Writing for a Digital Culture

Wikipedia.com is a free encyclopedia that covers a wide range of topics. Source: Librarything.com

“The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” as quoted from Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle.  While this might have been the case for thousands of years of history, it no longer applies to current society.  Writing and rhetoric in past history was about who had the most power and influence among the people of the time.  And now take a look at the people who publish their writing today.  Not only do people of all genders, races, and ages publish their works for audiences, but you do not need any power or influence to have an opinion either.  All you need is access to the Internet.

Due to new technology and the prevalence of the Internet, ways to communicate with people have developed differently than ever before.  In her article “What Matter Who’s Speaking: Access, Wikis, and YOU,” English professor at UCLA Susan Lewak discusses how current electronic literature like Wikipedia lets anyone be a writer on any topics. There is no need for “authors” or “readers,” just people who sign up for an account and edit the information.  The information is interactive and always changing.  As Lewak says,

“… the ability of the Wiki to create a document edited by potentially millions of anonymous user/editor/administrators in a dynamic, online environment marked by debate marks it as significant.  In other words, Wikis matter not because they are created by “authors” or “readers.”  They are significant because they are created by YOU.”

Who is this “you?” The “you” is everyone on the Internet. Anyone who wants to add information on these websites or contribute to these topics can usually have access to it. This can be a good thing.  People can express their opinions and are not restricted by societal norms or publishers to get their work read by people. Also, people can add information for the readers that might not have been known or acknowledged before, resulting in a new resource for intelligence.

However, there is also a problem with this.  If everyone has access to editing these sites, how do we know this information is legitimate? Anyone could sign up for this and claim that they are professionals or know the information. Another problem with websites like Wiki is that it does not give the authors, or “contributors,” credit.  Some may say that this is a good thing, but isn’t it taking away the professionalism and respect for authors?  Lewak explains,

“As The Wikipedia is a virtual community (masked as a dynamic document), these users are encouraged to join by registering (a procedure which does not require the use of real-world identities) and adopting a username or text-based avatar.”

Do writers who publish their content on the Internet get enough credit for their work? Source: Portlandbookreview.com

These writers do not even need to have real names, therefore none of the credit is given to them. I feel that these sites are undermining the credit given to people who have knowledgeable information and opinions.

New innovations on the Internet allow anyone to be a writer, whether that be through blogging, social media sites, digital publication, etc., and this is a positive change for communication and distribution of writing.  However, I believe people need to get credit for their writing, and sites like Wiki don’t give enough acknowledgment to their “authors.” I’m not saying that I do not use Wikipedia and other websites like it for information, but I know that I should not always trust what information is put on there.  So while the Internet has created a domain for all kinds of writers, we need to ask ourselves if this kind of freedom is undermining the professionalism and respect of writing.

Picture of the video game MLB 12 The Show. Source: terminalgamer.com

Video games today are so life-like, you’d think they were real.  My younger brother has been playing video games for many years now.  We had a Nintendo, a GameCube, and now a PS3.  Over the years, I have played along side him and watched him play his video games, like Super Smash Bros., NCAA Football, and NBA Live. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized how realistic these games could be.  One afternoon, I walked into the living room and saw that my brother was watching a baseball game. It was the Giants versus the Cardinals.  Curious about how the game was going, I asked him what the score was.  Without looking away from the screen, he told me that he was winning.  I was a little confused, until I realized that the player up to bat had our last name on his jersey.  And that the announcer was announcing that Joey Pecoraro was up to bat next, giving statistics about his recent games. This was not the real baseball game that I thought it was; it was a game called MLB 12 The Show.

From the movement and personalization of the characters, the digital scenery in the background, and the hundreds of different ways a player controls the game, recent technology has allowed video games to be so complex and so realistic.  Ian Bogost of the Georgia Institute of Technology discusses that video games can teach us various things about life through their rhetorical elements in his publication, The Rhetoric of Video Games.  As he states,

Video games have the power to make arguments, to persuade, to express ideas.  But they do not do so inevitably.  As we evolve our relationship with video games. one of the most important steps we can take is to learn to play the critically, to suss out the meaning they carry, both on and under the surface.

