Rhetoric Blog Response

The main purpose of Backpacks vs. Briefcases: steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis is to explain rhetoric, its meaning, and when and how to use it. I was not very familiar with rhetoric before college because my high school English classes never went over it. I think lots of times people know when they are being persuaded, but as the article explains, rhetoric is used for almost everything we do in our lives, even if we are unaware of it. Although it seems fairly simple, there is more to rhetoric than just “persuasive language”. Something new that I learned was that there are three parts when analyzing a rhetorical moment: exigence, audience, and constraints. I liked how the article explained how in depth rhetoric can be in any kind of argument, and how to know if you or someone else is using it. I also have never really thought about how important the audience is when using rhetoric. I think rhetoric is very important to know, especially during important situations. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos make up the rhetorical triangle. Ethos is persuasive language relying on ones credibility. Pathos is persuasive language using ones emotions or attitude. Logos is persuasive language using logic. I think the article explains how to analyze rhetoric correctly, which will be useful when writing a rhetorical analysis. It gave specific examples and explained how to find certain pieces of rhetoric within them. This will be a good article to look back on when trying to get all of the different points of rhetoric in an analysis.