The Rhetorical Pedagogy

1. The Rhetorical Pedagogy ENGL 2900

2. What is it? • Rhetoric is the art of finding the best available means of persuading a specific audience in a specific situation. • Ancient art of using language to persuade.

3. History • Classical Rhetoric • Current-Traditional Rhetoric • Twentieth Century Rhetoric

4. Classical Rhetoric • More “scholarly attention during the 20th century” • Began with Aristotle’s work, “On Rhetoric” • He develops the ‘communication triangle’ • Ethos • Pathos • Logos

5. Current Traditional Rhetoric • In use mostly in the late 1800’s through about the 1960’s • Focuses • “formal correctness, elegance of style, and the modes of discourse: description, narration, exposition, and argument…. A rhetoric devoted to arrangement and style” (Richard Nordquist) • Coherence • Correctness • The opposition of the Expressive Pedagogy

6. Twentieth Century Rhetoric • Personal interpretation of things. • Guidelines

7. The Triangle • Ethos Pathos • author audience appeal to appeal to ethics e emotions Logos message appeal to logic

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11. Advantages • If we use these guidelines, we will be able to be as proficient as possible in our communication • Rhetoric allows us to broaden our views and see bigger perspectives

12. Disadvantages • If anything can be interpreted in anyway, how can any argument seem valid? • We can use our language to mislead the reader’s / audience’s perception.