Bogost implies that yes, video games do represent real life – he uses an example of his son’s video game that teaches him how to budget his money, creating awareness of how the real world works.  Video games can give us examples of what the real life is like, as they take inspiration from real life as well.  However, it is up to us to determine how to interpret these lessons from video games. We have to take the content and see for ourselves how it relates to the real world

This is an important distinction: video games are not just stages that facilitate cultural, scial, or political pratices; they are also media where cultural values themselves can be represented – for critique, satire, education, or commentary.  When understood in this way, we can learn to read games as deliberate expressions of particular perspectives.  In other words, video games make claims about the world, which players can understand, evaluate, and deliberate.

Kids playing video games. Source: Evidencebasedliving.com

This circles back to my previous example.  While this baseball game is not exactly educational, it does present some perspectives about real life. It gives every young athlete out there an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a baseball player – further instilling the ideas of teamwork and decision-making. This game is relatively harmless.  However, there are other games available for adolescents to play that promote violence and destruction. These games, like Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Halo, and more, are also very realistic, portraying what the players might believe to be real life, warping the ideas and minds of the young players. Some people think that these games are linked to so many of the school shootings and violence that has recently occurred in our country.  The players of these video games take the content in these games for reality and cannot distinguish between the two, then thinking that this behavior is acceptable. On the other hand, some people believe that these games are just a release of aggression and anger in kids, and it is better to have them take out that frustration on the screen rather than in real life.

I think that the real question here is whether or not we should have video games with content that is so graphic and realistic available to young players. If we apply what Bogost says to this situation, we could see that video games do have the rhetorical ability to influence us, including these violent and harmful games.  If a player cannot distinguish between reality and content specific to video games, should they be playing these persuasive games at all?

Santa Clara University students sit at cubicles with computers in the SCU library. Source: scu.edu

University students are pros at writing assignments.  We know how to write a ten-page paper over the course of one night without even leaving our dorm room.  Thanks to the wide variety of information and digital publications on the Internet, we generally do not even need to venture into the library to find hardcopies of books and articles to research our topics.  On any given weekday at Santa Clara University, you can find hundreds of students in the library or in their dorm rooms, typing away on their computers determined to finish their papers.

Yet, is this an effective method of writing?  To only know our subject through what we look at or read online?  Some say that students should actually write in places that challenge their perspectives or let them absorb information and inspiration without staring at the computer screen in front of them.  In order to get a better perspective and understanding on the topic at hand, students should write in the “wild.”

Professor Olin Bjork of Santa Clara University and Professor John Pedro Schwartz of the American University of Beirut introduce this idea in their publication Writing in the Wild: A Paradigm for Mobile Composition. They argue that with the new accessibility of mobile technology, like smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc., students should take advantage of their resources and write in unconventional places.  No more libraries or dorm rooms or coffee shops – Bjork and Schwartz suggest places where students can interact with the place and people around them.  They state, “We argue that students can better perceive – and learn to challenge – their social, cultural, and historical locations when they research, write, and even publish on location” (225).

Taking technology outdoors to new locations besides the conventional library or dorm can help students write with new perspectives and creativity. Source: WellBeing.com.au

These two authors bring up points in their article, discussing the different forms of technology a student can use, the different mediums through which students can publish, and the different pros and cons of writing in the typical classroom settings or out in the world.  They also comment,

“Such assignments reposition writers in the wild, where they must confront material conditions and respond to rhetorical opportunities not often encountered through traditional assignments.  This new paradigm offers an alternative to the homework-fieldwork binary that dominates student writing today” (234).

