My Strengths and Weaknesses:

• I am a very good team player
• I am organized, punctual, and positive
• I can learn any program, it might take a couple tries but once I get the hang of something I can do it. 
• I am comfortable with photoshop and basic html
• I am not good with videos or complicated web design

The Arrangement

The importance of arrangement by selecting the arguments to be used and arranging these in an order that was clear and persuasive, depends on the rhetorical situation, and making the use of kairos leads to the possibility of achieving an advantage.  Arrangement depends in large part on the rhetorical situation. It relates to Madeleine de Scudery and how the salons were a place where arrangement was everything, because if you weren’t eloquent and knowledgeable you wouldn’t be successful. You need to arrange your points as well, you can’t end on a weak point, but you don’t want to start off weak either.  You have to think about what the best way for the audience to experience your argument.  Kairos can viewed as a time and place for everything, and the order in which you put your points, and sometimes you can have weaker points in the beginning, but holistically its still needs to remain strong throughout.  In an aural environment we have to think about the attention span of the audience and what it will take for their attention to be captivated.  Have to figure out what you’re going to do in the beginning, and when it comes to the written word, you have to give the so what.  When writing I try to start with the “why should I care” question, then end with the “so what”.

10.21 Follow Up

What people take from a moment is what matters, not what people intentionally put in a text.  Even in judicial terms, when deciding how to interpret the constitution, the literally versus the adaptability to what is going on today.  We perforce and there’s a tension about how to interpret the text.  Once text is written down it cannot be changed.  Things cannot change as easily, not fluid with the society because once you write them down.  If we take the Bible seriously as exact word for word and even other religious text there are many things that are supposed to be taken verbatim and the fact that something was accepted at one point in time is what we all have to deal with.  Some things might seem ridiculous especially the further removed we are in time and culture from what happened. A text cannot make a judgment about its audience (can help or harm) when we don’t know what a text means, we can’t interpret it then we call on the author, but now if we don’t understand something that was written too long ago, we can’t do that.  The text has a permanence that outlives even the life of the author. 

My notion of extrinsic proofs evolved after reading this chapter because I now understand the importance that our culture places on ideas such as testimony and the eye witness.  You want to cite authority that is universally recognized.

Extrinsic Proofs

The change of the importance of extrinsic proofs since Aristotle’s “invention” of it has changed not only in practice but importance.  The publication of the written word is something that we take for fact in today’s contemporary society, we assume that it is trustworthy, being classified as either data or testimony.  The use of testimony as the witness newly means today that someone providing a testimony has a first hand account; however, the root of testimony means “standing as a third” again representing the drastic change of rhetoric over time.  When we think of these changes we have to think of the effectiveness of the rhetorical terms, do extrinsic proofs function as successfully as intrinsic do? when compared to each use in the past? Even the use of data, as tested by observation, each type of extrinsic proof is necessary for rhetors to successfully provide an argument. 

Cicero’s examination of extrinsic proofs “rel[ied] chiefly on the authority granted by the community to those who make them,” thereby deeming testimony as the most concrete of facts (RT 71).  What is interesting is the disparity between Cicero and Aristotle’s definitions of extrinsic proofs, but more importantly the weight of each that they deemed fit.  Our culture today does not take opinion as fact, we do not view intrinsic proofs as viable sources of information.  Professors and teachers are always telling their students to cite source, to look for the information that has already been published and to not keep their audience in the dark about what others have said.  As we move away from established commonplaces and transition into a time in rhetoric when there are more non-commonalities than there are commonalities as commonplaces it seems that intrinsic proofs cannot stand on their own.  They cannot be held to the high standard that they were when rhetoric was first practiced.  But this change is that which has adapted with the change of time, of culture and of demand for the practice of argument.  There are many ways that we use rhetoric very similarly to how it was first used, but perhaps even the practice of the written word has changed what kin of proofs we use, and why we use them. 

