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From the Preface
RHETORICAL INSTRUCTION: A CLASSICAL AND MODERN PERSPECTIVE
With The Speaking/Writing Connection: A Rhetoric, we offer a freshly modern but decidedly classical approach to teaching rhetorical communication. We synthesize the instruction of speech and writing because we believe that learning speaking and writing is best achieved when they are taught together. This combined approach is based on a premise that language exists on a continuum and recognizes that literacy has its roots in orality.
Students who learn rhetorical communication this way understand the immense practical benefits and recognize the dialectical relationship between speaking and writing. Based on our experience, students learn each discipline more thoroughly when learning speaking and writing together and gain an enhanced linguistic and rhetorical perspective of language, one that views language as a continuum of rhetorical experiences. In many ways, we favor classical approaches to rhetoric, but our enterprise is decidedly modern. Though we model our book on some classical approaches to teaching speaking and writing, we approach communication as an integral part of human growth and helpful in explaining human behavior. Historically, the practice of argumentation and the study of persuasion began as an oral discipline in preliterate societies.
The discipline of rhetoric grew in significance when classical Greece shifted from the rule of monarchs to the earliest forms of democracy. In democratic societies, ordinary citizens became increasingly responsible for governing their communities. Citizens, not always accustomed to having a public voice, engaged in active dialogues and made persuasive speeches about issues, topics, policies and laws. Teachers, called sophists, seized upon this social need and focused on teaching the skills of argumentation. Of course, there were competing claims as to what a rhetorical education should encompass. These sophists taught the discipline of rhetoric as a set of skills to be used by their students in their political, legislative and judicial battles. However, Plato, Aristotle and Isocrates re-visioned rhetoric as philosophical, ethical and civic endeavors. Their collective effort further systematized rhetoric into a broader social and educational discipline.
As literacy grew out of social necessity, rhetoric moved to a literate-based communication. This transition allowed citizens who lacked the confidence in public speaking, such as Isocrates, to use writing to argue their points. Other orators used writing to help prepare speeches or hired logographers (speech writers) to teach them how to act and speak in front of a critical audience of listeners. The advent of writing allowed politicians and political commentators to transcribe and preserve their oral performances for people to read. In one sense, rhetoric nourished the development of public speaking and, after the advent of writing, nurtured the development of argumentative writing. From a modern perspective, we all understand that writing can help us with speaking; we use outlines, notes, or scripts because speaking from a written text allows us to be thorough and accurate by relying on writing rather than our memories. This relationship can lead to giving good speeches. But we also understand that our inner voice assists us when we compose our papers. Quite often, teachers and students will converse about papers in all of the stages of writing, from drafting and composing to editing and revising.
More from the Preface: Speaking and Writing: A Dialectical Approach
The Speaking/Writing Connection: A Rhetoric
David Ryan and Fredel Wiant
From the Preface | Table of Contents | Review
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248 pages, softbound/perfect bindingISBN 0-9765684-9-7List price: $30.00 for single copy orders
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