My "rhetorical tradition"

In “Editing the Rhetorical Tradition,” Patricia Bizzell writes, “it is through inclusions and exclusions in anthologies such as ours that the rhetorical tradition is established, grows, and changes” (109). She goes on to say that many rhetorical “traditions” exist, and each tradition is determined by the rhetorical exigencies of the time and is “made to serve the cultural preferences of those in power” (113).

So how does “Editing the Rhetorical Tradition” relate to a post meant to reflect about a semester of blogging? Well, I thought it’d be interesting to look back over my blog posts as if they were an anthology of a rhetorical tradition—and that way, I can see what the arrangement says about me and my particular rhetorical focuses. Part of my “tradition” was already somewhat determined due to the set, assigned reading schedule. But otherwise, what I found was rather…interesting.

According to Sadie’s rhetorical tradition, ethos apparently takes center-stage over logos or pathos (blog posts # 2, 5, 7, and 9 all dealt with some aspect of ethos); metaphors and simile/examples are major teaching tools (I used these techniques to explain my ideas in blog posts # 1, 2, 4, 7); and textual relevance to the present time supersedes close examination of writers’ ideas (blog posts # 1-8 all tied the concept discussed back to modern practice or application whereas post #9 was strictly analytical). Based on these observations, if I had to compile my own anthology of the rhetorical tradition, I would probably include the writings of people along the likes of Quintilian, who concentrated on rhetoric more for teaching purposes than perhaps “the discovery of truth.”

Actually, that last bit of the preceding paragraph reminded me: none of my blog posts talked about truth, knowledge, etc.  Because the blog posts were supposed to be short, I deliberately avoided the “big” topics to surface in the texts because I felt 250 words were inadequate to even really broach those sorts of subjects. I therefore emphasized other “minor” details, and maybe that’s why I took such a pedagogical approach to my blog posts.