Writing: Blog #1 (Rhetoric)

Rhetoric has been a word that I have heard many times over in my college career, but I never stopped to think about what it really meant. It is hard for me to define exactly how I would have described rhetoric since I didn't really understand what it was to begin with. However, I will try my best to get the idea across. When I heard the word rhetoric, I originally thought of fancy language used by ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, as well as old poetry and prose. Now that I have read part of Herrick's work on rhetoric, I have a completely new understanding of what rhetoric really is. From what I have gathered, rhetoric has a pretty loose definition, and is really more in the eye of the beholder. The main idea I got through the writing though was that rhetoric is basically the language or means we use to communicate with one another. Whether it be on the computer, an in person conversation, or a novel, all of these things are contained in the world of rhetoric. My original thoughts on rhetoric are not completely wrong, but I have found out that rhetoric is not a thing of the past, but very much still alive now.