The Study of Rhetoric
Works Cited Missing
"The study of rhetoric traditionally has aimed to equip students with an ability to identify problems and issues, to investigate, to interpret, and to communicate results -- whatever the subject matter. These abilities require higher-level thinking, not just skills; analysis and evaluation, not just observation . . . . The study emphasizes strategies and practice rather than a body of facts and contemplation; thus the study of rhetoric aims for social application. Students are studying rhetoric in a technical communication course even though they may never hear of Aristotle nor study history and theory of rhetoric. Identifying a problem, gathering, interpreting, and arranging information,
…show more content…
Because definitions are a product of rigid, formal thinking, quality cannot be defined."
(ZMM -- Pirsig 206)
Pirsig, a theorist as well as a rhetorician would see the approach as the right idea. Students should be faced with challenges that require demonstration of understanding as well as some demonstration of quality. I know that stating Pirsig feels students need to demonstrate some effort towards quality is reaching, but I think that is what he is truly looking for students (his in particular) to be able to understand and demonstrate. I feel that this is what you are trying to establish with us as students in your class as well.
Flaws are found in this methodology of education, Pirsig sees that students need to be taught Quality but, "…how are you to teach something that isn't premeditated? It was a seemingly impossible requirement." (Pirsig 176) Struggling with this concept leads one to believe that students must develop a sense of Quality based on what they feel. There is no prescriptive method to teach students to produce Quality. Pirsig's major problem with this whole concept is that he does not have a true understanding of Quality, and rightfully so. How is one supposed to determine Quality?
Here's how Pirsig (in my eyes) might respond to Carolyn Rude; students should be introduced to methodology in order to make valid attempts but the "answers" are to be derived from students applying effort to a goal,
It is extremely important that the Learner / group clearly articulate what the problem / situation is to the class. It is essential that the
The article ‘We Are Training Our Kids to Kill’ by David Grossman is an attempt at explaining the effect of mass media on our children as far as violence and the impacting role it plays. Grossman, a self entitled ‘world traveler and an expert in the field of “killology” uses the rhetorical aspects of ethos, pathos, and logos to get his point across. Regardless of the fact that Grossman did build some credibility for himself, used reasoning, emotion, and some facts to support his opinion, he did not use them in a very effective way. I am going to label this article as ineffective. The first reason I’m ruling Grossman’s writing as ineffective is because he seemed to contradict himself throughout his writing. The
What makes a piece of writing compelling to a reader? Every piece of good writing requires close attention to a rhetorical situation, genre, and an audience. Writing occurs within a rhetorical situation and is made up of a speaker, a subject, an audience, and the context (genre). Each of these criteria builds on one another to make a piece of writing. The speaker or writer can choose what form of text or genre he/she wants the audience to get out of the context. Genre and the audience make up a rhetorical situation. The genre and audience both rely on each other immensely to produce the targets responses.
GPE the only multilateral partnership dedicated to bringing partners together to provide a better education system.
Every day, students are surrounded by arguments, in the commercials they see that manipulate them into buying products to the arguments with their parents over who has to take out the trash. Rhetoric is present in all of conversations, for it's what gives words their power. To put it in the words of Jay
The subject of this course is rhetoric, the effective use of language. Basically, rhetoric is about people communicating to other people who have an investment in the same issue or topic. This course introduces students to college-level writing and analysis. That means you can expect to develop critical writing strategies that should help you succeed in college. The focus of this course, however, is not only "college writing"; we will also address the kinds of writing and reading skills that are important in the world beyond college. Therefore, this course has a simple goal: to help you to become "critical citizens" inside and outside the university.
In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for
students a better chance at attacking the topic without actually attacking it. A common ground is hard to find but that is why rhetoric is so fascinating. This is a way to help students argue with their parents and win, where persuasion is everything, and to help get a point across.
