Ahh, delivery. Now that’s a topic I can sink my teeth into! As an individual with a broad media background, delivery is of the utmost importance. This is even more true in broadcast mediums like radio and television, where the delivery of the message tends to create the personality of the media figure in question. When public orators came to prominence, they were individuals who understood the nature of events in many contexts and were able to deliver their messages in a fashion that people could understand and relate to. They “…recommended that speakers use a modulated tone and speak slowly and clearly” (409). This style of delivery is still used frequently, but it is mainly relegated to those who are more polished, educated, and pandering to a higher-brow audience than others. Those others, however, still exist in great prominence, especially on cable “news” programs and talk radio. In these mediums, it is commonplace to have a pundit or “expert” sharing his or her opinion, but doing so in a very different fashion. They will likely talk over others, raise their voices for no apparent reason, and often outright attack those who don’t agree with them.
Some might say this has to do with the type of audiences these types are pandering to. These audiences are more likely lower-brow, lower-class, less educated and less refined than the audience of polished orators and broadcasters. So what does education have to do with media literacy, or literacy as a whole? Yes, ancients would have been surprised that education and literacy are currently linked in our society (406), but that is more a commentary on the scarcity of both literate individuals and common written languages in ancient times than anything else. I would think the invention of the printing press made writing much more accessible for the masses, thus both inviting and forcing more members of the population to become literate. Today, with the ease of electronic language translation and the borderless communication opportunities that exist for many people, there is almost no way literacy and education could not be linked, at least in civilized areas.
The fact that this form of oration and broadcasting is not only considered acceptable, but also encouraged by networks that portray themselves as bastions of journalism and news-media is absurd. This is clearly not what the ancients envisioned when they were practicing public oration. Yes, they took a great many cues from actors and the theater in general to enhance their ability to project their thoughts and feelings to their audience, but again, this was prior to the advent of media that could accomplish such goals. Today’s orators need not be as theatrical as those that preceded them. There are many cues they could take from ancient public speakers, but theatrics and pandering to those who are less literate and educated are hardly the correct ones.
Lastly, how could I not mention Cicero’s perception that rhetorical delivery and sporting activities overlap? The competitive nature and cultural significance of both for the Ancients does make for a natural connection, as Crowley & Hawhee point out on page 407. I really had nothing to add on this, but given the nature of a great deal of my comments in class, I certainly couldn’t pass up mentioning that factoid. See everyone tonight!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Delivery: Rhetoric Across Media and Languages
For the ancient rhetors spoken word was much more powerful and persuasive than written word (406). However, as Crowley and Hawhee state at the end of the chapter, modern rhetors have many possibilities from where to choose when composing an argument. The rules, correctness and appropriateness of the usage will vary depending on the language we choose to deliver our argument. As we have seen throughout the development of the class and our text books, in modern times, we can find rhetoric in movies, memorials, and even cities. And in this chapter of delivery I see that fact especially highlighted.
In our time, we can choose to give a speech, write a blog, record a video and post it on youtube, or write a post on facebook. We have the choice to say, “Should I talk about this face-to-face? Or is it better to send a letter or an email?” When we make this decision, we are assessing the best form of delivery we should use. In this order of ideas we can see that kairos also has its role in relation to delivery. The decision we make when choosing one form of delivery or the other takes into account the message we want to convey, the place, as well as the audience. This decision is based on kairos, the “right time, opportunity or occasion” (433).
A good example of these possibilities that the theory of delivery opens up for us is Michael Moore. Michael Moore chose the language of moving images to argue his position about the legality of carrying guns in the U.S. He chose to make documentaries, while he could have chosen to write a book or an article in a magazine to make his point. Thus, the theory of delivery can be applied to other media different from the written or spoken word.
We can then apply the rules of delivery to the language of cinema. In movies, though, the language is much more complex and requires the work of many people. But the person that makes the decisions, in an independent film at least, is the director. The director, then, should make every effort to apply correct and appropriate use of the language because that will build his ethos as a cinematographer. I found this fact very interesting. Indeed, choosing the most adequate delivery, the proper and correct use of the rules of each language says a lot about the character and reputation of the rhetor, about his knowledge of the subject and his ethics.
Additionally, the language of cinema has its own punctuation. Just as in spoken language we use the silence to mark a pause, and the volume or tone of the voice to emphasize or underscore an issue, the language of cinema has its own signs. When a director wants to emphasize a detail, event or emotion in a character he can use close up or extreme close up; or when he wants to underscore something he can adjust the focus to make it see blurry. A pause in a movie is given by a transition device called fade-to-black, it works like when we close our eyes and see everything black. The editing process determines the rhythm of a movie as well as the logical relation. As in spoken and written speech, in cinematic language the delivery is closely related to the style and arrangement. The choices the director makes about how to convey what he wants to say illustrates his own style, his unique touch.
