So, Rhetoric of Science is off to a great start! Monday's class was filled with varied comments from all participants and we are learning each other's personality. Dr. Baake provides some thoughtful prompts and admits that learning can occur instantaneously with each post. The suggestive topics for final projects sounds like each of us will be travelling unique paths down this rhetorical trail.

The first assigned text by Natalie Angier brings a certain normalcy to the topic of scientific discovery. Her use of metaphor and humor create a sense of conversation to a topic that you wouldn't find around a workplace lunch table or night out with friends, but creates the feeling that you might not mind if it did. Her style reveals why she is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Off and running!

As our ENGL 5060 semester comes screeching to a halt, I'd like to take the time to thank Dr. Rice and my fellow students for the collaborative learning experience that created a unique voice for the expressive discourse during the semester. My sincere appreciation to each of you for a great semester!!

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~William Wordsworth

Authority - Bartholomae - As students begin to write in an academic setting, they begin to integrate into knowledge-based communities building authority by adding to the knowledge-making writing they produce.

Coherence – Coherence can be described as the unifying element in good writing. It refers to the unity created between the ideas, sentences, paragraphs and sections of a piece of writing. Coherence is what gives a piece of writing its flow. It also gives the reader a sense of what to expect and, therefore, makes the reading easier to follow as the ideas appear to be presented in a natural, almost automatic, way.

Evaluation - Flower and Hayes explains evaluation as a cognitive process of revision where a writer makes judgments against their goals, knowledge, and the current text in an effort to determine the final product of writing.

Philosophies of Composition - Fulkerson - philosophies about the teaching of composition may be either expressive (personal views of the author), mimetic (shared universe of reality between writer & reader), rhetorical emphasizing the effect on the reader), or formalist (emphasizing traits internal to the work)

Post-process theory – This theory of composition endorses the fundamental idea that no codifiable or generalizable writing process exists or could exist. Post-process theorists hold--for all sorts of different reasons--that writing is a practice that cannot be captured by a generalized process or a Big Theory. Kastman Breuch views writing as an activity, looking to Kent’s claim that “writing is public, writing is interpretive, writing is situated.”

As I work to finalize my FYC Syllabus, I’ve taken time to define the terms that influenced the direction I have chosen for my project.

They are:

James Kinneavy - Author of A Theory of Discourse and Founder of University of Texas PhD program in Rhetoric that lobbied for undergraduate writing courses that served students at every level. He promoted a theory of how contexts shape the purposes of writing reestablishing important connections between writing instruction and classical rhetoric. Kinneavy used the elements of the communication situation (audience, author, text, and referent) to develop a philosophy of the aims of discourse (persuasive, self-expressive, literary, and referential).

Rhetorical triangle – A graphical image used as a metaphor for the rhetorical situation showing the relationship between writer, audience, reality, and the text that exists as a means of communication between these elements. Kinneavy developed the rhetorical triangle based on the I. A. Richards’ work on language semiotics.

Technical writing – Technical writing is a style of writing that seeks to inform a user audience using various forms of media. This media may exist as either hard-copy or electronic content and will typically describe the function, use, and/or maintenance of products. Samples of technical writing can be found in product literature, user manuals, help systems, and web content.

Writing across the curriculum – Writing Across the Curriculum, abbreviated WAC, is a subfield of composition studies that emphasizes the need to teach students theories of writing that can be applied throughout their academic career in the various courses they may encounter. Through reading and writing in many different courses, students develop critical skills that enable them to better integrate into a chosen field.

Writing center – Writing centers are areas maintained by educational institutions that provide students with additional opportunities to learn about writing. Typical services of writing centers include editing and tutoring that provides feedback to students on their projects. Many writing centers have now developed Online Writing Labs to automate the process without the necessity of face-to-face interaction. These environments act as great learning tools for both those who seek and those who provide assistance.

Collaborative Editing

Brufee mentions that a symptom of difficulty that “students had adapting to college life and work was that many refused help when it was offered” noting tutoring and counseling sessions as the type of help offered by colleges (397). One assignment that I am considering developing is requiring students to schedule an appointment at a Student Writing Center for reviewing a first draft of a paper. My rationale for this task was that this effort would simulate scheduling a review with a Subject Matter Expert, an editor, or even a peer review in the workplace. I still may try to incorporate this element into my final syllabus project, but I stumbled onto another task that would also work well for collaboration.

