Final Blog

For my final blog, I would like to say that I believe that the one thing I would change about how rhetoric happens would be to change how people understand rhetoric. I would add rhetoric to a good high school education. I know that an understanding of rhetoric used to be one of the basics of education but somehow along the way, we have lost an interest in it. This is completely backwards because rhetoric now affects our life more than ever. I feel that it would be extremely helpful to the American society if people had an education in rhetoric. Changing the way that people understand rhetoric would allow them to make much more informed decisions about everything from politics, to advertisements, to life in general.
If people had a basic knowledge of logos, ethos, and pathos and were able to analyze speeches, commercials, and anything in these terms, then people would be less likely to fall into the traps of fad diets, lying politicians, etc. I feel that education is the key to understanding and if people were more educated then they would more likely to make good decisions. We have had a great numbers of examples of this in class this year. For example, the people who believe that Saddam Hussein had to do with 9/11 or those who fall easily for pathos rather than for logos or ethos.
I feel that this is the most important thing to change how rhetoric happens.
Good Luck to everyone on exams!