The three appeals of rhetoric immediately reminds me of my high school speech class in which I had to use these tools in order to persuade my wonderful teacher Mrs. Applebaum to give me praise for my speech and ultimately, a good grade. Talking about them five or so years later makes me think of how I can use them to my advantage in something that is of more interest to me. Surrounded by teachers, I can see how one would apply these to the classroom and at my job as a marketing assistant writing press releases, I can use them in order to appeal to the form of media in which we want our events and news to be featured.
But as I move away from persuasive writing and into creative writing, which is my true desire, I struggle to apply the three appeals as I sit in my room alone (usually late at night) trying to create something very personal. This goes back to how rhetoric in general influences my creative writing. It's a little disheartening as I think about my audience as a creative writer and that I must appeal to an audience in order to make a living. I would like to maintain the purity of creating something that I feel is important, but at the same time I must write in order to sell myself to a publisher and a general public.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
A writer it seems must be prepared to sacrifice themselves at least twice; once when they make the brave choice to add their voice to humanity's winds of words, and then again if one hopes to earn a living off of their writing. The argument that takes place inside the writer's heart, soul, and mind as to just how much to sacrifice pits the rhetor against themself.
ReplyDelete