Bruffee builds on Rorty’s idea of “normal discourse” by discussing a “community of knowledgeable peers,” which might be accomplished in a first year writing program by separating the class into small groups based on majors or disciplines (403). While looking at different examples of coursework from First Year Composition programs, I noticed that the University of North Texas’ freshman writing program mentioned group editing sessions. I liked the idea of a collaborative group discussing an article and collectively agreeing on what aspects could be improved upon. An instructor could then easily combine this effort with the idea of utilizing digital editing capabilities to enrich the students’ technology experience. Therefore, my sample collaboration assignment might resemble the following:

Editorial Team Project – I will divide you into groups of three or more based on your majors or disciplines and together you will edit an article that I provide. Individually, you will each read the article and annotate comments using either the Track Changes function of MS Word or the editing functions of Adobe Acrobat (Note: We will have a brief overview these software packages to introduce you to the editorial capabilities of each.). Collectively, you will discuss the individual comments and work as a team to create a single edited version of the article justifying the group comments and suggested changes. Finally, each group member will participate in a brief class presentation of the results. The presentation may include various aspects of the project, the process taken to accomplish the assignment, but must include the final results of the Editorial Team’s final markup.

Deliverables:

·         Individual editing markup

·         Final group editing markup

·         Presentation

Each student will receive individual grades based on the following:

·         Individual Markup – 5 points

·         Group Participation – 5 points

·         Final Presentation – 10 points

Contributing to Technology

I'm trying to keep up with homework while on vacation, so I tell my wife, "Honey, I'm going to go down to the lobby to put some thoughts on paper."

Yet, this proverbial paper is my blog in cyberspace that I've logged into while sitting in the business center of a hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado. So, how complicated can literacy be - well, actually quite complicated.

In their article, Blinded by the Letter, Wysocki and Johnson-Eilolo note that Dianne Konawati's found almost 200 different  instances of literacy mentioned in the ERIC Database (717). I would have to imagine that many of those literacies were based around understanding a certain technology - computer literacy being only one example.

In his article, Literacy, Technology, and Monopoly Capital, Richard Ohmann asks us to consider technology as, "itself a social process, saturated with the power relations around it, continually reshaped according to so some people's intentions" (706).

Literacy might just be considered participating in technology by becoming involved in the development of technology and learning new tools and processes to further technology for our own "intentions."

Many people forget to look at written language as a technology because it has been around for so long. But from the industrial revolution forward, that technology has been used to communicate other technological advancements. So, it can be seen as a scaffolding of technology.

Peer Review

This week I reviewed many of the Extended Analysis projects created by other students in class, but chose to review Amelia’s podcast recordings about the composition theorist, James Berlin. The first of three podcasts does a wonderful job of providing a historical background on Berlin, while the next two recordings discuss the details of his works.

While I might naturally assume that his Bachelor of Arts major was English, I caught myself wondering if it might actually be in psychology or sociology instead. So, my first suggestion would be to mention this in the recording. There were several quotes that I rewound and played back until I could get them written down – the first being, “Berlin saw the English curriculum as a key vehicle for accomplishing the goal of a democratic America in which citizens participate in civic affairs.” It seems as though Berlin gave credit to participation through written dialogue and felt that it counted as a strong voice in society.

One of the more thought-provoking messages from Amelia was Berlin’s idea that “We are teaching writing as a way of ordering the world and making sense of it.” This speaks to principles of cognition through an etymological lens. Amelia also notes that Berlin claimed that “theories of teaching composition are rooted in the ways we have been taught or have chosen to see the world and to comprehend reality.” This, along with Berlin’s idea of “socially-constructed nature of knowledge” fully acknowledges his social constructivist theory of knowledge.

Berlin’s theories are well covered in the discussions covering his articles, chapters, and books. Addressing composition, Amelia notes, “Berlin envisioned an English curriculum fully expanded…one that would unfailingly foster a more open-minded attention to an increased range of topics genres, contexts and perspectives.” She continues claiming that his integrity and dedication to the field of composition impressed his colleagues. After his unexpected death, a contemporary wrote of Berlin, “[He] made the field alive and important in ways that no one else had before” and “explained why the writing of history is not mere recitation of facts, but controls how we understand the present.”

