Rhetoric and composition

Whenever I think Rhetoric the first name that pops to mind is of course Aristotle. Logos, Pathos, and Ethos are
Rhetorical Configurations that are still very much used today. These configurations are broken down as follows: Logos is an appeal to logic, Pathos to emotion, and Ethos to credibility. These three components as Aristotle puts it are used to effectively persuade an audience, which is the objective of rhetoric. Aristotle goes on to formulate a process in which he can lace rhetorical configuration into. This process is referred to as The Preparation of Speech.

Invention: This is the process of formulating an idea that the speaker is trying to get across. This part of the creative process is vital because it is where the point of persuasion begins. According to Aristotle invention is the most important part because the largest part of the rational argument lies within this part of the text. Appeals to Logos is supposed to be the most effective tool in persuasion because humans generally seem to respond to rational appeals the most powerfully. However, Francis Bacon says that invention is the wrong word for this process, he says “to invent is to discover that we know not, and not to recover or resummon that which we already know; and the use of [rhetorical] invention is no other but out of the knowledge whereof out mind is already possessed, to draw forth or call before us that which may be pertinent to the purpose which we take into out consideration”. Nevertheless, whether it is called invention or anything else it is still where rational appeal or Logos takes place and acts as a vital part of the persuasion process.

Arrangement: This part of the process determines the fluidity of the work. It is important for a piece to be organized in a way that is conducive to persuading the audience.

Style: This component of a speech may not seem less important in comparison to invention but that certainly is not the case. The style the speaker uses can influence how the audience views the speaker. Aristotle refers to style as the “decoration”.

Memory: As Bizzel and Herzberg put it, “The speaker memorizes the sequence of rooms ina building, assigns a vivid image to each section of the speech, and then associates the image with a location in the memorized building”.

Delivery: Appealing to the senses. Like a lot of politicians see it, delivery can be everything. It is “the use if effective gestures and vocal modulation to present the speech” (Bizzel and Herzberg).

In terms of composition in relation to rhetoric there are many similarities because you can’t have composition without rhetoric. The tools that draw up composition according to our reading on key concepts are audience, coherence, Collaboration, form and structure, process, revision, and of course rhetoric. The ones that standout to me are rhetoric, audience, and coherence. Rhetoric is the foundation of any composition because it is the idea that the speaker is trying to persuade others to believe. Audience influences the way the speaker portrays his ideas and may influence certain aspects of their writing. Finally, coherence affects the audience’s ability to understand the message the speaker is trying to get across through analogical reasoning.

When it comes to knowledge I believe we start off with instinct and acquire knowledge as we move through life. Depending on the situation we may rely on prior knowledge to maybe get us through the moment by giving us the ability to simply hypothesize, but knowledge in general is obtained the old fashion way- learning through others, or it is learned through books and other sources of information.