I have to say that I do agree with what they say about taking the writing process outside the conventional academic setting.  I am currently sitting in my dorm room right now writing this blog.  And now I wonder how my writing would be different if I changed locations, even if I just moved right outside my building and sat on a bench under a tree.  How would my interactions with my peers and the environment affect my writing? I think that this idea would inspire new creative thinking and new methods of writing.

When we are writing inside at our regular spot, it sometimes seems like we are stuck in a tunnel – our thoughts and ideas cannot seem to leave the little box that is our computer.  However, maybe a new environment would expand our perspectives and creativity. And with all the new technology that makes this kind of writing available, why not try it?  Researching, writing, and publishing in the “wild” can enable students to think about writing not as homework, but as an experience with the world around them.

Examples of visual data displays (pie charts, line graphs, bar graphs). Source: Morevectors.com

Everyone learns differently.  Some learn best through reading or hearing material, while others understand things best when they are actively involved in the material.  Still others comprehend information best through visual language. Graphics and images are essential to a majority of people’s ability to understand concepts and data, as they give concrete information and are memorable ways to recognize material.

One of the ways that visual language is best utilized is through data displays.  Data displays include graphs and charts that relay information to the reader through images, instead of text. Authors Charles Kostelnick and David Roberts discuss the importance of visual images and data displays in their book Designing Visual Language: Strategies for the Professional Communicators. In chapter seven of their book, they go into detail about the different ways data displays can alter an audience’s interpretation and perception of the information in front of them. The way that you arrange a graphical image and emphasize certain aspects of it impacts the clarity, conciseness, and tone of the message behind it.

Another reason why data displays are vital to portraying a message to an audience is that they present the information in a new way.  As Kostelnick and Roberts say,

“Most of the graphic coding in data displays does the important work of transforming numbers into abstract forms –bars, liens, slices of pies, dots, and icons. Although they may rely on text (labels, legends, titles) to define them, graphic elements do the heavy lifting because they alone represent the data.” (262)

This bar graph represents the percentages of people’s different learning styles in a study done by Professor Jessica Utts of UC Irvine.

Everyone processes and understands information in different ways, and many people understand things best through visual learning.  According to a study done by Professor Jessica Utts of the University of California, Irvine, 42% of learners are visual learners, in comparison to auditory, literate, or kinesthetic learners.  While there is a greater percentage who say that a reading/writing style of learning is more effective, the amount of visual learners is still highly significant. In addition, 76% of people say they remember visual representations (pictures, diagrams, charts, etc.) better than they remember verbal information.  Obviously, images and data displays are essential in order for people to understand information.

Kostelnick and Roberts realize the importance of this, which is why they stress how critical it is to represent data in the clearest, most representative way through graphical images. This kind of visual language can appeal to many audiences for various reasons. Kostelnick and Roberts believe data displays are useful for rhetoric, for example,

“Some readers of professional documents prefer to see visual representation of numerical data rather than to read the numbers in text form.  These readers find data displays more interesting and more attractive; without the data display, they simply might not pay attention to the data.” (245)

Another reason they give is that data in text form can be too complex to understand, and visual representation creates an easier medium to understand the information. Some people also just prefer the different style of the graphical data. Data displays take the information from the text and numbers to create a new and comprehensible perspective on how to interpret the data.

In my own perspective, I have realized the importance of data displays, as the visual language can sometimes be more effective than textual or verbal language.  Visual language gives concrete information that is easier to interpret without much examination. It does half the work of deciphering the data for us.  So whether one is using graphs and images to explain science to elementary students or complex graphs to represent major economic trends in a Fortune 500 company, visual language is an essential aspect to understanding information.

This image demonstrates the various kinds of ways a designer can show information using data displays. Source: masterfile.com

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but a graph might mean even more.  In our age of technology, we are able to see millions of images on the Internet and even create our own, generating a new and more analytical way of examining information.  Data displays, such as graphs, maps, and charts, are some of these millions of images that create an interactive environment for Internet readers.  However, our Internet society might take the information from these data displays for granted, not being able to recognize when the information is inaccurate.

