Modern Rhetoric

Well, in all honesty I signed up for this course because it was a requirement (to some degree) in order for me to graduate in May. I honestly did not know what to expect coming into the course, and probably missed every one of the questiond on the quiz we had the first day. Nearly everything that we have learned, read, or discussed regarding rhetoric has been fairly new to me. Well, other than the logos, ethos, pathos business. Those I had heard of prior to the class.

A couple of days into the course, I was under the misconception that we would only study rhetoric in the field of politics, nothing outside of that scope. I was surprised and pleased however, that we ventured out of politics and studied areas that I did not even realize rhetoric related to. I must say that one one the most important (and maybe obvious) things that I have learned in this course is that rhetoric can relate to vitually any field or subject matter.

Along with realizing the importance of having a speech equally proportioned (concerning ethos, pathos, and logos - not necesarily in that order) I learned how important ethos is for the speaker. Without ethos, or with little ethos, a specker has diminished credibility and causes the audience to not beleive in the argument they are attempting to get across. Being this far into the course, I find myself looking at articles and listening to they wat people argue in a more critical way. I think about what kind of ethos they have to be debating certain issues or how they appeal to their audience. Do they use alot of pathos or logos? I feel that I have become a more effective listener (without even really realizing it) and I ahve become much more critical of the things I hear people say, or articles that I read.