In Class: Rhetorical Thinking

To me, rhetorical thinking has always seemed to be something unspoken. similar to existentialism, one of those things that have no definition that is fully defining or understood. i believe i am wrong now and perhaps i just didn't understand what rhetorical concepts even were. silly me. so after having read the few chapters we've been assigned in our text, i think i have grasped it a little better. rhetoric is, simply put, another synonym for texts and literature, written or spoken, especially in attempt to persuade or convince. for the purpose of our class we are focusing on analysis, so we search to find who is the author, who is the intended audience, what is the purpose or motive for arguing, etc. the typical questions you ask of any argument. we aim to focus on ethos, pathos, and logos just like any argument. we are to focus on appealing to the audience in every aspect possible while still retaining our content and our persuasive ideas. ethically, we would want to move toward their morals and what they beleive is right and wrong, but it wouldnt be that simple. we would have to effectively aim for aggressive topics that we can safely assume that EVERYONE believes is right or wrong so that no one would have the courage to doubt it. when moving to logos, we would simply state ideas and concepts that seem logical and quite obvious to the reader so that they understand what we are saying is unquestionably true and sound. pathos would be the strongest part of our argument, appealing to their heart and emotions in order to pull them to our side of teh argument. perhaps we could do this by imposing feelings of guilt or responsibiilty upon them.