INTRODUCTION:

 

I'm Ryleigh, an English Language major with a double minor in Communication and English Linguistics. As a student of all things "language," I have always heard mention of "rhetoric" and using it to write to an audience. However, I never really knew where it came from or the extent of what it meant. Last semester I was introduced to a small sliver of this information in order to write rhetorical criticisms of texts. This semester, my minimal experiences with rhetorical concepts were contextualized in WRTG 417.

 

WRTG 417, Rhetorical Theory for Writers, led me through the intricate history of Western rhetoric: how it's been studied, theorized, and employed in the real world. I learned about the transformation from rhetoric as performance and pedagogy to rhetoric as psychology, linguistics, discourse, and much more. Theorists over the centuries have written prescriptions of how they believe language and rhetoric should be used as well as descriptions of how they believe the existing use of rhetoric operates. I learned that rhetoric is all at once a natural part of communication, a tool that can be used intentionally, and a field of studying these things. Rhetoric is no one thing.

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MY DEFINITION OF RHETORIC:

 

To me, rhetoric is the synthesis of language, visuals, and implicature to create meanings that can shape the reality of an audience. Language—the words or signs we use to communicate—holds meaning, but is only one part of the picture. Whether spoken or written, our words do not exist in a vacuum. They are accompanied by visual elements or nonverbal cues. In text, even if there are no images or figures, the font, size, spacing, etc. can clue a reader in as to what type of message they are reading. In speech, voice quality, facial expression, body movement, and even the setting can all be signals to the viewer. Similarly, meaning comes from more than the literal interpretation of these things. Even if the language used holds a certain meaning to the audience, combining it with a tone or expression, with knowledge shared between the speaker and audience, or with what is pointedly left unsaid can imply a new, entirely different meaning. The meanings we internalize constitute our realities. What we believe is our version of the world.