Goldie Johnson- September Blog Post: Rhetoric

I've heard the word "rhetoric" for most of my life, not really understanding what it means. Talking about it in class really helped me understand what it was and why it's so important in life.

Every good public speaker uses some form of rhetoric, whether that is pathos, logos or ethos. And it is important to know these different types and be able to identify them so you can understand their techniques. It helps to hear what they are trying to say and it helps you to think critically as well.

Politicians are great at rhetoric. That is what my mind jumps to when I think of it. They're always trying to convince us of something. I think that's why I never really trusted people who try to use rhetoric. There are comics like this that reflect what I felt when I thought of rhetoric.

I used to think most people who it tend to liars, trying to convince us of something. And I don't believe I'm the only one who thought that. Using delivery to convince us of what isn't true. What changed my mind was reading about the history of it.  I didn't know that during the time of the Ancient Greeks rhetoric was more important than the message. I learned about this in the book Communication: A Critical/Cultural Approach, in the second chapter. The idea of people standing around and listening to each other speak was strange to me.  Ancient Greece was primarily an oral culture and being a good speaker was literally a survival skill. The idea that the delivery was more important than the message one point in time was kind of a culture shock. However, I don't think you can deliver something you believe in without some kind of rhetoric, whether you use pathos, logos or ethos. A Ted Lesson about Rhetoric, talking about why all of them are important: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-aristotle-and-joshua-bell-can-teach-us-about-persuasion-conor-neill#review

While I still don't trust politicians in general, it makes me a bit less suspicious of public speakers. And paying attention to the way they're saying things and not just what they're saying. There are important clues to what they really believe.

Knowing some of the history behind it makes me have a bit more respect for the art of public speaking. Knowing its place in ours and others cultures really made me think a little differently about it.

And a bonus, Crash Course on Ancient Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mkVSasZIM