Reading Assignment December 1 RT 1410-1428, 1432-1436, and 1460-1470

The segment on Toulmin was very interesting, because it seemed to resort more back to ancient rhetoric, rather than progress past modern and postmodern writing and literature. He stresses the importance of argumentation, and the ways in which to develop a strong, cohesive argument by means of a logical approach. Toulmin argues that the model for argumentation is complex, and composed of a very structured formula. He focuses more on rationality, rather than the fluid and self expression of modern and post modern writing. While it does relate to the rigid structures of ancient rhetoric, Toulmin makes a point to argue within his writings that practical reasoning rather than complete formality will strengthen an argument.

Foucault stresses the importance of sexuality, and how major social institutions suppress personal and individual identity. Foucalt's approach was rhetoric and writing was in a very philosophical manner. To him, discourse was merely a practice, rather than what the world truly is in reality.

I felt that Toulmin and Foucalt were almost extreme opposites. Whereas Toulmin focused on reality and a rational, logical way of thinking, Foucault believed more in a philosophical way of thinking, with a high emphasis on sexuality and individualism. Foucalt seemed to follow more of a modern and postmodern structure, whereas Toulmin was more comparable to the rigidity of ancient rhetorics.

November 15 Reading Assignment: The Rhetorical Tradition pgs. 1181-1226

I felt that this assigned reading was interesting, because it pertains directly to how rhetoric was used within society and how it played a part in how it is still used in modern day society. It was argued in The Rhetorical Tradition that rhetoric had little importance to many, because it was outdated and considered too much of a classical area of study, and the fundamental areas within rhetoric were being applied to other studies, rather than taught just on its own.

The textbook also stated that rhetoric evolved into a more comprehensive theory of language, which is a very modernized field. Written word and speech were still important, for things such as job and community success in modern society, because practicing good language clearly is important, no matter if it pertains to classical rhetoric or not. This segment also addresses the continuing importance of logic, because it analyzes the truth and aims to find meaning within different areas of study. I felt like this segment was most prevalent and applicable to modern education now, because it highlighted the things that are taught within the classroom, and it is evident how much language has truly progressed and developed over time.

I also thought the segment addressing women's voice within society highly enlightening. As women were given more rights during this time period, they were becoming more involved in the public and in their community, and granted the right to have more of a voice. This also pertains to people of color, as well, because before, women and people of color had very little intellectual rights. This portion of the reading really highlighted the social changes that were affecting language and written discourse, which are important to acknowledge.

Reading Response November 10-ARCS Chapter 12, RT Maria Stewart and Frederick Douglass

Though the importance of spoken word is not nearly comparable to what it was during the time of ancient and medieval rhetoric, the importance of oral discourse is still apparent. Being able to see a rhetor and hear the oral discourse, as well as the gestures being made, can strengthen an argument in ways that written composition cannot do as efficiently. In this section of Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, the methods of speech are addressed, and rules on grammar are provided. Not only does this chapter cover spoken word, but also the importance of other aspects of visual rhetoric, including textual presentation, which is important in physically presenting an argument, and rhetorics of the Internet, where communication is affected by both visual and media approaches. This chapter highlighted interesting segments of rhetoric from the past, and how the world of rhetoric has evolved over time.

The segment on Maria Stewart was also interesting, in that it highlighted the importance of her writings, which regarded the abolitionist movement for African Americans as well as for women. Her work on both feminism and African American rights show the increasing importance of equality, as people began to fight for their rights as both people of color and as women. By drawing attention to herself, however, Stewart was a controversial being of this time period. It is interesting to read about the struggle for personal rights and freedoms, and how they affected the writings that were being spread upon society during the nineteenth century.

Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave, had an impact on writing, as the movement towards the freedom of African Americans was becoming more paramount with the prevalence of slavery in America during the nineteenth century. This segment highlights Douglass and his struggle to gain rights and a voice within society. He spent a great deal of his life speaking against slavery, which shows the remarkable social changes that were occurring during this time. His written and oral rhetoric were of great importance.

Reading Response November 8 RT Ch. 11, RT pgs. 981-1030

Chapter eleven in Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students addressed the importance of memory, and how it was useful in preserving ancient and medieval pieces of rhetoric. It is stressed that although modern society is able to rely on technology for means of remembering and researching, memory is still important. Crowley suggests that "although the role of memory is not so apparent in written composition, writers do have to be able to remember information or to recall where it is located," and overall knowledge of things that have happened in society are crucial for being a successful writer (Crowley 375).