Hope this message finds you well. I wanted to share a bit on how the story sharing exercise in Writing and Rhetoric was a bit of a Catalytically moment for me and how it helped me better understand who I am as an individual and those around me.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terrorists carried out a set of coordinated suicide attacks with four-hijacked passenger planes and killed around 3,000 people on American soil. The first two planes hit the World Trade center and killed everyone on board and hundreds inside the buildings. Following this attack, the nation was informed by President Bush that these attacks were, “apparent terrorist attacks on our country” (http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-timeline). The third hijacked plane soon crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing multiple people aboard and 125 military and civilian personnel inside the building. The fourth plane was deliberately crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, taking the lives of all the people and the crew aboard after a few passengers tried to take the plane back from the hijackers. With thousands of lives taken and the American people frightened and needing answers, they expected someone to deliver a speech addressed to the nation to provide some form of comfort and guidance. George W. Bush, as president, was the only logical rhetor to fill that need, and nine days later on September 20, 2011; George W. Bush addressed the Nation in a Joint Session of Congress in attempt to ease Americans concerning the terror attacks. As we examine political speeches and analyze how rhetoric devices are used, we turn to experts William Lutz, Clyde Miller, and Carol
After reading the first couple of pages of the RWS 100 Course Reader and They Say/ I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, I have gathered that rhetoric is a form of writing, thinking, or expressing ones ideas in a way that not only gets your point across, but allows your audience to develop their own ideas. Rhetoric is more like regular everyday conversation as you don't develop your ideas unless it is prompted by someone else; you are simply agreeing , disagreeing , or indifferent with what someone has just said. Rhetoric is different from what we learned in high school, in which we simply developed our own ideas. Rhetoric is used to develop your own ideas, but is sparked by the ideas of someone else. I am excited to learn more
Not many people consider the dynamic influence the rhetoric of the world has on us; however, it drastically shapes many components of our life. If I were stranded alone on a desert island starting the very moment I became conscious of being, I would be quite a different person. My personality, actions, and characteristics that are heavily influenced by my parents, friends, and society would be totally different without their presence on the desert island.
Wonderful post! Your post mirrored mine in the sense that we have both come across moments of ‘not learning’ if you will. To answer your first question, I believe we hinder our student’s growth in two ways. 1. Our presentation of work(what we are teaching} does not connect with our students.( the challenge is connecting our way of teaching to modern-day society). That’s not to say that every student is hindered by this, but some are. 2. We assume students should or must know how to complete a given task, though we give them outlines for their benefit many students still focus on the outcome. Why not give students our own outlines and exemplars and challenge them to come up with their own? All parties involved are responsible in
This approach summed up is learning from our errors. In a sense that educators not just correct us and give us the correct answer but goes further on and reenacts the situation. So, the student is forced to think like a mathematician, historian or scientist etc. Gardner gives an example of a child who thinks their sweater generates warmth. Once this explanation has been offered, a parent or teacher can suggest that the sweater be left outside each evening. (Jacobus 633) Then presenting the sweater to the child and showing the temperature of the sweater is the same as the outside. Challenging the child’s theory can further his understanding about what generates heat. Learning from our mistakes can have a lot of positive effects such as create problem solving and critical thinking skills. It also helps remove boundaries created by fear or failure. However, from my personal experience I disagree. As a child, I was put into a household that only spoke Spanish. I was constantly corrected and showed how to articulate the sounds and pro nouns the words clearer. I however become discouraged and I still carry that as an adult. Even though I can read and write in Spanish I am afraid to speak
The concept-attainment strategy asks students to draw on prior knowledge to make hypotheses about given sets of data (Eggers, Kauchak, 1996, p. 160). “The teacher tries to get students to learn how to label, categorize, interpret data, explore relationships, identify critical relationships, make inferences, apply concepts, predict outcomes and explain reasoning.” (PBWorks ) The teacher will present the students with examples and non-examples of a concept and the students will make hypotheses as to what the concept is. As students make hypotheses, the teacher should write or display them somewhere visible so that students won’t forget what has already been said. The choice of examples and non-examples is vitally important, because these will either lead the students to clarification or confusion. Once the students have examined all the evidence, they must do a final analysis and come up with a final hypothesis. The teacher will then state whether they are correct. During the presentation of hypotheses, it is crucial that students voice their thinking aloud, not only to clarify, but also to help other students that may be struggling. The students who are making the hypotheses will be forced to examine their thinking processes (Eggers, Kauchak, 1996, p. 159 – 170).