Visualizing Rhetoric Essay -- Philosophical Philosophy Essays

Visualizing Rhetoric I. Principles of Visualizing Rhetoric The idea for Visualizing Rhetoric began after being introduced to rhetorical thinking models, Richard Paul’s Critical Thinking model and the Constructivist approach to teaching. Its aims are to unite the visual and the verbal, the critical and the constructive; to present the student with a practical way to both break down and understand, and also build and communicate an argument. The underlying principle of Visualizing Rhetoric, put simply, is that all communication is rhetorical (McCroskey, 1993). Communication presupposes an audience and a source. Furthermore, the methods of logical thought borrowed from mathematics, and too often applied to composition – namely the premise/conclusion structure of the syllogism – are not suitable for communication. Another paradigm for thinking about arguments and communication must be used. Aristotle called this structure the enthymeme, or Rhetorical Syllogism (McCroskey, 1993). The Rhetorical Syllogism provides a shift from the purely logical mode in that it represents more accurately the way in which arguments are communicated from a source to a receiver. It adds to the premise/conclusion model (data/claim in rhetorical thinking) a third major element, called the warrant. The warrant is the bridge that the speaker uses to connect the data to the claim. In other words, the warrant is the underlying set of inferences (asserted or assumed) that connects the pieces of the rhetorical argument. It authorizes the relationship between data and claim (Toulmin, 1958). By adding this crucial and often missed piece to the compositional puzzle, one can see how it transforms an assertion into something tha... ...to two dimensions in organizing and examining their thoughts, they will be able to conceive of arguments as a structure built to communicate meaning. The structure, like any physical structure, has a goal and a purpose. Students can diagram the foundation of an argument, build different strands, and learn how to see connections between different elements. Works Cited 1. Booth, W. C. (1998). The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occassions 1967-1988. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2. McCroskey, J. C. (1993). An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication (8th ed.). Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon. 3. Toulmin, S. (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Works Referenced 1. Paul, R. (1990). Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World. Santa Rosa: Foundation for Critical Thinking.