Charles Kostelnick, an English professor at Iowa State University, addresses the new widespread technology of data displays in his article “The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays: The Conundrum of Clarity.”  He discusses how these forms of communication provide an interactive, clear visual of the information being relayed. The main goal of using data displays is to “ensure the optimal transmission of data from designer to user” (Kostelnick 117).  This form of communication relies on both the designer and the reader in order to communicate the message desired.

One of the aspects of data displays I found interesting was the connection Kostelnick makes between the relaying of information and ethos.  Ethos is one aspect of Aristotle’s rhetoric, focusing on how an orator’s character and morality impact his or her credibility when addressing an audience.  Originating from ethos, the designers of this information have the moral responsibility to make sure that the facts they are representing within their charts and graphs are accurate for the readers to interpret.  As Kostelnick states, “This rational, efficient rhetoric of data design embodies an intrinsic ethical component because it implies that readers deserve a full, unadulterated disclosure of the data and that designers have a moral imperative to provide it” (118).

Yet, how do we know if the information relayed is actually true?  Especially with current technology, it is very simple to create a graph using the basic computer programs such as Microsoft Office, and manipulating a graph to get the desired results is simple as well. It is not always easy to detect true information from false information that designers have created to provide examples or evidence for their research.

This is an example that Kostelnick gives of a complicated graph, one that conflicts with the ethos of the designer. Source: Kostelnick

Readers take these graphs for granted though.  For instance, if a reader sees an article with multiple graphs and charts, his or her first thought is probably that this author is credible.  We connect data displays with professionals and researchers, people who have had much education and are highly intelligent.  Especially when their graphs are very complicated and incomprehensible, we usually link it fact that it is probably too complex a subject for us to fully understand. Since we do usually consider complex, professionally made data displays like these trustworthy, we disregard the fact that they could be lying to us. Therefore, we are looking past what the graph actually communicates to us as readers, and we give the designers more credit than they deserve.

Sometimes complex graphs do tell the truth, readers just have a hard time understanding them.  However, Kostelnick suggests that the simpler and easier the graph is to understand, the more credit should be given to the designer, as it is the designer’s responsibility to clearly relay the information to the reader.  He comments saying,

By eliciting a subjective response from readers, this ancillary aesthetic element engenders two rhetorical effects.  First, it makes displays more inviting to readers because readers are naturally drawn to elegant displays; and second, it bolsters their credibility because beauty and truth are cognate qualities”. (119)

Simpler, clearer, and more concise materials are always easier to understand, and therefore, it gives the designer much more credit and ethos.

So how much can we truly trust the information behind these charts and graphs?  A reader must interpret the data displays as they would any other information on the Internet – with caution. We can never taken anything we see on the Internet for granted, unless we truly know the source is credible and trustworthy for their information.  While the Internet has given us so many great technological advances and new ways to communicate, we still need to be cautious about all that we see and believe on the Internet.

This picture demonstrates how a single word on a page can mean little without the other words around it.

Have you ever thought how strange it is to be able to understand a written language?  Our eyes skim the symbols on the page and our mind turns them into sounds and syllables in our heads that form words. These words strung together then create pictures and concepts in our minds. And these words have the powerful ability to tell us a story, allow us to express ourselves, and let us communicate across various different mediums.

One way that we can analyze how these words form our language and communication is through corpus linguistics. As mentioned in the previous post, corpus linguistics is used to analyze text.  It allows us to break down the language to see how specific words are used and in what format, setting, etc. Svenja Adolphs, a professor of the English language and linguistics at the University of Nottingham, discusses the impact of corpus linguistics on analyzing literary texts in her book Introducing Electronic Text Analysis. She suggests that the abilities of corpus linguistics allow us to better interpret texts, as they give us an in depth breakdown of the words used within the writing. She states, “There is now a considerable body of research in the area of stylistics that illustrates how the analysis of literary texts using linguistics frameworks can both generate new insights, and provide evidence for established interpretations” (Adolphs 64).  One can use corpus linguistics to study the frequency of words used by the author, as relating to theme, language use, or dialogue, and it can also give us insight to the characters, plot, and narration.