The only other critique that I would suggest is that there are a few instances where the background music overpowers the narration. (See 1:38 on Part 2), but other than this Amelia does a great job on this difficult task – Kudos!

New Pages Nav Bar Added

I've rearranged the blog and added a Nav Bar along the top. I've added an Extended Analysis page containing a link to my Prezi and my first attempt at a Teaching Philosopy. Feel free to comment and give me some tips for my philosophy. (Thanks in advance!) -clw

Lily got jealous of everyone else posting pictures of their dogs and told me she wanted to be a Dog Star too! (She also thought the video below was quite hilarious.)

Playing Cat and Mouse can be risky business!

Addressing the topic depicted in Peter Steiner’s 1993 cartoon, Hubert L. Dreyfus discusses the obscurity of people and the disintegration of knowledge in Anonymity versus Commitment: The Dangers of Education on the Internet. A more recent article by Dreyfus on this same topic can be found on his UC Berkeley page. Both of these articles discuss the leveling of information based around the writings of Kierkegaard.

To briefly summarize, the massive amount of information on the internet contributes to “desituated information…producing an anonymous, detached spectator” (579). This spectator is referred to by Kierkegaard as the Public “a phantom, its spirit, a monstrous abstraction, and all-embracing something which is nothing, a mirage” (579). This Public freely absorbs anonymous information available on the internet in the “aesthetic sphere of existence” producing “a self that has no defining content or continuity but is open to all possibilities and to constantly being drawn into new games” (580). This obscurity of information and individuals in a risk-free aesthetic sphere contradicts what Kierkegaard calls the ethical sphere in which “one has a stable identity and one is committed to involved action” (580).

The internet provides the ability to post, comment, forward, and disseminate information with a lack of commitment and identity promoting the concept that individuals get to decide what is interesting, what is true, and what knowledge is worth learning. However, for Kierkegaard, “one can only turn information into relevant meaningful knowledge….if one has a strong identity based on serious, long-lasting commitment" (582). Dreyfus points out, that “such a commitment is risky…..[t]here is no way to have a meaningful life and to develop particular skills and the skill of being a good human being without taking risks.”

The use of MOO and Skype for online classes certainly doesn’t embody the extremes of anonymity described by Dreyfus and Kierkegaard, but they do offer an alternative to personal interaction. One fellow student joked about not being “presentable” for an interactive Skype session, while another talked of the interruptions from family members. I am also “guilty” of attending online class dressed much more casually than I would dress for attendance in person and have also had side conversations with family members during class time. So these methods of technology have changed the classroom, but change is inevitable and technology is becoming more engrained in the educational process. As we experience this techno-evolution of education, we should remember to stay committed to who we are and take ownership and responsibility for how we use the technology available to us.

Hey Freshmen Writers - Get to Work!!

I may be setting the bar a tad bit too high for First Year Composition students.......but hey, this is all for fun anyway right?!

This week's writing prompt: What are types of assignments which you would include in a FYC syllabus?

ASSIGNMENT 1

(This assignment gets the students thinking and writing about composition. It also prepares them to discuss their writing amongst a group.)

Write your personalized responses to the following:

·         What type of writing have you been required to do before?

·         What type of writing have you most enjoyed?

·         What type of books do you enjoy reading?

·         What type of magazine do you enjoy reading?

·         Define what plagiarism means to you?

·         Define what composition means to you?

Be prepared for a group discussion on your answers.

ASSIGNMENT 2

(This assignment is writing for the simple purpose of writing and putting thoughts on the page. It speaks to identifying an individual voice in the writing and a flowing discussion.)

Keep a journal or blog and write between 300-400 words on any topic each week. Strive to find a consistency of voice in your writing – which could very well consist of random topics, but all the while creating a flow of conversation to your writing.

ASSIGNMENT 3

(The project works with writing that serves a business purpose of communicating to an audience. It introduces critique from an editorial perspective, simulates small work group discussions, and includes a slightly more formal, yet familiar, method of communicating with a business through the final email memo.)

Choose the web site, Facebook page, (or other web presence) of a local business and write a critical analysis of the site. Consider the visual aspects (color, layout, font use), as well as the textual content, and address these in your writing. Reflect on the audience and customer base of the site and write about how the site communicates, whether appropriately or inappropriately. Assemble in work groups of 4 or more students and compare notes and project progress – learn from each other. The final aspect of this task is to draft an email message in the form of a memo with the intent to submit your findings and any recommendations you might have to the business through the contact information you find on the site.

