Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Understanding Rhetoric pg. 1-54, Arguments Chapter 1

In starting the reading about rhetoric, the comic book layout stuck out to me because it is a style of reading and writing that I hadn’t seen before. As they continued to explain more about the origins of rhetoric, while using illustrations and words to depict certain situations, I felt like I started to grasp and understand the ideas of the context. I am a visual learner, so the images and contexts of messages probably aided in my ability to understand. I thought that it was interesting that rhetoric is about the spaces in which we write, converse, debate and share ideas but Plato did not think it was necessary because it effects our ability to tell the truth in writing. Aristotle felt differently, and found it to be the foundation of education. Ethos- ethics, pathos- sympathy and logos- logic, have become core principles in writing.

The second reading about arguments was intriguing to me because with all the different types of arguments, some of them aren’t always sought out to be negative or prove someone else wrong, sometimes they are to find a common ground of understanding. There are arguments that seek to convince, persuade, inform, explore, make decisions, there are some that also talk about the past, future and present. It is also important in an argument to make sure that you are speaking to a targeted audience and the context of your messages are reaching all of the areas of writing that are ethical and logical. The way you structure your argument , who you are appealing to and what it is you are arguing about all play a vital role in shaping your writing. It is very important to have a voice in your writing that appeals to the i right place and time.


I thought both of the readings were very informative and interesting, each had a different way of conveying the messages but I thought they were both thought out and depicted the information well.  

1 comment:

  1. I think finding new ways to learn is always important. I would agree that reading the rhetoric in comic book layout definitely stuck out and made me want to keep reading. I found it to be engaging and much more of an interesting style to read about. Hopefully this visual learning style will continue in our class because I am too a visual learner.

    The key point that you made "they re to find a common ground of understanding" is key. Without finding a middle point, tragedy can hit. People will be unhappy, resolution won't be made, and sadly arguments can last forever. I think you are right, people who choose to have an arguments are targeted towards a specific audience with the right message or context that they should be receiving. Lastly one bit more that I gathered from the reading and want to share with you, is that everything written online (text, email, Facebook, or what have you), that all of that can be used as evidence agains or for you. Not that this necessarily apples to you but it caught my attention since it seems that everything is online these days.

    ReplyDelete