#publicliteracy

All to often us teachers see students who are struggling and NEED our help.  Rhetorical situation-- As a teacher, I see a student who is struggling in school.  Struggling more than just with school work, but socially and physically, too.  I have the choice to act on this and help this student.  Or, I can simply watch as he/she throws their life away because they just cannot seem to get out of that funk.  Ervin would say this is rhetorical because in this situation, the issue at hand can be changed.  Secondly, this modification can be done through an appropriate use of language.  I can go to district and report this.  Or I can send a note home to the parents.  There are many options which also shows characteristics of a rhetorical situation. 

Looking into Ervin's four configurations of public sphere- the national public is greatly effected.  Psh... This will change edu. across the country!  What about local publics?  Just as much as the national public.  Common core is changing laws- EVERYWHERE... State to state.  But, global publics?  Not so much, but some.  Common core will effect the U.S. students and any international students that come into a U.S. edu.  Everyday publics...again not so much.  People don't just go around making casual convo about Common Core.  Though, maybe they should to solve any misunderstood ideas and suggestions?!?

Rhetoric is a hard thing to define because it is used so much without us even knowing. Rhetoric can be visual or oral. An example is where you choose the right words to say for someone to understand you, believe you, or follow you. In the grand scheme of things, its about persuading. Public Literacy is the ability to read and write in public. The thing about public is now its just not face to face. Now we have the internet and all of its glory. Now you have a facebook public, a twitter public, a tumblr public, and so on and so on. Its a lot easier to reach the public than it was a long time ago. Public literacy and rhetoric work hand in hand a lot. Like when im on my motorcycle and some asshole pulls out in front of me I honk, letting him know he did something wrong. Then I use visual rhetoric (usually the bird) to let him know how I feel.

Rhetoric is a deeper word than what most people make it out to be.  Whilst most would probably term it as what content a message would contain, most would also fail to realize how much rhetoric has to do with, well, literally everything.  No matter what you do or how you do it, the consciousness that we possess allows us to constantly be sending messages of all kinds to anyone around us.  Physical messages, audible, emotional... the list goes on.  Public literacy is being able to successfully be literate in public.  To be able to decode and send messages to effectively communicate with other people.  Deep stuff, people.  Deep stuff. 

Both Public Literacy and the video we watched in class confirmed what I'd always thought about rhetoric: Rhetoric is a word people throw around to sound like they know what they're talking about, but they actually have no idea what they're talking about. They make it sound like it's so political when almost anything can be rhetoric. Rhetoric is communicating and almost everything communicates something to someone. Even things we don't think about

Rhetoric is not, and probably never will be, truly defined by any one definition.  A "working definition" just about sums that up.  Rhetoric, being rhetorical, is persuading someone, a group of people, whoever your audience may be to believe in you (as the creator of a piece).  This working definition can also include that what a person says or acts or writes can be linked back to personal experience... So, we use our personal experiences in situations where rhetoric is found.  Rhetoric is often ironic because every person uses it, but they may not realize it.