finished. I gave them a tad bit higher grades than I thought I would, because it is their first paper.

there are three of them that will be talking to me after class due to things.

and I can’t stop laughing!

rhetoric

n 1: using language effectively to please or persuade 2: high flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation [syn: grandiosity, magniloquence, grandiloquence] 3: loud and confused and empty talk; “mere rhetoric” [syn: palaver, hot air, empty words, empty talk] 4: study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking)

I’ve been thinking of this since tuesday’s rhetoric class, because I’ve got to say I don’t think there is EVER a failed rhetorical situation. I disagree with Bitzer on this, and I disagree with a person in our class whom seemed to think that one peice of writing(which she strongly disagreed with) was a failed rhetorical situation because she was unable to step outside her rather narrowly defined viewpoints.

I think the 1st definition up top has a key word in it: effectively. There is never a failed rhetorical situation in writing or in speech, because it is impossible to judge each and every member of the receiving audience to see if they’ve changed, and this just as readily applies to a successful rhetorical situation. Rather, there are levels of effectiveness.

A peice of writing could be effective to a lesser extent on one audience(hardcore dems or hardcore republicans), but to a greater extent on another(moderate dems and reps). So saying that the rhetoric failed is a misnomer. The language is still there, the audience is still there(even if it was published in the wrong paper), and the change that it may enact is still possible. It just may not be as effective as it could be if it were in a more targeted paper.

So, in essence, Bitzer: I think you’re wrong. There’s no proof whatsoever that a rhetorical situation is failed…and there may be proof that there is change in the audience(perhaps unaccounted for), but it is there even when the rhetoric is misguided and wrongly placed. There are only effectiveness levels of rhetoric.

And I’m done. It just got on my nerves that in class someone couldn’t step outside their worldview to judge AS OBJECTIVELY AS POSSIBLE a peice of rhetoric. And I’m calling it rhetoric, though it may not be as effective on one audience as another. There’s never any failure in a situation, just degrees of success.