Rhetoric and Writing in Electronic Environments

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Rhetoric and Writing in Electronic Environments

• Prepared by Julia Romberger
• For English 439

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What will I discuss in this presentation?

• Key Definitions
• The Rhetorical Triangle
• Rhetorical Canons

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Key Definitions

• Text - includes the visual, textual and
  interactive components
• Composing - communicating through textual and
  visual forms
• Rhetor(s) - the person(s) who develop a text for
  the use of a given audience in a specific context

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What is the rhetorical triangle?
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Rhetorical Triangle
Context Context
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Audience

• When considering your audience you need to
  determine
• What they already know
• What they are interested in knowing
• What they need to know
• How they will access the information
• What communication technologies they use/like

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Rhetor or Author

• As an author you need to be aware of how your
  audience perceives you your Ethos.
• Ethos is connected to
• Your authority competence
• Your professionalism and ability to communicate
  purpose
• Your ability to create easily navigable
  communication
• Your ability to use conventions

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Working your Ethos

• How can you improve your Ethos?
• Use of adequate evidence and research
• Awareness of your audiences needs regarding
  technology literacy and content
• Convincing arguments and clear purpose
• Professional presentation
• Understanding limits of audiences time and tech
  savvy

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Message and Purpose

• A text may have one or more purposes
• To inform
• To earn or maintain good will
• To persuade
• To amuse, please, or entertain
• The ultimate purpose of composing in general is
  to effect positive action and improve relations
  between people.

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The Text

• A text is structured according to a genre such
  as
• Tutorials, Memos, Instant messages, Web Pages,
  Wikis, etc.
• New technologies are making these genres more
  flexible than ever before, and new genres are
  continually emerging. Conventions shift and
  change almost daily.

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Computer-Mediated Texts

• Computer-mediated versions of texts general are
  comprised of
• Text
• Visuals linked to text and context
• Interactivity

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Context

• Context is the situation surrounding the texts
  origination. It is linked to
• The need that spurred the writing of the text
• The position of the writer relative to the
  audience
• The technologies used to access the text
• Expectations of the person who initiated the
  writing of the text

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The 5 Canons
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Invention

• Invention concerns finding something to say.
  Certain common categories of thought became
  conventional to use in order to brainstorm for
  material. These common places (places topoi in
  Greek) are called the "topics of invention." They
  include, for example, cause and effect,
  comparison, and various relationships.

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Arrangement

• Arrangement concerns how one orders speech or
  writing. In ancient rhetorics, arrangement
  referred solely to the order to be observed in an
  oration, but the term has broadened to include
  all considerations of the ordering of discourse,
  especially on a large scale.

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Style

• Style concerns the artful expression of ideas. If
  invention addresses what is to be said style
  addresses how this will be said. From a
  rhetorical perspective style is not incidental,
  superficial, or supplementary style names how
  ideas are embodied in language and customized to
  communicative contexts

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Memory

• Memory is much more than memory aids it clearly
  had to do with more than simply learning how to
  memorize an already composed speech for
  re-presentation. The Ad Herennium author calls
  memory the "treasury of things invented," thus
  linking Memory with the first canon of rhetoric,
  Invention. This alludes to the practice of
  storing up commonplaces or other material arrived
  at through the topics of invention for use as
  called for in a given occasion.

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Delivery classical definition

• Delivery, the last of the five canons, concerns
  itself (as does style) with how something is
  said, rather than what is said (Invention). One
  Greek word for delivery is "hypokrisis" or
  "acting," and rhetoric has borrowed from that art
  a studied attention to vocal training and to the
  use of gestures.

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Impact on the Canons

• Delivery Delivery becomes a greater issue than
  before. There are multiple ways to send the same
  information.
• Arrangement Every delivery method has its own
  tendencies toward arrangement. More attention
  must be paid.
• Style - There are many different styles for
  different media. Kairotically appropriate style
  must be chosen for each one.

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Delivery has Expanded

• Questions that need to be asked when considering
  delivery
• Where will it be read
• How will it be read
• What media will be used for transmission
• How much control will the reader have
• What are the advantages/limitations of the media
• These choices are all linked to purpose