Imitatios Paper

Reflection of Imitatios

            When doing my imitatios assignment I found it initially challenging, being overwhelmed by the language of the ancient speech that I chose, and feeling like I would not be able imitate something so well-known, something so infamously important.  But as I read and re-read the speech it became clear to me that I was going to have to incorporate elements of the speech and then translate them into something that I could make my own, something that reflected my own voice and worked for the argument that I chose.  The issue was finding a way to impart to my audience the severe effects of eating disorders and verbal abuse of physical attributes, primarily from women about themselves.  In order to engage the audience I needed to provide a clear explanation of the problem and explain the issue by imploring Cicero’s methods. 

            I stumbled upon The First Oration Against Catiline by Cicero where in which Cicero prolifically questions Catiline during the controversy surrounding his possible involvement in murder. Cicero begins by addressing Catiline with several questions, probing him for an explanation of his bothersome behavior.  Cicero was clearly frustrated, and chose to utilize his frustration to interrogate his audience, this tact is what I chose to emulate, to find a frustration and then interrogate my audience.  I chose to discuss eating disorders and how females in particular seem to encourage each other and themselves to formulate negative views about their appearance.  This interrogative method was the primary tool that I imitated from Cicero, that and his ability to balance several questions with statements of principle and fact—of experience and of reason—so that his audience could thus be informed and inadvertently persuaded. 

I utilized the first two paragraphs for my imitation, and while that might seem to be a small piece of the whole speech, I tend to take imitations very indirectly, allowing what stands out to me to inspire new creations as well as instigate a means of simulation of the original text.  I do not usually find that direct imitations serve as the best tool for my creative process, and so with Cicero’s speech a lose interpretation of the basic design and methodology worked for me the best.  The instigative questions that Cicero proposed were useful in inspiring how I was going to present the speech, and understanding how asking multiple questions sequentially in written form might not prove to be the most effective, therefore I chose to implement this method verbally. 

The challenge of writing this speech first began with accepting the challenge of actually composing it in my head, then rehearsing it internally in my mind, then I spoke it out loud, practiced what it sounded like to hear my voice say the words, and then finally I performed the speech for the class.  The limitation of my topic resided in its level of severity compared to Cicero.  While the issue of eating disorders is not immediately comparable to murder it can in fact lead to death, the consequence of ignoring the issue can eventually lead to death.  I used this to elevate my speech and I was able to do so because of the value of careful consideration that I learned from Cicero.  His organized way of presenting the issue at hand through interrogative measure and then following with evidence and logical thought were tactics that I used in my speech to hopefully impact my audience into serious thought on the issue of eating disorders.

The start of my speech was something that was slightly more rehearsed than the rest, I knew that I needed a solid place to begin, one that I knew that I could rely on myself to remember, and the beginning of Cicero’s speech allowed me to create a purposeful and memorable beginning.  This was achieved by throwing several questions at the audience, asking them about their awareness of eating disorders, and their understanding of daily discourses with themselves and between their peers.  When Cicero addresses his audience he demands an answer as to why Catiline thinks that he go about things the way he is.  The method that Cicero employs is successful because he demands the immediate attention of his audience, and this translates over to modern times.  All too often people tip toe around people’s feelings and think that certain emotions and opinions are what some people define others by, and when that happens often it is challenging to have control over an audience.  In Cicero’s situation he claims control over his audience because he demands their attention, he demands their understanding of what they are doing wrong, and that is what I attempted to imitate in my speech, to portray that confidence in being able to control my audience, to understand what I needed to say to put them on the spot, and to do what Cicero was able to do in his speech.

The content of the body and the conclusion were also adapted from Cicero’s speech, and where he skillfully provided the partial logos needed to help his audience understand the logic behind the argument that he was raising.  In my speech I attempted to provide clear explanations for what I thought the issue was, as well as ask prompting questions for the audience, the class, to be able to come to those logical conclusions themselves. 

By not relying on a piece of paper, or notecards, or even stressing about what I was supposed to say, this assignment allowed me to say what I needed to say, what was meant for the situation, what was required at that specific moment in time, with that specific audience.  The process in a sense fit perfectly with the kairos, and that freedom allowed for the appropriate timing and delivery of the topic of discussion.  I felt that for myself the kairos would not have been appropriate had I read the speech from a piece of paper, or even memorized it from a written document, the speech needed to be created from this unconventional form, and that was only made possible by the conventional methods of Cicero and other ancient rhetoricians.