This frequency list demonstrates how many times the word “face” is used in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility. Source: pitt.edu

Corpus linguistics can give the reader information about the literary texts through the techniques of frequency lists of words and phrases, type-token ratios, keyword analyzes, and more (Adolphs 66). The image to the right is an example of a frequency list. This frequency list pertains to the various times the word “face” surfaces in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.  A list like this can help the reader analyze how many times the word is used in a literary work, which then helps them understand more about the author’s use of language to build his or her storyline.

The reader can also interpret the context in which the word is used by analyzing the words around it.  For instance, if one were to look up a word connected to a certain theme or motif, the reader could then gather a greater understanding of how the author uses these words to create his or her story.  This also concerns characters as well.  As Adolph suggests, “A simple concordance search can often provide us with a general idea of how a character is presented in a story, or what recurrent actions or features are associated with a particular character” (67).  A simple search like this that collects all the times a word or phrase is used can be extremely helpful in analyzing literary work. And this is just one of the many tools that corpus linguistics has to offer.

As an English major, I can understand how important this tool can be when analyzing literary works. While reading the words of a text, they all seem to flow together in order to create a story in your mind. The emotions, concepts, and complexity of a story usually overpower a person’s ability to fully analyze the words written.  It’s rare that a reader gets to go back and examine what words the author actually chose to describe a character or what phrases the author chose to describe a certain motif. The access to corpus linguistics has been a large step in the process of analyzing literary texts, and the technology enables readers to investigate the use of words and phrases in our language. So whether one is interpreting Shakespeare’s many plays, the Bible, or even J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the ability to fully analyze the language of these authors is available through corpus linguistics.

Svenja Adolphs, Professor English Langauge and Linguistics at the University of Nottingham

In today’s society, the written word is the most popular form of communication.  We send emails and text messages, connect with our friends through Twitter and Facebook, and even connect to other countries with international news sites.   Not only do we use the written word for instant communication, but also to express our ideas and opinions.  We can find thousands of articles and books with just a click of a button on a database site, linking us to many different options of text.  Text is also essential in the professional world as well, as the world’s businesses, political systems, and economies could not communicate without the written word.

The extreme importance of language in text has now become even more important since the prevalence of the Internet.  In fact, there is so much text on the Internet that we have to find a way to sort it all out.  This is what Svenja Adolphs discusses in her book Introducing Electronic Text Analysis.  Adolphs discusses how we use computers to analyze text and discourse today, and how these methods supplement the traditional ways of analyzing the English language.

Electronic texts are forms of written language on the computer.  They can be anything from an official electronic document, an electronic version of a written book, or an email. New technology allows us to use computers in order to research and analyze these texts and languages. For instance, Adolphs believes that the tools the computer gives us to analyze text and language can be more comprehensive and complete than without.  She gives us the example of how spoken data can be better explained through textual analysis, even though it is one of the greatest challenges: “There is no doubt that the collection of spoken language is far more laborious than the collection of written samples, but the richness of this type of data can make the extra effort worthwhile (26).” Textual analysis is also helpful when it comes to teaching languages, ideology, forensic linguistics, and sociolinguistics, according to Adolphs (9-11).

The different methods of corpus linguistics (or analyzing text) are necessary for research projects.  One of the research projects that Adolphs mentions includes using corpus linguistics to study the use of curse words. As she states:

Electronic text analysis has been used to study the occurrence of gender-related language (Kjellmer 1986, Holmes 1994).  More recently McEnery (2005) has carried out a large-scale corpus-based study of swearing in a number of different discourses. The social variables he considers in relation to bad language range from gender to social class to age, and illustrate the value of electronic text exploration in providing evidence as part of sociolinguistic research. (Adolphs 11)

Popular social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr frequent millions of users each day.

