Blog #15

The first time I ever heard or learned about rhetoric was in my English 103 class first semester. We learned that rhetoric was the usage and shaping of language in the art of persuasion. To do this, we talked about incorporating ethos, logos and pathos, which are all important elements of rhetoric. My teacher explained ethos having more of an ethical appeal, logos being more about logical appeal, and pathos having emotional appeal. It is hard for me to formulate my own definition other than it is simply being able to communicate effectively. It is a term that is very confusing to me and I don’t think it is commonly used in society other than in English classes. I think rhetoric can include our appearance, the way we dress, the things we say and how we act because they are all ways of shaping language for different purposes and audiences. Generally, I think rhetoric can be used in a positive or negative context because of the fact it allows us to incorporate our own voice, purpose and audience into our usage of language.

I believe that there is a rhetoric that coincides with my subculture because of the fact that my subculture is very diverse and how you communicate with one person is not how you would communicate with someone else. When constructing my mini-ethnography, I plan on utilizing rhetoric to shape all my interviews and observations so that my voice is being heard in an effective way.