Shades of Gray

Shades of Gray

 

I like to think that we live in a pretty open minded society. I know that there are still cloistered people that believe that all things are right and wrong or black and white, but nothing is that simple. Simple questions do not always have simple answers, the answers usually fall into shades of gray.

In order to understand rhetoric you have to fully understand the key terms. The key terms that we have learned over the course of the semester so far have helped me gain a better knowledge of my own voice in rhetoric. Since things are not defined clearly in black or white everyone's interpretation of a key word can differ. In my opinion the most important words that need to be defined in order to understand rhetoric are rhetorical situation, invention, and genre. 

Invention: Aristotle formulated this step in the art of rhetoric. Invention is the way the rhetorician introduces the exigence in a creative and innovative way or discourse.

Rhetorical Situation: A rhetorical situation is the bud of rhetoric. It creates an opportunity for an affective rhetorical response to a controversial situation.

Genre: Genre is the forum in which you chose to present information about a rhetorical situation.

These terms are important because they are the three ideas that develop your composition. In order to write anything meaningful you need a rhetorical situation, the situation spurs the composers to invent the way they are going to tackle the situation through rhetoric, and the genre defines the literal forum in which you present your knowledge. Knowledge, an imporant aspect of rhetoric, is never truly new. Knowledge is always based on prior knowledge, whether it is your own or that of someone else. As I mentioned in a prior blog post, Martin Luther King was an effective rhetorician because of his knowledge. He understood that not everything, including people, were black and white. All of the races were the same, just humans that needed to learn how to live together. Without the rhetorical situation of segregation Luther's rhetoric would have been viewed as ambling and irrelevant. He took a negative rhetorical situation and inventive knowledge, and implemented them into the genre of speech to move the masses.

So ultimately the understanding that everything falls into shades of gray is key in order to understand the field of rhetoric. Rhetoric is a field where you have to be open minded to constant change and innovation. The world is constantly changing, and in order to be successful composers we must be able to adjust to these changes.