Rhetoric

Mon, 09/01/2008 - 17:10 — Rita Rud

Rhetoric is the art of writing or speaking to effectively persuade, inform, entertain and impress. Rhetoric should be used ethically, to promote better relations between us, and even though used to persuade, this persuasion should be founded on “truth” and not used purposefully to mislead or deceive.

Rhetoric in business/professional writing should always aspire to promote both better practices and relationships in the workplace and towards clients and customers. Professional writing should be clear and informative, and written with the intended audience in mind. Withholding important information or other such deceptive practices to persuade or manipulate an audience to a decision that is not in their best interests, should not be the goal or practice of business rhetoric. It is much easier to catch consumer interest or attention than to regain their trust once it has been lost.

Comments

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:15 — Morgan

Ethos

Hi Rita, I really like your emphasis on ethos in this post on rhetoric. Its something that in my field we talk about a lot; is truth an inherent part of "good" rhetoric... since it has been a part of the debate for about 2500 years, and no one has yet come up with the answer, I don't expect to find it in this little post of mine. However, I think that the idea of trust is really important here. What does the truth have to do with trust? And, is it truth or the illusion of truth that really gets us going? If I am talking to an audience about something they should not do, but tell them that they should not do it... am I even being truthful with the product? Is truth and goodness linked is the questions I am trying to ask. Hum... Thanks! Morgan

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:16 — ehermans

Rhetoric response

Rita's thoughts on rhetoric are especially interesting to me because when I think of or hear discussions about rhetoric in a professional environment, the ethical implications usually aren't emphasized. They obviously should be, but there seems to be more of an emphasis on the success of the particular business or organization when it comes to verbal and written communications in the workplace, rather than on whether or not the rhetoric used is ethical or truthful. Interesting....

Tue, 09/02/2008 - 12:18 — Tony Cimasko

Good rhetoric, bad rhetoric

It should be used to "promote both better practices and relationships in the workplace and towards clients and customers," as you say, but I get the sense that it's important to teach students that rhetoric needs to be actively put to good use, rather than trusting it will go this way. Your comments remind me of a discussion I had last Friday with my students about ethos. Of course they related the term to the English word and concept "ethics," and had a very hard time believing that a negative ethos could be constructed. "Rhetoric" might not be as difficult for students to understand as a tool that can be used to serve any purpose regardless of its moral/ethical quality, but it might be useful to comment every so often on active, willful applications of rhetoric to less worthwhile ends.