As the Internet has become more widespread and available to the masses, the expression of language has as well.  People are more comfortable with cursing on the Internet than before.  However, there is still a standard on where people can curse.  Through a discussion with a communications class, we found that it is more likely to find people cursing and expressing themselves on sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, and other personal sites.  These sites promote the use of language in self-expression and people feel comfortable cursing because they are not always liable for what they say.  However, people are hesitant to curse on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and profile pages, as these sites tend to be visited by people who would not appreciate the swear words. In addition, if an author in a news article swore, we would find them less credible for the information.

This is the kind of information that corpus linguistics would help researchers gather.  Like the quote states above, they would collect information about gender, age, and social class as well.  In this example, it is easy to see how text analysis is very helpful to sociolinguistic researchers. Analyzing texts using the methods on the computer gives us insight to language and how people communicate.

Richard A. Lanham, author of The Economics of Attention

Stuff. It’s all around us.  What you’re using now to read these words is “stuff.”  I even used “stuff” to write these words.  In a society like ours that is so focused on the material, it is impossible to avoid it. We find ourselves almost drowning in it, and yet, there seems to be something emerging that is even more vital but more overwhelming than the “stuff:” information.

In his book The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information, Richard A. Lanham discusses how our society has moved from one of material objects to one of information. As an expert, author, and professor of rhetoric, Lanham suggests that we need to take an economic approach to make sense of all the information available to us, meaning that we need to use our attention to decipher this information.

This is very true in terms of the Internet and social media.  The Internet gives us so much information that we become overwhelmed and distracted.  There are probably many other sites and advertisements on the Internet right now calling your attention.  But which one will persuade you to read what it is saying?

Even if you do click on that site and read what is there, there is no such thing as “clean” information, especially on the Internet.  All the information that is presented to us portrays some kind of emotion.  As Lanham describes, we must learn how to filter that unclean information, and one of the oldest ways of doing so is going back to the classic version of communicating information, rhetoric.

In The Economics of Attention, Lanham explains the connection between the age-old rhetorical persuasion and the new information age attention, saying that there is a significant similarity:

My own way here will follow my own discipline, the history of human expression, oral and literate – “rhetoric.”  It has traditionally been defined as the art of persuasion. It might as well, though, have been called the economics of attention.  I argue here that, in a society where information and stuff have changed places, it proves useful to think of rhetoric precisely as such, as a new economics.  How could it be otherwise? If information is now our basic “stuff,” must not our thinking about human communication become economic thinking? (Lanham 21)

For classic Grecian and Roman orators, rhetoric was about voice, memory, delivery, and of course, content. You had to appeal to your audiences’ emotions and logic to persuade them.  Nowadays, and sadly to say, any information can persuade us.  It doesn’t need an orator with a reputation for good logic, or to be memorized, or to even be delivered well in a speech.  All it needs now is a good design.

Examples of popular social media sites that give us many different kinds of information.

As Lanham states, “’Design’ is our name for the interface where stuff meets fluff.  The design of a product invites us to attend to it in a particular way, to pay a certain type of attention to it.  Design tells us not about the stuff per se but what we think about stuff” (Lanham 18).  This is exactly how we perceive information on the Internet as well.  How something, whether a product or an Internet advertisement, is designed tells us how to think and act in the world.

Many people today will read or see anything and be persuaded of its truthfulness, whether or not they have been warned “not to believe everything you read on the Internet.”  Have we lost the ability to filter the information we receive and decide what is true? Can we be persuaded by just anything now, including the colorful, exciting ads on the Internet or the absurd stories on the pages of shady news sites?  Lanham has called us to think economically and to use our attention to decipher all the information that is thrown at us.

Sculpture of Roman orator Marcus Cicero.

