the gap despite the condition not necessarily either ones fault. The motif of a “doorway” is mentioned in Lessing’s speech, as a means of metaphorically demonstrating a barrier to education that can only be unlocked for both cultures by bridging the divide between poverty and privilege. Whilst stressing the point of education being needed for the underprivileged, Lessing also points out that the advantaged world needs to be more educated too, acknowledging that “reading, books, used to part of a general education.” This forces the audience to think about their self-absorbed society that is unaware of the extended global community. This feature in Lessing’s speech contributes to the textual integrity as it provides a meaning and value that is still relevant, acknowledging that it is the nature of human beings to be caught up in their own world, but encouraging change within these people, as these starving people “may yet define us.”