Reflective Memo
Pun Intended!
Not long ago I declared before my fellow rhetors in my Intro to Rhetoric class at The University of Cincinnati that this would be my last e-portfolio regardless of the assignment because I want to be done with all of the rhetoric that it takes to convince anyone of my academic and/or writing prowess. Notwithstanding, I’ve learned that the e-portfolio is an awesome rhetorical device or tool that enables one to display their rhetorical self. It can show what one can’t tell.
The term “rhetorical self” or “rhetorical you” is an emerging a theory that occurred to me as I completed my e-portfolio for the Intro to Rhetoric class. While it has not been acknowledged in rhetorical theory, as it has not been presented the academicians in this wise, I find it to be nonetheless a fact: we are all rhetorical. We are rhetorical in our beings and doings for the most part. For example, how our e-portfolio is convinces the audience of who we are or enables the audience to draw certain conclusion about us, good or bad from what they see and/or hear.
It’s the rhetoric that makes a thing interesting. It isn’t simply what you say, but how you say or convey it that makes a difference as to how or if it is received by the audience. I learned that there are rhetorical terms that define how things are even spoken in speeches, like the word “auxesis”. For example, most speeches, if they are at all memorable and effective use auxesis without knowing it. By definition it’s a rhetorical term for a gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order or force or importance. Rhetorically speaking, in speeches for example, auxesis is generally employed by the speaker so as to magnify a point so that the audience will get the message loud and clear. Having conducted a rhetorical analysis of Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, I found that employs auxesims throughout the speech. You can read about this in the Analysis & Definition section of this site.
As I conclude my undergraduate studies in English Literature at The University of Cincinnati, I reflect on how much I have expanded in thought since 2008, particularly as it relates to English Literature and Rhetoric. The course of study that I took killed all of the assumptions that I had about being an English major and forced a level of understanding and growth in me that will only work for my good. Once I had changed my major to English with the RPW track, I learned very quickly that I didn’t know what I thought I knew. After being out of college for over 20 years, somehow I had the notion that the study of English was just a degree or so higher than English Comp. I was wrong. My major was not “English” alone; but English Literature, and that included studying and analyzing how and why a book was written. This was a completely foreign concept to me.
Thankfully, during my transition period, I was able to analyze and interpret literature, and believe it or not, now would like to study more of the same.
The term “rhetorical self” or “rhetorical you” is an emerging a theory that occurred to me as I completed my e-portfolio for the Intro to Rhetoric class. While it has not been acknowledged in rhetorical theory, as it has not been presented the academicians in this wise, I find it to be nonetheless a fact: we are all rhetorical. We are rhetorical in our beings and doings for the most part. For example, how our e-portfolio is convinces the audience of who we are or enables the audience to draw certain conclusion about us, good or bad from what they see and/or hear.
It’s the rhetoric that makes a thing interesting. It isn’t simply what you say, but how you say or convey it that makes a difference as to how or if it is received by the audience. I learned that there are rhetorical terms that define how things are even spoken in speeches, like the word “auxesis”. For example, most speeches, if they are at all memorable and effective use auxesis without knowing it. By definition it’s a rhetorical term for a gradual increase in intensity of meaning with words arranged in ascending order or force or importance. Rhetorically speaking, in speeches for example, auxesis is generally employed by the speaker so as to magnify a point so that the audience will get the message loud and clear. Having conducted a rhetorical analysis of Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, I found that employs auxesims throughout the speech. You can read about this in the Analysis & Definition section of this site.
As I conclude my undergraduate studies in English Literature at The University of Cincinnati, I reflect on how much I have expanded in thought since 2008, particularly as it relates to English Literature and Rhetoric. The course of study that I took killed all of the assumptions that I had about being an English major and forced a level of understanding and growth in me that will only work for my good. Once I had changed my major to English with the RPW track, I learned very quickly that I didn’t know what I thought I knew. After being out of college for over 20 years, somehow I had the notion that the study of English was just a degree or so higher than English Comp. I was wrong. My major was not “English” alone; but English Literature, and that included studying and analyzing how and why a book was written. This was a completely foreign concept to me.
Thankfully, during my transition period, I was able to analyze and interpret literature, and believe it or not, now would like to study more of the same.