Online Day Blog

In my opinion, if you said the word “rhetoric” to about 90% of the population and asked them to try to define it, well they would probably look at you like you’re crazy or scream and run. I used to be one of those people before my junior year in high school, and I remember thinking that it was way too hard to understand so I may as well start to like math. But as A.P Lang progressed, I started to learn that it wasn’t so bad. Now continuing with this course, the retrieval of rhetoric back to my attention isn’t so bad. The key terms in rhetoric all fit together, whether it is rhetorical situation, rhetorical discourse, audience, dialect, and many more. When I think about key terms in rhetoric, or really any topic that seems too abstract for my brain to handle at first, I try to put it in easier terms. For rhetoric, I tend to think of a picture on the wall.

I find that the picture in the frame is just as important as the nail that holds the picture to the wall. In this example, the picture in the frame would be the invention, and the elements displayed would be the details in composition. The nail holding the frame to the wall would be considered the rhetorical situation. The idea of the frame being displayed is comparable to the rhetorical discourse, and like I said before the people and pictures displayed account for the details. I agree with Bitzer in this respect, “One cannot say that the situation is the function of the speaker’s intention, for in this case the speakers’ intentions were determined by the situation.”, which ties directly to my frame example. Without the nail, there would be no display, but without the picture the nail would have nothing to hold. The two are inversely important in rhetoric.

After talking about such strong words like rhetoric and rhetorical situation, the word “audience” seems unimportant. But that’s not the case at all. Audience may seem like a simple and almost ridiculous word to put value to, I thought the same thing before this class. I knew that audience was important in rhetoric because it was who you related to as a composer, but this class has brought me to a broader understanding. After the first project was assigned, I was a bit mind boggled. To start with an audience of a younger generation, and then take that same idea and switch it to fit the mindset of 40 somethings, well that was definitely a task. Without knowledge of audience the project could have been a total disaster, and I learned how important audience is to a composition of any sort.

Reflection is another one of those words. We were taught at a very young age in front of a mirror what our reflection is, so it seems insignificant to think about reflecting. However, in composition, it is absolutely crucial. Although the initial writing process is significant and creates a substantial amount of the invention, the act of blurting out words and ideas differs vastly from perfecting the language and modifying the content. That’s where reflection comes in. When we reflect, we take our time. We pick and prod and the details, much like we do in the mirror daily. You fix what you can, and you do your best until you feel as though your finished product is acceptable. Sometimes it’s not perfect, but its what you have worked through with the invention and creation that matters the most.

Now to shift topics into something more opinionated: knowledge. I feel that knowledge is ever changing, and that knowledge can always be gained and lost at any time. I do believe that knowledge can be created, because how else would we know what we know? It had to start somewhere. I work with kids every day, and some of the things they say as they learn, whether good or bad, always shock me. Minds are capable of great things, and just using them is what the key is. If you just coast your way through school and learn the bare minimum, sure you will gain at least a little more knowledge than if you hadn’t gone at all; but taking the bull by the horns and applying yourself through it all, that’s when real knowledge is formed. Actually putting yourself into situations trying to really grasp the idea behind it, that’s when you know your learning. In retrospect however, even as babies, our knowledge is growing. We are taught new things each day, from “Red button” to “Pretty Butterfly”, these things that are pointed out expand our minds tremendously, and without that we would all be like cavemen again.

Through this class I have learned much more about rhetoric in general that I had back in high school. I think that was to be expected as this is college, but the hands on ways we have learned rhetoric makes it easier to comprehend then just reading about rhetoric. Although I don’t think rhetoric can ever be truly 100% comprehended, I feel as though I’ve gotten a better grasp on the topic than I would have a year or two ago.