Negotiating Textually

Theory into Practice

In this section I focus on a more formal and traditional approach to rhetoric, but nonetheless as vital in my education as a student of Professional Writing and Rhetoric. I argue in one of my pieces, On Rhetoric, to combat the perception of rhetoric as a more formal practice, and I use the other sections of this portfolio to illustrate how rhetoric can be used outside of formal rhetorical arenas.  However, I would like you to view this section in a more formal manner and focus on how I take rhetorical theory and explicitly put it into practice in the pieces that I provide narratives for.  Because rhetoric can be practiced in informal arenas does not mean that the ability to control it in an academic and conventional manner is less important.  I relate this section to how rhetoric was approached in the Middle Ages: valuing letter writing and education, and formatting written pieces to particular audiences; i.e., engaging audiences textually.

I provide three pieces in this section; two of them fell under the same assignment and are grouped together; the other lays out my own definition of and reflection on rhetoric. The audiences for these pieces are all academic: On Rhetoric targeting an individual professor; the first letter directed towards the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Morrison-Shetler, at Elon University, while the last letter written as a memo to program directors and department chairs within the College of Arts and Sciences at Elon on the behalf of Dean Morrison-Shetler.  

Textual Engagement

I chose these three pieces because they ask the reader to read the text for what it is. On Rhetoric, while directed solely to my professor, exemplifies discourse community well because it examines and responds to what several rhetoricians have written about rhetoric over the last two thousand years and then relays my own reflection on to my professor. Both letters are to read as manuals or instructions, providing tips and recommendations that are laid out textually, one informing the Dean on 'what to do now' with the assignment she gave us, and the other informing faculty on how and why Program Distinctive sheets are important to them and how they may be used, written on the behalf of the Dean.  These two letters are the more explicit means of textual engagement in this section because they textually relay information to others in a way that would not have been as effective in a visual or auditory way.