ASSIGNMENT 4

(This assignment brings in practices of more disciplined writing and provides a side-by-side comparison of the different citation styles used in scholarly writing. This could lead to discussions about contextual constraints in the form of corporate style guides, specifications, and other bounding elements and restricting agents.)

Each week, pick a topic of your choice and provide 14 references in the appropriate citation style: Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). The final product of this assignment will be 2-page summary addressing how and when these styles would be appropriate for use.

	Category	Week 1 - MLA	Week 2 - APA	Week 3 - CMS
		Topic 1:	Topic 2:	Topic 3:
1	Single author book
2	Two-author book
3	Magazine
4	Journal (by issue)
5	Entire web site
6	Page from web site
7	Image from web site
8	Entire Blog
9	E-Mail
10	Video or Film
11	Podcast
12	Lecture
13	Government publication
14	Dissertation

ASSIGNMENT 5

(This formal research paper brings together elements of writing that have become more structured throughout the course. The task involves peer review of other’s work and allows the student to recieve criticism and feedback on their writing.)

For the of the course-culminating research paper, develop:

1.       A project plan (including a schedule)

2.       A Rough Draft including the following:

·         Thesis Statement

·         Opening Paragraph

·         Placeholder for the Body Section in which you will include quotes from at least three different sources on your chosen topic.

·         Closing Paragraph

Submit these items to a fellow student for a peer review and provide feedback on the items you receive from that student.

Philosophy of Composition

Contrasting different theories of composition, James Berlin writes that for the New Rhetorics “[t]ruths are operative only within a given universe of discourse” (246). I highlighted that comment along with a later Berlin quote of Ann E. Berthoff stating “The way we make sense of the world is to see something with respect to, in terms of, in relation to something else” (246). These quotes brought to mind a practice of using metaphor in writing.

The goal of writers should be to contribute to an ongoing dialogue of truth for the consideration of an intended audience. This truth will come in the form of an inner voice representing the author’s thoughts and ideas. The author should strive to communicate their perspectives and viewpoints through clear and concise language so that the information they present becomes knowledge for their audience.

In an attempt to have audiences consider a viewpoint, many authors of scholarly writing use the term lens, as in viewing a particular situation through the lens of political, cultural, or any number of other influences. Attempting to explain the context of a situation, writers have also used the term framing, as in framing an argument within certain boundaries for discussion purposes. Both of these terms refer to acts associated with photography, which captures a moment in time and ultimately frames what was once seen through a lens. By using these terms, authors hope to communicate what is seen in their mind’s eye through their own viewpoint and put it into context for their audience.

Another common metaphor employed by authors is envisioning the building of a structure sometimes starting with a solid foundation and possibly ending with the detailed woodwork of a finishing carpenter. Other metaphors include comparison to a canvas for painting or a tapestry of woven fabric. All of these methods base their comparison on a similar act of crafting an object with the goal of a final product as an outcome. This practice can be traced back to the Platonic and Socratic practice of discussing episteme (knowledge) and techne (craft) (see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Writing for me has never been a linear process easily defined by the stages of “pre-writing, writing, and re-writing” (Flower and Hayes, 255). My development process is more recursive with thoughts occurring at random times during the day – while driving to work, mowing the yard, or walking the dog. Moments of contemplation away from reading and writing enable time of contrasting, comparing, and meaning making. One of my challenges is having the ability to immediately write down what comes to mind or hold the thoughts until I am able to do so.

While I’ve never been a teacher of writing, I’ve been a student of writing for as long as I can remember. The earliest “formal” writing that I can recall occurred in grade school and consisted of writing papers or book reports either on specific topics supplied by teachers or on topics of my own interests. As I presume many beginning writers might also experience during these early stages of writing development, I struggled searching for the “right” way to express my personal feelings of what I thought about any particular subject. I can now look back and recognize that I lacked the confidence, self-esteem, and personal value held by my inner voice. That doubt stayed with me until I enrolled in a first year composition course at a community college about ten years after graduating from high school.
Surely, ten years of maturity added some confidence to my voice, but my English professor shared with me the idea that what I thought was really all that mattered. She explained that while my thoughts might align with the same ideas that others had, it was my personal experience in life that gave me a unique perspective that I could present through my writing. She shared with me the concept that as long as I could explain and justify why I felt the way I did or how I had arrived at certain conclusions, I could never be “wrong” when writing.

