The Rhetoric of Success

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The Rhetoric of Success

• How the Language of Self-Help Affects Learning
  and Pedagogy

Jean C. DuBro
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A Common Scenario

• My wife has stage 4 breast cancer
• My elderly father had a stroke and I have to
  decide whether to keep him on life support
• My car got stolen, my girlfriend broke up with
  me, I changed jobs, and moved across the country
• I got really busy at work and missed the first
  six weeks of class
• Im planning a wedding for 400 guests and then
  taking a two-week honeymoon in the middle of the
  semester.

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A Common Response

• I just have to work harder for the remainder of
  the course
• If I focus, I know I can persevere
• My goal is to finish the class to the best of my
  abilities
• Giving up is not an option
• I know I have what it takes to complete this
  course.

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Blind Optimism

• Ignores social or systemic constrictions.
• Relies exclusively on internal qualities and an
  internal voice.
• Focuses on goals over process.
• Focuses on beliefs over facts.
• Views situations in black and white refuses to
  see shades of gray.

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Origins for this mindset

• If you develop the absolute sense of certainty
  that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get
  yourself to accomplish virtually anything
  (Robbins 85-86).
• Remember, thoughts are sic primary cause of
  everything, and the rest is effects from those
  thoughts (Byrne).
• Form a picture in your mind of circumstances as
  they should be. Hold that picture, develop it
  firmly in all details, believe in it, pray about
  it, work at it, and you can actualize it
  according to that mental image (Peale).

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Prevalence of this mindset

• Emphasis on reading for knowledge rather than
  insight or entertainment
• Reach of the self-help market
• The language of self-help pervades contemporary
  rhetoric (Woodstock 169).

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Common Themes/Traits of Self-Help Literature

• Thoughts are the most powerful things we have on
  this earth (Oprah Winfrey).
• Reality can be created and altered by thought.
• Negative thinking is contagious.
• Authenticity to a true self/core beliefs/internal
  voice is the key to success.
• Change can only be found by recognizing and
  training thoughts.

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Why are these themes problematic?

• Principles of self-help. . .function to delete
  historical context as well as to obscure the
  conflicting interests of different members of
  society (Booth 287).
• The only reason any person does not have enough
  money is because they are blocking money from
  coming to them with their thoughts (Rhonda
  Byrne)
• The sort of American individualism advocated in
  self-help engenders a narcissistic
  self-centeredness that in turn erodes social and
  political life (Woodstock 167).
• The first thing we have to do is fall in love
  with ourselves (JZ Knight)

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Effects on Education

• Self-help axioms may not align with the realities
  of college-level work.
• They may put too much stress on individual
  success and failure.
• They may ignore process.
• They may prevent a student from reaching out to
  classmates for knowledge.
• They may make a student unwilling to acknowledge
  an instructors expertise.

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Effects on Writing

• Readers/audience can be seen as unimportant.
  Relationships with others (communication) can be
  cultivated, maintained, and improved primarily
  through individual means, through mental thought
  processes (Woodstock 168).

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Effects on Writing

• Since truth is internal, everyone and no one is
  an expert.
• Investing for retirement is an individual
  decision based on personal circumstances.
• Parents choosing between private and public
  school must decide what is right for their
  individual child.

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Effects on Writing

• Exhortations to allow sufficient drafting time
  and focus on process fall on deaf ears.

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Pedagogical Responses

• Go with the flow.
• Fight for whats right.
• The choice is up to YOU!

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Go with the flow

• Integrate instruction to align with self-help
  epistemology.
• Try to get students to find the answers within.
• Focus on power and control over external
  circumstances.
• Use freewriting and journaling to keep students
  on track.

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Fight for whats right

• Challenge self-help epistemology.
• Emphasize social and historical construction of
  reality.
• Focus on social and political values such as
  compassion and empathy.
• Demonstrate successful applications of external
  rules or standards.
• Consider that human character. . . Is an ideal
  attained through critical inquiry (Merchand).

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You are the most powerful magnet in the Universe!