History of the Written Word: Rhetoric

Written Versus Oral Tradition
Writing is an essential part of history and the modern world. Oral tradition has been used over many centuries in order to spread myths and the beliefs of a group of people, but if the stories are not continually passed down, they are quickly lost and forgotten. With written language, this is less likely to happen. Manuscripts can be lost, but writings can be found in stone as well as major monuments. What ties historical writings and personal stories to globalization is rhetoric, which is highly influential in establishing ideas in a culture and persuading opinion.
Brief History of Early Rhetoric
Early rhetoric was used by public speakers to influence larger groups of people. They used appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos establishes credibility with the audience. This means the public speaker knew facts, history or current information, and knew it well. Pathos appeals to the emotions; here is where personal stories and passionate language comes into play. Also, because the words were spoken, emphasis and tone of voice would have played an important part in influencing the audience. Lastly, logos is whether or not what the speaker is saying makes logical sense. If the speech does not follow a logical order or jumps around too much, then the audience is less likely to pay attention and gain any knowledge.
What’s Really Important to Know
Modern rhetoric focuses more on writing versus spoken word. This is important to be aware of when reading about current issues because without realizing how information is reported people won’t make informed decisions, or have correct information. Also with modern rhetoric, there are Rogerian and Toulmin arguments. Toulmin focuses on one side of the argument and often times is more passionate. Rogerian argument presents both sides of the argument and attempts to find common ground. This argument is useful to readers because then they receive the full scope of the issue, but this often doesn’t happen because only one side will be reported on.
Rhetoric and Globalization
How people receive information in the modern age of technology is much different than in the days of oral tradition. Realizing how this information is presented is important for readers to notice and recognize so they know whether or not they’re getting the complete story or view. With companies persuading consumers with their advertisements and press releases, it’s important for consumers to know the company’s background. Also, stories from employees versus managers and seeing the differences between the two are important. Through rhetoric people can influence and be influenced by the written word.

So What's it all About?

Words: they tie us together. Written language gives cultures the opportunity to spread their traditions, beliefs, and personal stories with the rest of the world. This can be through books, magazines, newspaper articles, websites, or blogs. I think it’s important to explore how writing has played a part in globalization, both positively and negatively. How culture is passed along through various writings, how political issues are handled and written into law, and how other issues pertaining to the spread of globalization are written about effects our interpretation of what’s going on in our world. Exploring written texts pertaining to colonization is important because it gives a historical context to the beginnings of globalization.
Representation of Globalization
Since globalization has become such a huge issue in our time, many books and articles have been written about it, both positive and negative. It’s important to explore both sides of this controversial issue because without exploring all aspects, people are left with a very biased and skewed view of the situation. While articles may not show all sides to a conflict, I will try to represent various perspectives as best I can.
Understanding how the Written Words Affects our Opinions
As an English major, I find language and communication fascinating. After taking a rhetoric class last semester, I enjoy exploring controversial topics and how people interpret and react to them. In UH 370 we delve into hot topics, and often difficult topics, and try to analyze them to get the fullest meaning and understanding. I hope by exploring these issues through firsthand accounts as well as articles written about the topics, that I can get a better grasp on what is going on in the world.
Making up our Minds
With so much going on in the world, I feel like I need to become a more informed citizen if I ever want to contribute to society productively. Being uneducated about current events is no longer acceptable to me, and through this blog I hope to gain a better understanding of the world. I want to explore issues, the various views about them, and come to my own conclusions about what is important to me.
For an overview about globalization: http://www.globalization101.org/index.html