Journal 3: Rachael Dirr

The artifacts that I chose for journal two help teach us that rhetoric means something different to each individual. Each person, be it author or audience, has their own perspective shaped by their experiences and beliefs that are applied to their understanding of rhetoric. For the most part, we understand what rhetoric is when we see an obvious example, but where the line is drawn on what is rhetoric and what isn’t is unclear and subjective. The example of the Women’s March and one of my classmate’s example of MLK’s rhetoric during the Civil Rights movement can be seen as rhetoric by Bitzer because the exigencies that caused both events were so important and prominent. On the other hand, a eulogy would not be considered rhetoric by Bitzer because the exigence and its response is not usually important enough to facilitate a large change or movement. There is a trend across their artifacts and my own, which is that rhetorical situations are ones in which many people are involved and able to voice their opinions and be heard. Examples of this kind of rhetoric include the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s March, Facebook, and even a group message as long as it meets certain criteria of the exigence.

      From Edbauer’s article, we gain an understanding of how important the role of circulation and communication really are as it relates to rhetoric. Circulation is key to successful rhetoric. For rhetoric to be as moving and impactful as it can be, it must reach the audience it is intended to move, and the best way to ensure this is through effective circulation. From Wysocki’s article, we can conclude that the role of design influences audience by appealing to them in a way that is visually pleasing or makes sense to the eyes. Design helps facilitate circulation by making rhetoric something worth sharing by leaving a lasting impression on it audience. The role of material affordances that Gladwell discusses can also be linked back to circulation and design. The best way to ensure circulation is to create multiple mediums each with their own design and material affordances to reach multiple groups of people. Material affordances allow us to organize, plan, and make notes in a way digital mediums cannot, which helps aid circulation for printed media.