Introduction to Rhetoric Lesson and Quiz

Lesson by Amanda Bales

Description (for Instructors)

This online lesson builds students’ basic understanding of rhetoric, addressing questions such as “What is rhetoric?” and “Why is rhetoric important—both in our daily lives and in professional writing?,” among others. Not only does this background on rhetoric help students better understand, relate to, and contextualize BTW 250’s SLOs, but it also aids their understanding of “effective” communication in the business sphere.

This lesson uses resources from the Purdue Online Writing Lab, including two short videos and an online webpage. It also incorporates a short writing “quiz” in which students explore, critically analyze, and apply their understandings of rhetoric to both past experiences and BTW 250 itself.

This lesson was originally formatted using two resources on the Moodle CMS: 1.) a list of linked sources featured on the course’s weekly assignments page, and 2.) a short-answer quiz.

Lesson Guide (for Students)

In this lesson and accompanying quiz, we will explore the history, meaning, and use of “rhetoric.” We will learn about some fundamental aspects of rhetorical application, both within and without BTW 250.

Be sure to complete the quiz questions listed after the listed resources.

Have the following resources open and/or available

Lesson & Quiz (for Students)

Instructions

1.) Watch videos: Watch and take notes on the following videos:

2.) Read text: Read and take notes on the following text:

Quiz

Answer the following questions as specifically and thoroughly as possible.

  1. What is epistemic rhetoric?
  2. What is a “fact”?
  3. Why are we beginning a Business and Technical Writing course by discussing “rhetoric”?
  4. What is a “rhetorical situation”? Have you heard of this term before? If so, in what context, and did you/do you find it useful? If not, what do you think of the term, hearing about it for the first time?

Examples

Student Example 1

1. Epistemic rhetoric combines cognitive science and rhetoric to study rhetoric from a cognitive perspective. In the video “In Defense of Rhetoric”, epistemic rhetoric is defined as a means of adjudicating between different claims. When people judge something, they usually have their own standards and logic, different people may have different concerns.

2. Facts are things that actually happened, or things that can be verified. Facts are the result of raw data plus analytical interpretation.

3. People can be influenced by rhetoric when making purchasing decisions. In this context, business-related writing should also focus on the buyer’s expectations of the commodity. Proper use of rhetoric may increase the sales of a product.

4. I haven’t heard the term “rhetorical situation” before, but I think it’s useful. A rhetorical situation is a rhetoric used in a particular situation, and I think it can be used in many places. In business writing, we can set a specific environment, such as a rainy day, and create an ad for an umbrella or raincoat based on that.

Student Example 2

An epistemic rhetoric is a means of adjudicating between competing knowledge claims. Initially, I did not understand the meaning, however, with the examples provided talking about the individuals making a decision for college, it helped me understand how rhetoric is a way of knowing. Before watching the video I thought of facts as the opposite of opinions, but facts are actually results of processes regarding the construction of knowledge. Breaking things down further, it is understanding pure data. Rhetoric is an imperative aspect of communication, and is valuable to comprehend in the beginning of a Business and Technical Writing course in order to strengthen our understanding and writing skills. I have written Rhetorical essays in the past before, and I believe that the rhetorical situation means something along the lines context of the text. I believe exigence and purpose can make up the rhetorical situation as well.