Take a Deep Breath

Taking a deep breath and looking at where we've been so far in this class, I'm realizing just how much we've covered. We've touched on the fundamentals of Rhetoric and Composition, and we've spent a good amount of time examining the way that technology is pushing the boundaries of composition and opening new doors constantly through remediation and new digital publishing formats. Taking a step back has provided me an opportunity to glance back at each individual piece we've studied though, and think about them not one idea at a time, but as a big picture that contains a lot of links. We began by looking at Rhetoric in a classical and modern sense, and then moved on to the way that these rhetorical concepts affect composition, and then discussed the way that technologies have changed composition as well. Taking a look back would have to start with the foundation- rhetoric.

There are a few key terms for rhetoric that stand out to me looking back. The first one is invention- the cornerstone of Aristotle's 5 canons of rhetoric. Before a rhetor can make decisions about the style and structure of a composition or speech they must have something to say. And invention, which was the first stage of composition in which arguments were conjured up, particularly those that fall under the logical appeal of logos. According to Bizzell and Herzberg, Aristotle felt that "rationality is the most uniform and universal of the human mental abilities". Invention to me is the cornerstone of composition because regardless of situation, format, medium, or any other variable, without sound thinking behind the writing, it won't be successful.

The next rhetorical term, coming from a more modern theorist, is rhetorical situation, a concept proposed by Lloyd Bitzer that defines Rhetoric in a situational context that always includes 3 primary elements- the exgience, the audience, and constraints. Bitzer defines the exigence as "an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be.” Essentially, the exigence is a similarly fundamental aspect of Rhetoric in this viewpoint, as even before a composer can begin practicing invention, there must be some type of pull to action through composition. The audience is also an integral concept in composition. Bitzer defines audience in the rhetorical situation as consisting "only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change." Thus, Bitzer essentially is referencing the centrality of audience to composition- if it isn't directed toward the intended audience then it is not effective composition. The final aspect of the rhetorical situation, according to Bitzer, is composed of constraints, which are the factors that can prevent the rhetor from influencing the audience to rectify the exigence. He defines constraints as “made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence. Standard sources of constraint include beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives and the like”. Rhetorical Situation is a key term for me because of the way it provides a useful framework through which we can structure our composition as well as understand better other compositions by looking at it through the lens of the rhetorical situation.

The last key term that stands out to me for Rhetoric is Genre. Genre is a concept whose definition has changed significantly from the old conception of genre being a simple system of classification based on the type of content in a book. Recently, as technology's expansion has created a wide new array of forms of writing, theorists' ideas about genre have expanded too. DeVitt defines a new concept of genre that is based on responding to the Rhetorical Situation, and sees Genres more as different mediums in which to respond to recurring situations rather than simple categories. DeVitt argues that genre doesn't define the context of a composition, but rather "Genre is not that which is determined and defined by the components of our literary work or by the sets of literary works, but that which, in effect, determines and defines them.” I think this new definition of genre examining the idea in terms of situations is key because with so many different types of mediums available to us now, lines have been blurred that make it difficult to fit everything into traditional genre categories. I think genre is another area of composition that newer perspectives have helped to define in a more useful and relevant way, and that's why it is a key term for me.

Knowledge's place among rhetoric and composition is another topic we have discussed that's been important. It is a question that has been answered in different ways by a variety of theorists though. The ancient theorists like Plato didn't believe that rhetoric that was a true art that had any value for knowledge. However, later theorists examined rhetoric from a broader perspective and made more in-depth conclusions about knowledge's role in rhetoric and discourse. For example, Bizzell and Herzberg note that Bacon felt "human knowledge must be regarded as only a version of the objective truth, a version warped by prejudices, preconceptions and imprecise language". This type of thought is similar to that of the prominent 20th century theorists Kenneth Burke and IA Richards in that it notes the undeniable role of language in altering our reality through its symbols and thus affects our knowledge. Thus, in a rhetorical sense, knowledge can be new because it is so situational and language is composed of arbitrary symbols, so I think new knowledge can be created in a rhetorical sense. Knowledge relates to this class because we too engage in discourse, with each other and with the web on the blog, and I think today with the new media there are even more different types of symbolism we can use, including using words, images, and sounds simultaneously. So I think we're experimenting with and learning about the ways to create different meanings in different mediums as we're progressing.

Now that we've studied a wider range of ideas about composition, particularly those involving newer media, revisiting my theory of composing shows some areas where I could expand it. My first take of my theory of composing focused mainly on writing, and approaching each composition situationally, identifying the target audience, and writing clearly and vividly for them. But now, having seen a more diverse array of compositions, I would also make more room to discuss the importance of diversity in good composing. I think the same principles apply to the approach of composition in different mediums like video or digital projects, as the same careful thought about the audience and how to approach your goal in the composition, but there are so many ways we can create different messages now that these new possibilities can't be discounted in my theory of composition. Originally, my key terms for my theory were clarity, passion, vividness, honesty, diction, and creativity, but now I would also include diversity.

This process of looking back on all of these terms and concepts has helped me secure a firmer grasp on where our class has been and where its going. It's been interesting to see the way that composition, rhetoric, knowledge, and media are all connected, and have been built upon each other in many cases. Rhetorical theory and principles guide our composition, and our composition helps to create our symbolic knowledge. All the while, the expansion of technology has been pushing the boundaries of composition, further widening the horizons of rhetorical theory and ideas of composition. But that said, I'm going to step back and take a deep breath. Whewww.