We all know that words can be dangerous weapons.  Some may bring us to tears, inflict rage, or inspire change.  A good orator knows exactly how to do so, drawing on morality, emotions, and eloquence.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a famous Roman philosopher and orator, among other things.  He is said to have had a great influence on the Latin language through his speeches and writings that are still relevant and noticeable today. Born 106 BC, Cicero was an excellent student and later became a political leader in Rome. Some of his most famous orations are the Orations Against Lucius Catilina, through which he exposes Catilina’s plans to overthrow the Roman government. Through these speeches he uses some of the most essential aspects of oration that make his effect powerful.

Another Roman rhetorician, Marcus Fabius Quintilian gives us examples of what good rhetoric and oration entails through his Institutes of Oratory.  He relays to us that a great orator must uphold moral character, appeal to the emotions of the audiences, and speak with eloquence.

Quintilian expresses the importance of how a good orator must uphold moral character. Virtue is an essential aspect of being a good orator. This can relate back to Aristotle’s idea of ethos, meaning that the audience must believe that the speaker has a credible character in order to be truly persuaded.  Throughout Cicero’s speech, he clearly demonstrates his moral character.  It seems that he was well known by the Romans of his time as a powerful leader, and his speech leads us to believe that he truly cares about the people of Rome, so much so that he speaks out against his government to protect the Roman nation. In his second oration, he addresses his Roman audiences to band together against the evil and to fight for the good:

For on the one side are fighting modesty, on the other wantonness; on the one chastity, on the other uncleanness; on the one honesty, on the other fraud; on the one piety, on the other wickedness; on the one consistency, on the other insanity; on the one honor, on the other baseness; on the one continence, on the other lust; in short, equity, temperance, fortitude, prudence, all the virtues contend against iniquity with luxury, against indolence, against rashness, against all the vices; lastly, abundance contends against destitution, good plans against baffled designs, wisdom against madness, well-founded hope against universal despair. In a contest and war of this sort, even if the zeal of men were to fail, will not the immortal gods compel such numerous and excessive vices to be defeated by these most eminent virtues?

While this quote from his second speech relays his moral intentions that reflect his moral character, it also shows how he is demonstrating another aspect of rhetoric: appealing to the audience’s emotions. Also known as Aristotle’s term of pathos, appealing to the emotions of an audience can be highly persuasive. Quintilian comments on this by stating, “… the orator must not only instruct his audience, but must move and delight them.”  In this last passage, Cicero definitely calls on the emotions of the audience to convince them to act for the people of Rome. He uses virtues and vices to exemplify the two options the people have: to fight for good or live with the bad.

And throughout all of this, Cicero epitomizes the most important feature of rhetoric, the art of eloquence. Eloquence is speaking with fluency, elegance, and force in order to persuade.  While reading his speeches, I definitely noticed how excellent his ability to persuade an audience could be.  Even Quintilian comments on his ability to speak with eloquence.  He also mentions, “In many passages both of his books and of his letters, Cicero remarks that the power of eloquence is to be derived from the deepest sources of wisdom, and that accordingly the same persons were for a considerable time the teachers at once of eloquence and of morality.”  Cicero truly does appeal emotionally to his audience while also giving them logical explanations and reasons that exhibit his wisdom and moral character.

After reading Cicero’s speeches and understanding what makes for convincing rhetoric, I found myself comparing them to great speakers of recent history. One thing that particularly stood out to me was how each speaker tended to encompass all of these qualities, but most importantly, pathos.  For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. appealed to audiences’ emotions around the world with his “I Have a Dream” speech in fight for equality.  President Roosevelt used the emotions of the American people to rally behind the WW2 war efforts in his speech addressing the Pearl Harbor bombing. Winston Churchill gave the British much hope and determination through his speeches in WW2 as well.  These people’s words have the ability to move us to tears or inflict anger in our hearts.  Whether or not we know it, rhetoric has a great effect on us, especially when it includes the previous qualities. And it all has to do with the works and words of Greek and Roman rhetoricians.