I was recently pointed toward an article by Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle in which they state, “we have not yet imagined moving first-year composition from teaching “how to write in college” to teaching about writing — from acting as if writing is a basic, universal skill to acting as if writing studies is a discipline with content knowledge to which students should be introduced” (553). So, from the readings this week, recollections from my own cognitive “long-term memory” (Flower and Hayes, 256), and knowledge from recent research, I would have to say that my philosophy of composition is developing to be something resembling the following:

I would enjoy contributing to in pedagogical mentorship providing students with both a theoretical basis and practical skill sets to prepare them for their journey as developing writers throughout their studies and professional lives. Learning about writing theory will provide the foundation for understanding the research and body of knowledge residing behind the development of writing as a discipline, while exposure to tools and techniques will enable them to implement the processes and craft to create meaning and communicate knowledge to an audience.

Initiative, in the form of a simple email, can sometimes make all the difference. For example:




-----Original Message-----
From: Cary.WaterhouseSent: Mon 6/11/12 2:50 PM
To: Tabetha J Adkins; Donna Dunbar-Odom
Cc: rich.rice(a)ttu.edu
Subject: Composition Theory Assistance Inquiry

Hello Drs. Adkins and Dunbar-Odom,

My name is Cary Waterhouse and I am a Publications Task Lead and
Principal Technical Editor/Writer at (a regional company). I am also a graduate student enrolled in the MATC program <http://www.english.ttu.edu/tcr/>  at Texas Tech University. For the summer semester, I have enrolled in History and Theories of College Composition <http://www.richrice.com/5060>  and am looking forward to my studies. Feel free to view my WaterhouseBlog
<http://www.aerospacetechwriter.blogspot.com/>  to read about my
progress throughout the course.

In reviewing the TAMU-C English Writing Program
<http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialScience
sArts/departments/literatureLanguages/firstYearWriting/default.aspx>
and Faculty pages
<http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialScience
sArts/departments/literatureLanguages/facultyAndStaff/default.aspx> , I
noticed your backgrounds in composition and am contacting you both to
ask if I might be able to direct questions to either of you regarding
TAMU-C's composition program as specified in the following optional
assignment from my class work:

* Thoroughly investigate a composition program and develop a
"philosophy of writing" that could be used to get a job at that
institution. (1000-word essay and class presentation).

In exchange for your guidance and mentorship, I would be glad to repay
your assistance by visiting classes as a guest speaker, lecturing during
an upcoming career event, or trying to arrange a visit to our facility
for a small group of students.

Please let me know if you might be able to assist me in my work and
thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I have copied my
professor on this message, so please feel free to ask any questions of
Dr. Rice also.

Respectfully,

Cary L. Waterhouse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Tabetha J Adkins [mailto:Tabetha.Adkins(a)tamuc.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 9:24 PM
To: Waterhouse, Cary L;  Donna Dunbar-Odom
Cc: rich.rice(a)ttu.edu
Subject: RE: Composition Theory Assistance Inquiry

Hi, Cary.

I can direct you toward some documents I've posted online that might help you with this assignment.  The first document is an article that clarifies our stance on what composition courses should do:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61698987/Downs-Wardle

The next important document is the handbook I created for instructors who teach in the program:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62441563/Writing-Program-Handbook-Fall-2011
(This is last fall's handbook, so some information may be outdated.)

And the final source you may find useful is the website.  There are links for instructors and students:
http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/humanitiesSocialSciencesArts/departments/literatureLanguages/firstYearWriting/default.aspx

Best wishes on your assignment!

Tabetha Adkins, PhD
Assistant Professor
Director of First-Year Writing
Department of Literature and Languages
(903) 886-5269
Tabetha.Adkins(a)tamuc.edu

Hardest Part of Writing and the Teaching of it

Janet Emig states that “writing is originating and creating a unique verbal construct that is graphically recorded” through the act of putting words on a page (8). Her statement points out the fact that writing is a very personal act of bringing something into existence that was previously only imaginative thoughts in a writer’s head. Emig, points to work from Dewey and Piaget, noting that “learning is the re-organization or confirmation of a cognitive scheme” (10). She then aligns with Bruner, listing three major methods for learning: enactive – learning by doing; iconic – depicting through imagery; and representational or symbolic – restating in words. So, looking at the writing prompt for this week about “the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing,” I would have to say that teaching the process of invention, specifically the act of moving words from thought to page would be most challenging.

