Rhetoric by definition is considered to be the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. The language is designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content. I initially had trouble understanding the definition of what a rhetoric was, and at the beginning of me reading through Covino and Jollife’s “What is Rhetoric”, I was overwhelmed with interpretations and examples, without fully understanding what the content was about. But once I read the line, “A text is potentially active when the rhetor intends it to do something, to affect or change the auditors’ minds or actions or environments.” everything started to come together.
Rhetoric isn’t just an empty display of verbal ornamentation. The rhetoric of a text is intentionally designed as an organized language to persuade the reader or listener to consider the material presented to them and draw their own conclusions. According to Lloyd Bitzer in his essay entitled “The Rhetoric Situation”, he states that an audience isn’t just the people who listen or read the text. He believes that their role is to have a reason for concern about the exigence and that they are capable of acting on it or being acted upon by it. I really like his view on what he believes an audience is, because the point of talking to an audience is to engage them in what you’re presenting to them, and when the audience can relate and show concern over your specific topic, it is beneficial for both the audience member and the writer.
jmy14 