A lot of historical background is provided within this chapter, and how necessary memory was in order to preserve texts that would otherwise be lost. Two types of memory are also presented: artificial and natural. Though humans rely on natural memory to recall certain things, artificial memory is a learned process, in which the mind is "carefully trained to remember things" by practicing and training their thought process (Crowley 376). This is interesting, because society today has no real need to rely upon their memories, such as Crowley suggests. However, this chapter was interesting to learn the processes that ancient rhetors relied upon.

The segment on nineteenth century rhetoric in The Rhetorical Tradition was especially interesting, because it highlighted huge changes not only occurring within the scope of rhetoric, but within society, as well. Women were beginning to publicly use their knowledge of rhetoric, participating more in society. The Industrial Revolution was a time of economic shift, and more schools were being developed, in which women were oftentimes included. Women were also able to pursue a higher education, though not always accepted, because they were not following their socially traditional roles. Also, by the nineteenth century, composition was becoming more widely practiced and an accepted part of rhetoric. This is important, because it stressed the importance of learning efficient communicative skills in order to be a more influential being within society. During this time period as well, romanticism was increasing, which focus on language itself rather than argumentation, which helped pave the way for the development of poetry during this time period, as a more artistic scope of language and writing.

Richard Whatley was an important figure during this time period, because he attempted to reinstate the importance of the classical teachings. He felt that these ancient foundations were important to the world of linguistics, and he draws upon many ancient rhetoricians, such as Aristotle and Quintilian. He also focused on supporting the Church, since science so highly disregarded its significance within society. During a time that new changes were being brought upon society, Whatley attempted to preserve some of the ancient traditions, by incorporating the logical teachings to modern ideas and theories.

November 3 Reading Assignment, ARCS Chapter 10, Vico and Sheridan

These assigned readings tied completely to the importance of the Enlightenment ideals. During this time period, there was a huge emphasis placed upon sentence composition and being grammatically correct, and the use of exaggerations and colloquial words completely obstructed the true meaning of a phrase or piece of writing. Chapter ten within Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Writers is useful in that it addresses the sort of language devices used within Enlightenment writings. It became of great importance to address and analyze the appropriateness on a given situation, and the gauge the rhetorical strategies based on presented information. The Enlightenment was a crucial time period for the development of grammar, correctness rules, and the overall conventional niceties of language.

The Rhetorical Tradition readings were also interesting during this week. Giambattista Vico is a perfect example of the new ways of approaching intellectual thinking during the Enlightenment. Vico highly criticized Descartes for stressing that math and science are the only legitimate sources of knowledge. Vico believed that the arts and history were of great importance as well, which all affected the world of knowledge and rhetoric. He believed that rhetoric was a superior philosophy of knowledge, based on argument and conviction. To Vico, there are three stages to humankind. The first is poetic, when knowledge is generated by metaphor. The second stage is the heroic stage, where laws are working to preserving the organization of society. The third is the human stage, where human knowledge increases and alters the government of the people.

The segment on Thomas Sheridan is also interesting. He started out as an actor, but became very involved in the field of correcting language, becoming an advocate for the elocution movement. He believed that oratory was important, because it combined the arts with politics, showing a huge connection between the varying ways of thought.

Each of these segments were important, because they stressed the importance of the arts and politics in a connected way, and also discussed the development of language during the time period of the Enlightenment.

November 1 Reading Assignment: Enlightenment Rhetoric, John Locke, Mary Astell

This portion of the reading was interesting, in that during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, rhetoric and language was building off of the key important practices of the Renaissance to strengthen and build a stronger, coherent sense of language within society. During this time period, huge revolutions in science, philosophy, and politics were being spread, and the importance of discovering true knowledge and truth was paramount to a successful human nature. This is significant, because as language was evolving, it greatly affected the evolution and use of rhetoric, as well.

In The Rhetorical Tradition, Bizzell stresses that there was a huge shift in the conception of logic, which was and is a huge part of rhetoric in its entirety. She stresses that although ancient rhetoricians stressed the sole importance of delivery and style to alter the ethos of the writer, science and physical knowledge became the foundation for establishing ethos. During this time period, the Ciceronian conception of rhetoric became the foundation for language.

During the Enlightenment period, history, poetry, and literary criticism were important fields of study, which sparked the Elocution Movement, which focused on a different sort of delivery, teaching the importance of things such as grammar and syntactical correctness. The sections about Francis Bacon are interesting, in that they discuss his use of science and push for advanced learning changed the human intellect during this time period, emphasizing memory, imagination, and reason to create good rhetoric.

John Locke was a hugely profound scholar during this time. Not a rhetorician, his philosophies provided society with moving knowledge on subject matter including politics and searching for truth within the physical world, yet gaining knowledge as a psychological phenomenon. During this time period, it seemed as if there was more stress put upon the development of good pathos, because many of the teachings and writings during this time period discussed the importance of discussing emotional contexts.

