Post #3 Asking Questions

Post #3
Chapter 3
Achieving Stasis by Asking the Right Questions


In this reading, I have started to grasp how this text analyzes classical rhetoric, and I appreciate the contemporary examples that are provided, as it is challenging at times to understand an ancient concept, especially one that might not even have a directly translated word in English. 


By analyzing the types of questions that we ask when forming an argument, I think that often people overlook the actual process of doing so, they summarize their argument with data, facts and figures, and do not always ask the simple questions--which is what I appreciate about how the text broke up the questions and clearly defined what they are and their purpose. All aspects of an argument must be taken into account, if they are not, then the argument is not complete, and then one could argue that it is a pointless endeavor, it cannot succeed properly without all components. 


Abortion is such a difficult topic to talk about today in society, people feel so strongly either way, and the issue is a prime example of how people take opinions as personal reflections of themselves, and then society assigns them a certain group: pro-life or pro-choice; which abortion there really is no in-between.  I appreciated how the questions that needed to be asked for each argument were broken down and were specifically asked, this made it quite easy to understand the purpose of each theoretical and practical question, as well as expanding on each. In relating this to our recent task of finding a speech for our upcoming assignment, the practice of relating the ancient rhetoric to our new issues is a rather viable exercise, one that will only help to better my understanding of the purpose of rhetoric, and even further reflecting on how it applies to my daily speech, interactions, and arguments.