Rhetorics to me at the beginning of this semester seems to be too miserable. I did not really know too much information about it, and the topic covered in rhetorics never attracted my attention before. When rhetorics first came to my eyes, I thought it was simply a way to persuade people in a way that sounded so fake and purposeful. At that time, rhetoric was only a method for me to use in my language, and I never considered it as a part of civic life. I did not understand how rhetorics could connect to civic life unless we use it as a method to make people believe what we want them to believe. It sounds more like tricks, tricks to make people believe in you.
Politicians use all the ways they can to make people believe what they are saying, and the fact is that our country is ruled and controlled by these politicians who are already problematic. Now I was told that rhetorics implemented by politicians are connected to our civic life. I literally thought rhetoric is a a way to tell lies, but not necessarily lies. They are tricks to make people believe in the speaker or the writer. Magicians use tricks to trick its audience, doesn’t that sound familiar to rhetorics? But rhetorics use language majorly and visual aids slightly to trick the audience.
My perception for rhetorics was pretty much narrowed due to my own perspective. However, after this semester’s approach to rhetorics and civic life, I have come to a realization: rhetoric is not only tricks intending to deceive people, in most of the cases, if the user uses rhetorics to serve right purpose, it will be the necessity to persuade people. Speeches, presentations, advertisements, writings, stories, articles, and even reports, all of them require rhetorics as a necessary way to convey the message the presenter aims to target. Rhetoric is the art of communication, the fundamental skill for people to pass on messages from generations to generations. Thinking is passed through dialogues at the beginning of human history.
We cannot deny the fact that human beings purposely invented words and sentences to define things that might exist against others. Rhetorics, for me, now exists in a form of interpretation of art, and certainly it conveys my messages to others in a more compelling way. I used to develop bias toward the “tricks” rhetoric embedded, but I was never in touch with the mechanisms behind the scene. Simply because I never delved into the topic, I neglected the deeper meaning of rhetoric- the art of ethos, pathos, and logos. Rhetoric is the art of communication, and it is the application of ideals from the first step, before everything starts build up.
Throughout the course of this semester, I realize that I have to use rhetoric in my papers and speeches, otherwise I cannot persuade people to believe or at least understand what I am talking about. It consistently connects to our everyday-thinking, including the understanding about the commonplace existed in our society. Ethos, for example, means “the set of ideals and moral attitudes that are typical of a particular group,” and this is a component to construct rhetoric when the presenter aims to articulate an ideal and at the same time expects the audience can develop the same conception or at least make any connections to the topic discussed by presenter. A certain group of people use particular ethos to represent their stance, showing their moral approval associated with the topic they have covered. To be more specific, a representer who comes from a black community will convey the ideal of JIM CROW in our society, and almost entirely they will rely on moral values to approach to the audience, awaking their compassions (pathos) for their people.
Rhetoric is the bridge between concepts and practices, connecting our ideals and reality in a compelling way.