ARCS, Chapter 11; The Rhetorical Tradition, p.981-1030

I'm only going to touch briefly on the Rhetorical Tradition reading, since I believe that although it is important, I really connected with the ARCS reading.

Taking my usual feminist approach with the readings, I was pleased to see that women were actively inserting themselves in rhetoric, as a study. It's refreshing to see that, although they were discriminated against, they were at least presented with the option of higher education. They contributed more to the field than ever before, leading well into compositional theory as something that became more accepted in the study of rhetoric. Lucky for contemporary, since now Rhetoric/Composition is an accepted field of study for graduate students, and provides a comprehensive review of the necessary components of teaching students how to properly construct an argument.

ARCS Chapter 11 mentioned something that I believe is absolutely crucial to forming a convincing argument: memory. Although the internet is readily available for students today, it's easy to tell when someone has relied on it to construct an essay. The most thoughtfully-constructed arguments rely on the memory of the writer; the information that has been retained in the human mind is drawn on for a framework of an argument, and factual specifics are inserted into the argument to give credibility.

It is even easier to note the students who did not adequately prepare themselves for a speech. I am a veteran of speech and debate in high school, and the arguments that won the most awards were constructed by those who managed to research the subject so thoroughly that the argument managed to form itself during the actual debate. These students sounded more at ease with the subject, more comfortable with answering questions, and generally had better ethos when they learned a great deal about the subject before they formulated an argument.

Learning about a subject leaves a lot of room in essay construction for creative language, and a greater emphasis on structure and flow of the paper, rather than scrambling over factual information. I've learned to treat the Internet as a learning tool, and try to read as much about a variety of subjects over a period of time, so that I may become more knowledgeable when my peers ask me how I feel about it. Though we have the internet at our fingertips, it is important to focus on retaining that information in any way possible, so we can better ourselves as individuals.