Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116 sec. 021 & 022: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • August 1st: Ethics and Statistics Catch Up
    • Classmates Webpages (Summer II 2017)
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 021 & 022 Major Assignments (Summer 2017)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Oral Presentations
    • July 10th: Résumé Stuff
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • July 11th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • July 12th: Lessons on Plain Language
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Homework/Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
      • Topic Sentences
    • July 13th: More on Plain Language
    • July 17th: Writing for the User
    • July 18th: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better
      • Research
    • July 19th: Rhetoric of Technology
      • Guglielmo Marconi Paragraph Revision
      • Housing Prices Paragraph Revision
      • Suburbanization Paragraph Revision
    • July 24th: Information Design and Visuals
      • Text and Subtext (Rows 1, 3, and 5)
      • Text and Subtext (rows 2, 4, and 6)
    • July 25th: Catch Up for Research & Visuals
    • July 27th: Continue I, Robot Discussion
    • July 31st: Ethics in Technical Communication
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Class Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • July 5th: Introduction to the Course
    • July 6th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 22nd: Introduction to the Course
    • August 29th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • December 5th: Final Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2018)
      • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 14th: Word Usage Fun
    • November 28th: Workshop Fun
    • November 7th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • October 10th: Choices and Variations
    • October 17th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 24th: We Put the “Punc” in Punctuation
      • Punctuation Refresher
    • October 31st: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 3rd: Midterm Exam Fun
    • September 12th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 19th: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 26th: Modifying Prose
      • Guglielmo Marconi Paragraph Revision
    • September 5th: I’m in Love with the Shape of You(r Sentences)
  • ENGL 4750-090 & ENGL 5050-092 Video Games & Culture
    • Assignments for Video Games & Culture
    • August 25th: Introduction to the Course
    • November 10th: Aggression & Addiction
    • November 3rd: Moral Panics and Health Risks
    • October 13th: Narrative, ludology, f(r)iction
    • October 20th: Serious Games
    • October 27: Risky Business?
    • October 6th: Hyperreality
    • September 1st: History of Video Games
    • September 22nd: Video Game Aesthetics
    • September 29th: (sub)Cultures and Video Games
    • September 8th: Defining Video Games and Critical Theory Introduction
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
  • ENGL 6008/MALS 6000 The Rhetoric of Technology
    • August 22nd: Introduction to Rhetoric of Technology
    • August 29th: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • December 5th: But I Still Love Technology…
    • ENGL 6008/MALS 6000 Rhetoric of Technology Assignments (Fall 2017)
    • History of Technical Communication
    • November 14th: All You Zombies–
    • November 21st: The The Illusion of Democracy & Communicative Capitalism
    • November 28th: Cultural Studies and Technical Communication
    • November 7th: Politics of Cyberspace…and other household technologies
    • October 17th: The Religion of Technology
      • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • October 24th: Identity Politics
    • October 31st: Technology and Gender
    • October 3rd: Science and “Perfect” Technologies
    • September 12th: The Politics of Technology
      • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • September 19th: New World Disorder
      • Fordism/Taylorism
    • September 26th: Postmodernism
    • September 5th: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
      • Rhetoric and Myth Making
  • ENGL 6166/MALS 6000: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 10th: Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition
      • What is Postmodernism?
    • April 17th: Simulation and Essence
    • April 24th: Jameson Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
      • Postmodernism
    • April 3rd: Derrida’s (refusal to have) Positions
    • February 13th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 and 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 20th: St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
      • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • February 27th: Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method
    • February 6th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 1
    • January 23rd: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 30th: Plato’s Gorgias
    • January 9th: Introduction to Class
    • March 13th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • March 20th: Roland Barthes’s Mythologies
    • March 27th: Friedrich Nietzsche
    • May 1st: What is Real? Where do Rhetoric and Philosophy go from here?
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2018)
    • April 11th: Hyperreality (and some video games)
    • April 18th: The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, a Historical Perspective
    • April 25th: Workshop Fun
    • April 4th: Social Construction of Sexuality
    • February 14th: Convergence Culture
    • February 21: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 28th: Patriarchy, an Introduction
    • February 7th: Capitalist Realism and Zombies
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 17th: Our Public Sphere and the Media
      • Our Public Sphere
    • January 24th: The Medium is the Message/Massage
    • January 31st: Cultural Constructions
    • March 14th: Play on, Playa!
    • March 21st: Performativity
    • March 28th: The Beauty Myth and Images of Women in the Media
      • Psychoanalysis and the Male Gaze
    • New Media Assignments (Spring 2018)
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2019)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 11th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • June 12th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 13th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 17th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 18th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 19th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 20th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 3rd: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 4th: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 5th: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 6th: “Burning Chrome”
    • May 20th: Introduction to Class
    • May 21st: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 22nd: The Matrix
    • May 23rd: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 27th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 28th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 29th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies » August 29th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing

August 29th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing

Plan for the Day

  • Technical Writing vs Technical Communication
  • Choices, Styles, Standards
  • More on Rhetoric
  • Word Usage
  • Preview Review #1

Last Week’s Stuff

Jump back to last week’s (8/22) discussion on “Technical Writing vs Technical Communication.” We’ll finish that page, move to our reading, discuss Review #1, and go over the “Exam.”

