“No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras

 To my mind rhetoric is the art of language, both written and spoken, that produces effective communication for a specific purpose. Being a rhetorician means that careful thought and attention is given to word choice and sentence structure so that a piece can produce the author’s maximum desired effect on the audience. Introduction to Rhetoric and Composition taught me that weather the author’s purpose is to inform or persuade, the traditional underpinnings of rhetoric are just as relevant today as they were when Aristotle and Longinus were writing. Effective communication through writing and speaking shows no signs of diminishing in importance anytime soon, and though the medium for rhetoric has and will continue to change the fundamental skills of effective writing will remain relevant. My coursework in Digital Writing and Publishing emphasized the importance of effectively transferring the knowledge of traditional rhetoric to modern mediums. The transfer of ideas and information has shifted to a mostly digital arena and it is vital that rhetoricians learn how to stay abreast of advances in technology. This course emphasized the characteristics of rhetoric in light of new technology and demonstrated that the role of the rhetorician and traditional techniques are easily adapted to new technologies.

Throughout my coursework in the major critical thinking has played an important role. Critical thinking implies considering topics and ideas objectively and considering as many sides or viewpoints as possible in relation to the subject at hand. Moving beyond social issues, critical thinking can be applied in most every piece of writing. In Exposition: History, Theory, and Practice I learned that even the most ordinary subjects can be thought about critically. Through our object analysis assignment I learned to think critically about even ordinary objects, questioning the social, cultural, and technological background and implications of seemingly mundane things. Critical thinking leads to in-depth exploration of the world around us on every level. Learning to apply critical thinking to ordinary objects bolstered my critical thinking in course readings, allowing me to better understand the myriad of implications ideas and theories can have. Applying critical thinking to my readings in Composition Studies, for example, gave me a clearer understanding of how age, location, culture, family, and gender (just to name a few) can affect the outcome of different writing pedagogies on students. Learning to think critically is a skill that has been emphasized and practiced throughout my coursework in the major.

I feel that to excel in rhetoric an author needs a solid understanding of the complexities of language and how important language is to purpose. Studying the work of Lacaan in reference to language greatly impacted how I view rhetoric. Realizing the arbitrary nature between a signifier (word) and the signified (idea or image that word creates) brought the importance of language to the forefront of writing for me. The fluid nature of words and ever-evolving nature of language is one of the most important concepts I have learned as a student of rhetoric. Having a strong understanding and command over language and word choice is essential to producing effective pieces. Similarly, understanding the distinctions between a word’s connotative and denotative meaning ensure clear communication. This is a concept that has played a role throughout all my coursework and that I feel is essential to the study of rhetoric and composition.

I find the quote above, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a fascinating case study in the implications of rhetoric. I found this quote while searching the internet one day for an assignment and quickly realized that depending on which website is consulted, one of two versions of this quote will appear. The first is the version I have quoted, the other possesses a single variation: instead of starting with “No single event” it begins with “A single event.” As a rhetorician the implications of this variance are numerous. First there is the implications on ethos, which website did the legwork to verify the correct phrasing and how does that change audience opinion of the site’s credibility? As a writer using the quote, what are my obligations to my audience in terms of validating the correct version? Through my coursework in the major I have learned the importance of validating quotes, and before I could move forward in using this quote I did my own research to verify which version was correct so that I would not damage my own ethos in using it. Additionally, having gained this knowledge the ethos of the websites that misquoted the phrase have lost ethos to me and I will be hesitant to use them in the future.

In regards to logos and pathos, the validity of the quote is vitally important to the purpose of the piece. The change from “no” to “a” in this quote completely alters the meaning, impacting what emotions it will evoke and what argument is being made by its use. “A” indicates that the reason “To live is to be slowly born” is that throughout life a person encounters they will continuously encounter event that alter who they are as a person, as if life were a series of miniature awakenings which alter who the person is to the core each time. The “no” version, in contrast, indicates that there is no single event that can transform a person so completely. Rather, in this version it is indicated that through the events of a lifetime a person is experiencing one long awakening and forming their personal identity though a series of events that combine to develop the person. These are two significantly different indications that would bring support to two different arguments, the logic and emotional appeals of the two versions would completely alter a piece.

I use this example not just to demonstrate the bearing of rhetoric on how I interpret and analyze information, but also the bearing of rhetorical studies on how I write. I know that it is my responsibility as a rhetorician to ensure the accuracy of my personal work, so I can not simply choose to use the version of the quote that works for me and move forward. In this example, and in all my writing, it is necessary to ensure the credibility of any work I draw off of in order to maintain credibility of my own and to use information that will work to emphasize my purpose though logic and, when appropriate, emotion. My studies in the major are what taught me the foundations of solid writing.

Beyond ethos, pathos, and logos it is also my job as a rhetorician to think critically about the information that I encounter through research. Asking questions about why a certain study was written, who provided the funds for the study and why, and the credibility of the study’s research team are important. Before my coursework at Georgia State I did not think to consider the implications of these kinds of questions, instead I just took information at face value and without much work to validate facts and fit it in to a piece where I could. My coursework in the rhetoric and composition major taught me how to think critically, developed my skills as a researcher and writer, and opened my eyes to the importance of upholding the rhetorical tradition in the ever-changing digital atmosphere of today’s society.