Mary Astell was quite interesting to read about, as she was considered the "first English feminist" by other scholars and intellectual members of society. Although she stressed the importance of religion, piety, and lead a very religious lifestyle, she was important for spreading the voice of women within society during the eighteenth century. Although she struggled to become a writer, she wrote many books on religion, politics, and lifestyles, which showed her ability to tackle controversial issues within society and write profound things. She also stressed that men and women are intellectually equal, helping to push women's rights forward, as she expressed various important aspects of womanhood that were necessary in becoming good rhetoricians and speakers.

The assigned readings for this day are interesting, in that although the Renaissance pushed many intellectual ideas forward, the Enlightenment time period was a crucial point in honing these ideas and increasing the importance of scientific knowledge.

Research Essay #2

Katherine Lee 11106264

English 360, Section 1

October 24, 2011

Research Essay 2

Historical Alteration of Rhetoric

            The field of rhetoric, both in its oral and written form, is and has been constantly changing, which is emphasized in Patricia Bizzell’s The Rhetorical Tradition, Walter Ong’s The Orality of Lanugage, and represented within Peter Ramus’ From Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian. The transition of oral rhetoric during the classical era to written work in the Renaissance era, have truly altered the world of rhetoric. Overall, the time period of the Renaissance, ranging from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, is responsible for the more flexible influx of style and writing, which modern society is more accustomed to versus the oral traditions stemming from the classical and medieval time periods. As more academic scopes and ways of communication were being explored during the rise of the Renaissance, the stress upon the skill set of ancient oration and rhetoric lost its zeal, as writing became more paramount and more of an influential way to convey thought, feeling, and argument.

Historical writing is an enriching example of these said changes, and are examples of how culturally different time periods have altered rhetoric and its influence on the masses of people in society as a whole. Though the medieval time period, spanning for a thousand years, was a true introduction to the survival, as well as development of the world of rhetoric after the fall of Rome, the rise of the Renaissance was one of the most pivotal turning points for scholastic study as a whole. Society was transitioning from solely relying on oral speech to experimenting more with the production of written works. While the Roman Catholic Church was still a hugely deciding factor for many cultural aspects within medieval society, the emergence of the Renaissance during the fourteenth century until the seventeenth century changed the intellectual world entirely. Perhaps, the largest and most beneficial aspect in this alteration of language is “the relationship of study itself to writing,” because a given audience is able to retain words within a page, rather than focus upon the easily forgotten arguments made within oral rhetoric (Ong 8). It is also easily arguable that what is verbally spoken faces the threat of becoming lost in translation, contributing to the notion of an apophatic description, because “you cannot without serious and disabling distortion describe a primary phenomenon by starting with a subsequent secondary phenomenon and paring away the differences…you can never become aware of the real differences at all,” without the physical, written language, and this belief contributed to the decrease in the usage of oral rhetoric (Ong 13). The introduction of new scopes of rhetoric, including humanism, the salon society, and the stress on the importance of the written word, was becoming hugely popular (Bizzell 555). The Renaissance was designated entirely for discovering individual intellect, and there was a huge stray from the Roman Catholic Church, and “approaches to studying literature, history, and science” was developing (Bizzell 555). The broadening of human interests in various important topics is responsible for these great rhetorical shifts during the Renaissance period.

During this time period, the spread of Scholasticism, or the importance of divine truth and educational thinking, was fluctuating throughout Italy. The study of style and language was becoming far more important, as professions within areas of law and other notable subjects, required a higher, more realistic level of thinking. Rather, language and writing was becoming more sophisticated. Scholars, including Francis Bacon, demoted “rhetoric to a technical skill that will simply help the one who knows convey knowledge by scientific means,” and this ancient practice of persuasion and oration was seen as very limiting (Bizzell 575). As Walter Ong, author of The Orality of Language argues, “writing, commitment of the word to space, enlarges the potentiality of language almost beyond measure, restructures thought, and in the process converts a certain few dialects into ‘grapholects,’” or the shift into a “deep commitment to writing” (Ong 7-8). This emphasizes the importance of the written word, as societal conversions to a more humanist and fluid way of thinking was evolving through written rhetoric and societal events such as the salon society. The spread of Scholasticism, and its necessity for unearthing divine knowledge, impacted rhetoric, because orality was entirely elusive and inconsistent with true, factual evidence. This alone emphasizes the true change from the classical era’s ideas and usage of oral speech to convey an issue or argument. Since rhetoric was a more artistic style based off of one’s own general spoken thoughts, this field of oral intellect did not prosper well during the time period of the Renaissance. Because writers and orators were able to use a higher level intellectual thinking, this time period in many ways demoted rhetoric, because there was a higher necessity for a spread “in the generation of knowledge by scientific means,” rather than just speaking and writing based off of religious ideas or mere human thoughts (Bizzell 575). While rhetoric and the general, practiced style of argument from the classical and medieval eras was important in paving the way for the evolution of the written word, society was always interested in expanding the knowledge available to them, which is completely evident within the written texts derived from the Renaissance era.