Choices, Styles, Standards

As your reading notes, grammar is often considered a boring, pedantic topic. No doubt, many of you have had language authorities, pseudo-authorities, and the generally uncritical prescribe grammar rules to you. Both our textbooks would caution us not to think in terms of right or wrong, correct or incorrect. However, there are standards and conventions that audiences expect, and not following conventions can hurt your ethos. Our concern will mainly be professional contexts, but we will consider a variety of contexts. Please rank the formality of the following writing modes (1–most informal to 5–most formal).

  • Texting
  • E-mail
  • Reports
  • Essays
  • Novels

Ok…the above list is devoid of context, so how about the following:

  • Presidential Correspondence
  • E-mail to one’s boss…to a co-worker…to a client
  • Grant Proposal
  • Application Letter
  • Wedding Invitation

Great! No ambiguity in the contexts above. Review our discussion on ethos, pathos, and logos. Kolln & Gray define rhetoric as “the art of using language effectively” (p. 2). An older definition follows:

  • Aristotle defines rhetoric:
    “Let rhetoric be [defined as] an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion” (1.2.1).
  • On ethos:
    “[There is persuasion] through character whenever the speech is spoken in such a way as to make the speaker worthy of credence; for we believe fair-minded people to a greater extent and more quickly [than we do others] on all subjects in general and completely so in cases where there is not exact knowledge but room for doubt.” (Aristotle 1.2.4)

Let’s consider these one at a time.

Rhetoric is often associated with oratory, but we study it in writing as well. In fact, Plato didn’t like writing because he felt it would hurt one’s memory. If something was written down, one wouldn’t have to commit the information to memory; therefore, one’s memory would diminish (p. 96).

Why the Negative Connotation Associated with Rhetoric

You’d think that with such a rich history, rhetoric would be introduced to students long before college. Well, it is, but not necessary as a pillar of Western Civilization. The term comes up when politicians or their critics denounce an opponent’s speech as empty; therefore, “rhetoric” is often associated popularly with “empty speech,” non-contributing verbiage, or fluff.

But the study of rhetoric is much more complicated. Just as each discipline has its own epistemology, each discipline’s communication has a rhetoric. And rhetoric isn’t limited simply to disciplines: Movements, Social Norms, Technology, Science, Religion, etc. have a rhetoric. I often define such analyses into “rhetorics of…” as common factors surrounding the power or belief in a particular area. In other words, beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices are rhetorics of prevailing social ideology: One’s acceptance of cultural “truth” is based largely on one’s immersion into the culture’s myths and beliefs.

Language and Hegemony

Ok, I know what you’re thinking: Isn’t rhetoric just BS…empty political speech? While empty political speech is a definition of rhetoric, it’s too reductive a definition for enlightened college students such as yourselves. Rhetoric is much more involved than the unfortunate popular definition. For this class (and others) you should have a broader view of rhetoric. I like to define rhetoric as “what builds meaning into something.” That something can be an object, belief, event, or system, but, whatever it is, meaning is attached personally and culturally.

Take the following words for example: Communism and Feminism. Both have denotations and connotations. The denotative definitions (from the dictionary) are below.

  • Communism: an economic system based on total equality and ownership of the means of production.
  • Feminism: a philosophy recognizing and attempting to change women’s subodinate status in patriarchal society; a philosophy promoting the equality of all people.

Connotations are the feelings, allusions, and values a group (such as a culture) associates with certain words. Likewise, conscious and unconscious rhetoric describes what gives messages (even visual ones) their meaning–explicitly and implicitly.

Word Usage

Barrett advises writers not to “use a thesaurus to find new words….because a thesaurus does not always indicate which words are appropriate for which contexts” (p. 18). Let’s consider a lesson that highlights this. What’s a common word we could use?

David Frike’s “The E Street Band Keep Rolling in ’09”

Of course, this isn’t a class on music history, so I’m not asking you to read this for information. Instead, consider how the author describes the album Working on a Dream. By the way, what’s going on with subject verb agreement in “The E Street Band Keep…”?

Fricke’s article is a series of prepackaged ideas that carry his discussion of the Springsteen album. Phrases such as “pop stomps loaded with Beatlesque guitar jangle,” “1966-Beach Boys vocal harmonies,” and “pedal steel guitar a la Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline” (para. 3) are loaded with information–hypercompressed–and are references requiring readers to know them. Consider audience, purpose, and situation (context).

Review Fabulous First-Day-Of-Class Exam

If all went according to plan (as it always does), it should be around 8:30 pm. I’ll pass back your exam, so we can go over it. This isn’t graded, so don’t worry. It’s more of a preview of what’s possible for our discussions. However, please remember that naming parts of speech, knowing absolute rules, and thinking of grammar out of context isn’t the best pedagogical strategy to begin a class. I hope (hopefully) to reiterate throughout the semester that I’m more concerned with you understanding the choices available in writing than knowing all the specific rules, names, and variations out of context.

Next Class

Keep up with the syllabus! While you’re enjoying your long weekend, get around to Ch. 2 in Rhetorical Grammar and Ch. 4 & 5 in Perfect English Grammar.


Footnotes

Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Trans. George A. Kennedy. New York: Oxford UP, 1991.
Kolln, Martha J. and Gray, Loretta S. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects (8th Edition)
Barrett, Grant. Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking
Plato. Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII. Trans. Walter Hamilton. London: Penguin, 1973.

 

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