Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)

There are so many factors of rhetoric that seem to get ignored or forgotten about. What was great about these readings is they focused in on how often we base writing and communication off certain “rules” of rhetoric without even realizing it. For example, in “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)”, it is discussed how people tend to follow the conventions of the genre at hand, just by the process of elimination. Sometimes I find that it is easier to narrow down the context of what and how I write something, just by knowing what NOT write about and include. The term rhetoric has always been somewhat hard for me to define, and until this reading I was still not sure what exactly it meant. I loved how Boyd broke it down to something so simple as, “rhetoric is what allows you to write (and speak) appropriately for a given situation, one that is determined by the expectations of your audience, implied or acknowledged, whether you are texting, writing a love letter, or bleeding a term paper” (Boyd 100). It is defined so clearly, yet has such a profound existence and is constantly being used.

In the reading on Understanding Rhetoric, I found the metaphor of clothing styles and what they say about a person’s identity to be very helpful. For example, one would not wear sweats and a t-shirt to a business conference, nor would they wear a business suit to go work out in. This is very similar to writing genres and how they are written for a specific audience. Knowing how to address a situation properly, to a specific group can add so much power to what is being discussed. I love the way this article gives such basic examples, as they are easy to follow and get the point across very clearly.

Both these articles helped when writing my e-mail as I was able to focus in on whom I was sending it to, and the conventions that make up a professional email. I feel I was able to write my e-mail which much more confidence then I would have before reading these chapters.