Perhaps, the most interesting of writers to come from the Renaissance period was Peter Ramus, who strayed completely from the teachings of classicism, and questioned the orally based intellectual movement entirely. Ramus believed that “the ability to reason was innate in normal humans. One did not need to learn it from Aristotle or any other classical source,” which shows a huge difference in the world of rhetoric, which was once a field where the teachings of Aristotle and the like held a great deal of weight on the development of oration throughout history (Bizzell 675). Although the field of rhetoric during the Renaissance time period was still an area of study within the universities, it was seen more of a tool “consisting only of style and delivery,” as well as “style and delivery” based off of the morals of the speaker than a necessary area of study. Instead, the focus swayed to working on language as a whole, namely on the development of writing. Such is the case with Ramus’ ten topics of “causes, effects, subject, adjuncts, opposites, comparisons, names, divisions, definitions, and witnesses” in order to further oneself in the world of knowledge (Bizzell 676). Rhetoric then became more of an elementary area of intellect.

Ramus attempts to undermine the whole premise of rhetoric, as he clearly outlines in his Arguments in Rhetoric against Quintilian, which criticizes the works of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian. Oral tradition seemed far from Peter Ramus’ good graces, as he states in his speech, “I wish that the scholars of rhetoric and dialectic would heed my advice and would sometimes think of the truth and usefulness of their subjects instead of tenaciously and obstinately quarreling over matters…” which emphasizes the lack of truth or validity to oral argument (Bizzell 682). Walter Ong also emphasizes that “the greatest awakening to the contrast between oral modes of thought and expression and written modes took place not in linguistics, descriptive or cultural, with in literary studies…” further supporting the notion that after the Classical Era, scholars were far more occupied in the study of writing (Ong 6).

In Arguments in Rhetoric against Quinitlian, Ramus also argues “Artistotle’s logic both lacked many virtues and abounded in faults. He left out many definitions and partitions of arguments; instead of one art of invention embracing the ten general topics…he created unfathomable darkness in his two books…” (Bizzell 681). Rather than being a time period that focused on the ideals of the medieval and ancient time periods, including the importance of oratorical skill, it inspired new, enlightened ways of thought; while “political oppression increasingly confined rhetoric to the study of style and to the declamatory rhetoric of the Second Sophistic,” Ramus focused on the importance of syllogism, eloquence, and syntax when developing actual written text (Bizzell 681-683). Ramus puts great stress upon the importance of being able to demonstrate oneself as a good dialectician, and to provide physical, written work, such as Walter Ong emphasizes within his essay. It can be concluded that during the time period of the Renaissance, it was becoming more of a foreign concept to focus on the classical teachings of rhetoric and to focus on more set rules of language in order to build a cohesive and strong argument. Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian truly demonstrates the shift in intellectual importance that was occurring during the time of the Renaissance.

During this period of intellectual growth and scholarly pursuit, many of the classical teachings were being openly questioned, which shows a huge shift in attitude towards what was important in society during the classical and medieval eras, as rhetoric was completely losing importance with regards to orality. Ramus makes further claims within his Arguments in Rhetoric Against Quintilian, stating that Aristotle and Cicero believed “the stirring of emotions and passions” in order to appeal to a sort of moral philosophy, was what the practice of rhetoric emphasized (Bizzell 695). Because of the more definite stress upon structure as well as the use of proper language, artistic language during the Renaissance, such as that of Quintilian, Aristotle, or Cicero, was not viewed as something that was educational or even functional for the changing time period.

The Renaissance brought upon a huge shift in intellectual thinking, and the need for more educational basis for various theories and arguments was becoming more prevalent. As these new ideas and educational theories were spreading throughout Italy during the fourteenth century and onward, the humanist movement helped pave the way for writing to become more developed and socially important. Although the teachings of ancient rhetoric lost a great deal of zeal amongst Renaissance Italy, writing would not have been able to evolve into what it was becoming without the basis of the classical teachings. As texts and writing were becoming far more widespread, the whole scope of rhetoric was drastically changed. Linguistics itself evolved into an intellectual field that included far more than just the practice of orations. It allowed for new theories to be created, new intellectual processes to be examined, and d deeper, more sophisticated level of thinking, influencing the power of the written word, as oral speech lost its huge rhetorical power.