Exam 1: Rhetoric Introduction

The attempt to elicit and/or transfer meaning.

Three major types (dimensions of discourse)

• Informative
• Entertaining
• Rhetorical

Facts, new article, science journal, text book, safety info., etc.

Adds to our knowledge

• Fiction novel, comic, stand up, etc.
• Holds our attention and fascinates our minds

• Working toward a goal, persuasion;
• Shape peoples attitude or awareness.
• Goes beyond both by attempting to persuade ourselves and others to change actions, beliefs, attitudes, and/or opinions. 

• A Teachable Art
• Is a body of principles that can generate an artifact, a work of creation. Teachable disciplines that enhance natural talents.

• It's important to understand how to convey and support arguments
• *Aristotle's definition of rhetoric: finding various means of persuasion-looking at how persuasion happens

• Exigence: Problem, absence, imperfection
• Audience: Recessive, affect the change, a change in awareness, who is it going to affect. The people who will enact the change, who is listening, change in awareness
• Constraints:
• What you have at your disposal.  Context. What assumptions are the community having, what can you use to support your topic.
• What you have to work with to execute your message, what assumptions are in existence to help your case
• Element around you that you can use or how it renders you.

What you see what the rhetor see.

Example: wedding, best man toast, but situation: Egypt, what to name it. Going to depend on how someone takes the situation. More concrete.  Power of the Rhetor.

• Paid teachers
• Logographers: values challenge. Argue any position and win.
• Bad rap-the sophists.
• Teaching without thinking it through.
• Speech > writing
• Goal: Eliciting reaction
• Means: Style
• kairos: timing, “speech, wanting to invoke something”, fit timing
• *Karios: has a study aid