Plato and Aristotle as depicted by Raphael in “The School of Athens.”

It is strange to think that how we communicate today can be traced back to the ideas and thoughts of two men who lived hundreds of years ago.  Both ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Socrates formed the purposes, methods, and needs of the art of rhetoric that we utilize today, whether that be when writing an essay, publishing a journal, giving a speech, or even blogging.  Understanding their thoughts and criteria for rhetoric can help us enhance our practice of the art of rhetoric.

Through Plato’s Phaedrus, depicting a thought-provoking conversation between Socrates and Phaedrus, and Aristotle’s Rhetoric, readers today can understand the certain qualities and necessities of writing and oratory that were prevalent in the fourth century.  Plato’s text of Phaedrus demonstrates Socrates ideas and beliefs on rhetoric in the true philosophical style of questioning.  Socrates and Phaedrus have a discussion about how one should use the art of rhetoric, touching on the importance of truth, of knowing one’s information, of persuasion, and of knowing one’s audience.  Since one of Socrates examples of understanding one’s information is to know how to define the subject of which he or she is speaking of, I will try to define the term rhetoric so that you may be able to better understand: rhetoric is the art of discourse and of persuasion aiming to inform, convince, or inspire audiences.

Aristotle’s idea of rhetoric is very similar to that of Socrates.  He emphasizes that rhetoric is used for persuasion, depends on the character of the speaker and the mind of the audience, and is characterized by the different purposes of speakers. He goes into much detail about how rhetoric is a way for a man to defend himself, even better than with his physical strength, as he says: “Again, it is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason, when the use of rational speech is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.”  This statement is certainly true of the power of speech. One’s ability to speak and write effectively is greatly more important than the physical strength or use of one’s limbs. If we think about all the great influential people of the past and present, we will realize that they do not use physical force as their tool of power, but they utilize their words and understanding of rhetoric to inspire and persuade others.

The importance of persuasion is one essential aspect of rhetoric that both Aristotle and Socrates touch on. Aristotle points out that one must be persuasive in rhetoric in order to put his or her audience in a certain frame of mind and to prove to them of the correctness and truth of their argument. It also depends on the speaker’s character, as he or she must appear credible to their audience. Socrates states that while truth is important to rhetoric, it is the ability of persuasion that is even more vital.

I agree with both of these ancient Greek philosophers that persuasion is an important part of rhetoric.  If one does not use persuasion properly in their arguments, what exactly is the effectiveness of their writing or speech?  Why bother if it is not going to motivate an audience or inspire new thoughts? I think that understanding Aristotle and Socrates’ purposes and methods of rhetoric is vital to know in order to write in a way that will successfully express a person’s thoughts and ideas.  These ancient philosophers understood the significance of knowing how to communicate to others and make them critically think about their own ideas and thoughts.  So it could be wise to take from their examples and use their methods of persuasion in rhetoric to enhance our own writing and speech.

Danah Boyd at a conference

In her article, “A Blogger’s Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium,” Danah Boyd discusses how blogs have become a new frontier for communication.  These blogs are a medium through with a blogger can communicate with his or her audience or community.  Boyd touches on the fact that these blogs create a community of people, as they are public spaces through which people express their thoughts and values. Boyd also discusses various different arguments around blogs, as in are bloggers responsible for what they say in their blogs or if blogs are considered public or private information.  Many consider blogs similar to journalism, comparable to amateur journalism most likely, as they have similar characteristics; yet blogs do not always have the resources to back up their statements as journalists do.  

In this quote from her text, she explains her methods for research:

This paper stems from ethnographic research on blogging, including twenty months of participant observation and nine months of formal and informal interviews. During nine months of interviews, I engaged in hundreds of informal discussions with a diverse range of bloggers including early adopters and newcomers, college students and working mothers, people who blog professionally and those who do so in their free time. Most of my discussions took place in major metropolitan areas in the United States or through email and instant messaging.