|
The field of rhetoric has been a matter of considerable debate for millennia. Derived from the Greek word for public speaking, rhetoric's original concern dealt primarily with the spoken word. Aristotle wrote a philosophical work that still has major scholarly impact, ''Rhetoric'', in which he identifies five canons of the field of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Invention is concerned with the content or idea being expressed, and relates to the rhetorician’s understanding of his goals. Arrangement deals with issues of how to best organize an argument in order to attain the speaker or writer’s goals. It is closely related to style, which relates to gestures, metaphors, and word choices selected to best influence the audience and reach the desired goal. Memory is the third and simplest element of rhetoric in being related specifically to spoken rhetoric, specifically concerned with remembering the words in one’s speech. Finally, delivery concerns tone, word choice, posture and other such bodily signs that influence the effect of one’s words on an audience. Rhetorical theory is the body of thought about human symbol use. The term rhetoric, in its popular usage, typically has negative connotations. Rhetoric is contrasted with action; it is empty words, talk without substance, mere ornament. This contemporary understanding of rhetoric is at odds with a long history of rhetorical theory, dating back in the West to ancient Greece and Rome, that provides a long-standing foundation on which the contemporary discipline of communication is built. From 1870 to 1900, as the American college system moved from small schools to a larger, diverse set of universities with distinct academic disciplines, the field of composition studies grew from traditional rhetorical studies. As pioneers in the field of composition studies, Harvard University enacted a new program in their English department that, for the first time, made “a total commitment to writing,” though the initial focus was on personal writing and did not include rhetoric or literary analysis.〔Brereton, John C., ed. “Introduction.” ''The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875–1925: A Documentary History''. Pittsburgh: U of P Press, 1995. Print.〕 However, the field of composition studies soon became paired with the field of rhetoric as the modern university developed, because scholars began to realize that elements of rhetoric and not “systematic grammatical study” were necessary to improve writing and composition abilities.〔Winterowd, W. Ross. “Discovery- Invention- Creation.” ''The English Department: A Personal and Institutional History''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1998. 32–74. Print.〕 While rhetoric traditionally concerned matters related to verbal orations or speeches, both rhetoric and composition are related to the expression of ideas, often in an attempt to influence one’s audience. In addition, composition is also concerned with the principles of invention, arrangement, style, and delivery traditionally associated with rhetoric; even memory can become an element of composition when one is writing a speech or a scholarly paper to be delivered orally. Thus, rhetoric and composition— colloquially termed “rhet/comp” or “comp/rhet”— became a field of its own and remains a burgeoning discipline in universities today. ==Current-traditional rhetoric== The rhetoric and composition pedagogy developed in the late nineteenth century, and still used in many schools today, is known as current-traditional rhetoric, commonly referred to among field scholars, and hereinafter, as “CTR.” CTR is defined by an emphasis on the final product, usually the five-paragraph, informal essay or short research paper on an objective topic. In addition, CTR centers around the notion that discourse is delivered in a prescribed, mechanical form, leading to its pedagogical focus on grammar, spelling, syntax, and uniform style and arrangement. Further, CTR promotes the idea that the purpose of writing is the product, which is expected to reflect a predefined, stagnant reality without consideration for process, authorial identity, or audience. For example, a CTR pedagogue might instruct his or her students to write an essay on bicycles; the expected outcome is an objective discussion of bicycles organized in a five-paragraph essay, the identity of the audience or the writer is not to be considered, and the goal is the final product—the “essay”— which should have no errors (or even intentional boundary-breakers) in grammar, spelling, or design. James Berlin and Robert Inkster examine typical CTR textbooks and evaluate their limited approach to teaching composition, concluding that CTR limits “discovery procedures,” diminishes the “importance of the writer,” and restricts writer engagement with audience.〔Berlin, James A., and Robert P. Inkster. “Current-Traditional Rhetoric: Paradigm and Practice.” ''Freshman English News'' 8.3 (1980): 1–14. Print.〕 Likewise, W. Ross Winterowd similarly contends that the pedagogy of CTR is dated and ultimately ineffective in his examination of a number of current-traditional textbooks.〔Winterowd, W. Ross. “Current-Traditional Textbooks: Take in Small Doses and Shake Well Before Using.” ''The English Department: A Personal and Institutional History''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1998. 75–100. Print.〕 CTR as pedagogy has been almost universally employed by schools since its inception in the late nineteenth century, and until the 1960s, its limitations and ineffectiveness received little criticism. However, the 1966 Dartmouth Conference reflected an influx of new scholarly ideas about composition studies that introduced the ideas of process over product and the notion that teachers should serve as guides in the composition process rather than dictatorial authority figures. Since then, the main elements of composition pedagogy have been defined and explored by countless scholars, and the concepts associated with CTR have been replaced by a wealth of pedagogical approaches to the field of rhetoric and composition. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the field of rhetoric and composition saw a process revolution, fueled by two distinct pedagogies: expressivism, both moderate and radical, and cognitivism. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Theories of rhetoric and composition pedagogy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|