To illustrate this, I’m reminded of a situation a few years ago when I was asked to train a guy that was transferred into my Technical Publications group from a Training group – I believe my supervisor’s words were, “See if you can make a writer out of him.” My initial reaction was that since this person studied the same engineering data and vendor documentation while creating the training material he used to teach users in a classroom, surely he’d be able to transition into the role of being a writer responsible for creating manual content for that same audience. I showed him where information could be found and provided examples of similar documents from other projects. I gave him reference books, guided him through the basics of desktop publishing, and walked him through the process of developing a few basic procedures. After about three weeks, he came into my office and admitted that he had decided that he was not cut out to be a writer. He told me that he had no idea that it took so much research and admitted that he just couldn’t sit in front of the computer screen and get words to form from the research that he had done.

Ede and Lunsford look at Mitchell and Taylor for defining invention as “methods designed to aid in retrieving information, forming concepts, analyzing complex events, and solving certain kinds of problems” (79). So when I ran across an online interview of T.R. Johnson, I felt that something he said could help answer the second portion of the question of how to go about teaching the hardest part of writing. Johnson says that “a great deal of what we're after as writing teachers has to do with coaxing our students into a certain kind of rigorous experience with language.” He hopes that composition courses help students “see the classroom environment as a place where he or she can try out different ways of saying things, and, as such, the student is rescued from the view of academic discourse as an alien monolith of perfect authority that he or she can never hope to master.” I feel that teaching the process of invention as an encouraging language experience would be the most comfortable learning situation for aspiring writers, as opposed to a workplace situation where one is forced to sit and write on a project with the pressures of a budget and schedule always in mind.

What I Wanna Be and Defining Composition

After looking at a few fellow students' blog pages, I realized that I needed to go back and address the specifics that Dr. Rice requested via email, so here goes:

From the sidebar, you can see that my current job is in a Publications department of a large aerospace company. While I sometimes get to perform individual contributor efforts to projects (like some wiring diagrams that I am currently working on for a Maintenance Wiring Manual), most of my daily effort involves leading a team developing flight manuals and pilot checklists; maintenance, wiring and parts manuals; along with user manuals and FAA certification documentation.

The question of what I want as a future job makes me pause a bit because I get to work on really cool projects on really cool airplanes, truly enjoy what I do, make a decent living for a guy with an English degree, and see supervision or management as my next step - which doesn't sound as exciting as what I am currently doing. So with all that said, I'd like to take what I've learned from my graduate studies and put it to work implementing process improvement projects and integrating industry best practices in my workplace - that is before I retire and maybe teach technical writing or composition part time at a community college! [nice segue, eh?]

For me, composition defines the process of putting thoughts on the (physical or digital) page resulting from all aspects of a project, task, or assignment - from the planning and research stages, through the layout, editing, and re-writing stages.

6/6/12 - Questions for the day:

1) What is rhetoric?
2) What is the history and theory of rhetoric?

The definition of rhetoric varies depending on the context in which it is used. Discussing how the ancients interpreted rhetoric, Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee state, "people used rhetoric to make decisions, resolve, disputes, and to mediate public discussion of important issues" (Ancient Rhetorics, 1). The writings of Plato, Socrates, and other early sophists come to mind. According to Erika Lindemann, rhetoric can be found in the works of "writers of great literature [who] have employed powerful language to make us cry, to poke fun at our human frailties, and to command our support for important causes" (A Rhetoric for  Writing Teachers, 39). But today, many people are influenced by a more common definition containing a negative connotation referring to political speeches, slick advertising, or empty words used to sway opinions and perceptions. More recently, rhetoric has been used in association with the study of technical communication. And my personal definition falls into a rather smiplified phrase of "purposeful use of language."

The history and theory of rhetoric will take a more expanded explanation, hence to purpose of this blog! (More to come....but I guess that's rather obvious, given this is a blog.)