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.