Thoughts on Rhetoric

Week 8--St. Augustine and Video Project

Trace 3 elements of St. Augustine's rhetoric back to earlier rhetors. Also, relate how your 3 to 10 minute "video" project for next week is coming along. You might list key definitions here of the concepts you're relating, as well as the context in which you see yourself using this "video." That is, it's useful for our class, but can it help you in your final paper, in your teaching, in your workplace?


A’s idea of “harmful sweets must be avoided” reminds of Plato’s distinction between the pleasant and the good. They both acknowledge that something can sound good, sweet or pleasant, and thus “feel” good but it is not necessarily right. These things which “feel” good will ultimately lead to something which is painful. For Plato, that was living a life which was not virtuous, living only for what felt good for the individual but was not good for society, which ultimately meant that it was evil. For A. sweets can also be wholesome, Plato’s term would be virtuous, if they contain both wisdom, taken from the Scriptures, and eloquence.

Also, his statement that “through the art of rhetoric both truth and falsehood are pleaded” goes back to Plato. Plato equated rhetoric with falsehood and dialectic with truth or Truth. A also uses two terms one to denote the positive and the other the negative. He uses rhetoric for those who lie and say falsehoods and eloquence for those who are proponents of the truth. In essence, he is talking about the same thing but the difference is in the intent of the orator; what the audience is moved to believe because of the discourse.

St. Augustine’s argument that “wisdom without eloquence is of small avail to a country” and “eloquence without wisdom is generally a great hindrance” is similar to Cicero’s argument that an orator needs to have both wisdom and eloquence in order to be effective.

My video is about the concept of audience. For ancient rhetoricians, audience was tied directly to occasion and location (three branches of oratory). Audience is important because it determines the purpose and can help with invention.

I am working on designing an online course and the concept of audience has been central to the design. I am very interested in how in an online course the concept of audience as user and learner gets combined. When I am teaching a f2f class, I usually do not think of the tools of the class and how my students will adapt to them. I take it for granted that they will adapt without any intervention.

In an online course that is very different. There is a whole section of technical communication which deals with instruction, especially in composition, and another which deals with web design. The online course forces an instructor to consider both. I know that course management systems like WebCt help to diminish the types of things which instructors have to worry about, but I think that even some of the designs in WebCt are geared more for the instructor as the user rather than the student.

I have considered web design principles, or user centered design, in its design. I have also incorporated universal design for learning (UDL) principles in the design of the course and constructivism or learner centered instruction. So for my video I would like to tie all three frameworks together by showing the course shell which I have designed and show how I have considered audience, both as user and as learner, in my design, then an instructional video that I will use for class .

I have a rough outline sketched out and have over 100 slides so I think that I may have to cut some of it out.

posted by Prof Santoy @ 5:16 PM