Developing a Rhetoric of Rhetorics

"Rhetoric is employed at every moment when one human being intends to produce, through the use of signs or symbols, some effect on another - by words, or facial expressions, or gestures, or any symbolic skill of any kind. Are you not seeking rhetorical effect when you either smile or scowl or shout back at someone who has just insulted you?" --Wayne C. Booth. The Rhetoric of RHETORIC: The Quest for Effective Communication (Wiley-Blackwell Manifestos) (Kindle Locations 54-56). Kindle Edition. 

Wayne Booth's The Rhetoric of RHETORIC continues to serve me well by challenging me to become a more thoughtful communicator, teacher, learner, and human being. We all need that challenge. Likewise, we need to consider thoughtfulness as more than mere intellectual activity but also as the well-intentioned consideration of others. Booth was not only a rhetorician who focused on ways to communicate well but also an ethicist who sought ways to treat others well, especially through thoughtful listening as well as speaking and writing. Basically, Booth wanted his students, readers, colleagues, and conversational partners to feel valued as human beings. With such an aim, he invites us all to seek better understandings of rhetoric.

As I've started teaching English composition in a community college this year, I'm further considering the ongoing need for "a rhetoric of rhetorics." (I'm retired from high school English teaching after 28 years.) By "a rhetoric of rhetorics," I mean a survey of the different ways that people conceive of the elements, strategies, devices, and other facets of rhetoric. By rhetoric, I lean on Booth's notion of anytime "one human being intends to produce, through the use of signs or symbols, some effect on another," which is pretty much everyone all the time to some extent. I also conceive of rhetoric as the ongoing study of such practices and trends. 

Such a survey of rhetoric(s) can help me navigate and guide students through the different ways that teachers and rhetoricians (a fancy name for people who are really into rhetoric) study, analyze, do, and teach rhetoric. I especially sense that need for a rhetoric of rhetorics when I glimpse another teacher's notes with a conception of the rhetorical triangle that differs from my course's or when I survey Open Educational Resources (OERs) and other resources for English Composition. So many folks have so many different ways of looking at rhetoric. Much of the material is very good, but taken together, it can be confusing due to differences in terminology, structure, approach, and assumptions.

For this latest endeavor to blog about learning, teaching, and living, I'm hoping to use this space for developing notes, reflections, and attempts related to "a" rhetoric of rhetoric. Please notice how the indefinite article "a" suggests that I do not have the more definite understanding found in Booth's "The..."