COMMRC 0310 Midterm Study Guide (Bannon) Exam Questions And All Correct Answers

COMMRC 0310 Midterm Study Guide (Bannon) Exam Questions And All Correct Answers How do Keith and Lundberg define rhetoric? - Answer -- "The study of producing discourses and interpreting how, when, and why discourses are persuasive" - How discourses get things done in our social world Who were the Sophists and why were they important? - Answer -- They were a group of Sicilians who taught the Athenians how to speak persuasively to navigate the courts and the senate. As they sold their wisdom for money, they became very important to the Athenian community as they began to navigate a new democracy and political process. The market for sophist training increased as the Athenians relied on them. They were the earliest consultants, allowing Athenians help in winning court cases, arguing publicly, and speaking persuasively. This system made citizens nervous, as they feared that falsehood would prevail over the truth and highly trained speakers would beat truthful opponents who were not as persuasive or highly trained. - The name Sophists indicated that this group claimed to be purveyors of wisdom. - Sophists then became the term describing someone who sold wisdom for money What was Plato's criticism of rhetoric? - Answer -- Sophistry is bad. He claimed that rhetoric was a disconnected set of techniques without a central ethical concern or philosophical system. - They muddy the truth and don't care about the good of the people; only getting money or power from the people - He claimed rhetoric was dangerous because it did not have the rigor of a scientific enterprise or the critical quality of a philosophical endeavor. It was a group of techniques that helped those in the wrong win support for their cause. What are Aristotle's three types of speeches? - Answer -- Forensic - Epideictic - Deliberative Forensic (type of speech) - Answer -Justice: to determine what happened in the past such as arguing for guilt or innocence (for a trial) → People coming together about the Boston bombing Epideictic (type of speech) - Answer -Honor: to say how people should feel in the present, and to assign blame or praise (for a funeral) → Reading reviews on something Deliberative (type of speech) - Answer -Utility: to make a case for what people should or should not do in the future like avoiding harmful things and doing good (for use in the senate) → Arguing about an election on social media What are the three types of rhetorical appeals or proofs? - Answer -- Logos → logic - Pathos → emotional appeal - Ethos → credibility What three basic points did Aristotle argue about rhetoric? - Answer -- Rhetoric can be treated as a coherent area of inquiry - Rhetoric and logic are necessary counterparts - The form and functions of speech are shaped by the possible speech goals How do Keith and Lundberg define identity? - Answer -The set of labels, patterns of behaviors, and ways of representing yourself that make up your public persona. What two senses of the term 'rhetoric' do these authors recognize? - Answer -1. Rhetoric is action humans perform 2. It is a perspective humans take What two things do we do when we engage in rhetorical action? - Answer -- We are making conscious decisions about what to do - We make conscious choices about the strategies we will employ. Considering rhetoric as a perspective that humans take, what are the two key terms? - Answer -"process" and "symbolism." When do we focus on the process of symbolism rather than the content? - Answer -- When we analyze how the symbols work rather than what the symbols communicate. →You can say the same words and they can have different meanings; the difference between the words and what they can mean in different settings →People can interpret words in different ways What two ways can we focus on the process of symbolism? - Answer -1. By analyzing how people perform rhetorical action 2. By analyzing how people interpret symbols.