In contrast, since for ancient rhetors spoken language was their most important mean of persuasion, they were especially concerned with oral speeches. When giving a speech, for instance, they remind us that we need to be aware of the tone of voice we use, the volume and the rhythm, the facial gestures and the movement of the body (408), especially the hands which should accompany and reinforce what we say. Our gaze is important as well in spoken speech. Are we looking at our audience in the eyes? I remember in my class on oral expression in college, they gave us a tip which was not to look people in the eyes because it could be distracting for the rhetor. Instead, we should look at the center of the forehead. That way, people will feel like you are looking at them in the eyes when you are not, and you prevent to be distracted. This requires practice, I’ve tried it and the very fact that I need to focus on not looking in their eyes distracts me… but I think it must work because it makes sense.
The passage on punctuation and grammar was invaluable for me. It was a very good summary of many rules and a great review. It clarified for me, for example, the use of dashes, which we don’t have in Spanish. And I found relieving to read that every paragraph does not have to have a topic sentence and that if I decide to, and it is appropriate, I can use fragments!
In our time, we can choose to give a speech, write a blog, record a video and post it on youtube, or write a post on facebook. We have the choice to say, “Should I talk about this face-to-face? Or is it better to send a letter or an email?” When we make this decision, we are assessing the best form of delivery we should use. In this order of ideas we can see that kairos also has its role in relation to delivery. The decision we make when choosing one form of delivery or the other takes into account the message we want to convey, the place, as well as the audience. This decision is based on kairos, the “right time, opportunity or occasion” (433).
A good example of these possibilities that the theory of delivery opens up for us is Michael Moore. Michael Moore chose the language of moving images to argue his position about the legality of carrying guns in the U.S. He chose to make documentaries, while he could have chosen to write a book or an article in a magazine to make his point. Thus, the theory of delivery can be applied to other media different from the written or spoken word.
We can then apply the rules of delivery to the language of cinema. In movies, though, the language is much more complex and requires the work of many people. But the person that makes the decisions, in an independent film at least, is the director. The director, then, should make every effort to apply correct and appropriate use of the language because that will build his ethos as a cinematographer. I found this fact very interesting. Indeed, choosing the most adequate delivery, the proper and correct use of the rules of each language says a lot about the character and reputation of the rhetor, about his knowledge of the subject and his ethics.
Additionally, the language of cinema has its own punctuation. Just as in spoken language we use the silence to mark a pause, and the volume or tone of the voice to emphasize or underscore an issue, the language of cinema has its own signs. When a director wants to emphasize a detail, event or emotion in a character he can use close up or extreme close up; or when he wants to underscore something he can adjust the focus to make it see blurry. A pause in a movie is given by a transition device called fade-to-black, it works like when we close our eyes and see everything black. The editing process determines the rhythm of a movie as well as the logical relation. As in spoken and written speech, in cinematic language the delivery is closely related to the style and arrangement. The choices the director makes about how to convey what he wants to say illustrates his own style, his unique touch.
In contrast, since for ancient rhetors spoken language was their most important mean of persuasion, they were especially concerned with oral speeches. When giving a speech, for instance, they remind us that we need to be aware of the tone of voice we use, the volume and the rhythm, the facial gestures and the movement of the body (408), especially the hands which should accompany and reinforce what we say. Our gaze is important as well in spoken speech. Are we looking at our audience in the eyes? I remember in my class on oral expression in college, they gave us a tip which was not to look people in the eyes because it could be distracting for the rhetor. Instead, we should look at the center of the forehead. That way, people will feel like you are looking at them in the eyes when you are not, and you prevent to be distracted. This requires practice, I’ve tried it and the very fact that I need to focus on not looking in their eyes distracts me… but I think it must work because it makes sense.
The passage on punctuation and grammar was invaluable for me. It was a very good summary of many rules and a great review. It clarified for me, for example, the use of dashes, which we don’t have in Spanish. And I found relieving to read that every paragraph does not have to have a topic sentence and that if I decide to, and it is appropriate, I can use fragments!
On Delivery
Several thoughts/ideas occurred to me while reading this chapter on Delivery. When I was in high school and college I was very involved in the campus TV station. In high school I did the morning announcements and in college I anchored our campus news and sports shows. Also during college, I worked as a on-air personality at a local radio station. I was always aware and conscious of my delivery so I definitely understood this chapter.
When I was on TV, I relied on teleprompters and scripts to give the news. When I had to do voice overs during clips, I would often rely on the script as written by the reporter who created the individual stories. Due to deadlines, reporters would often just sloppily write their voice over and hand it in to our director who would hurriedly hand it to me while I was miking up. There were a few instances where coincidence would have it that I didn't skim over the script beforehand and the reporter made grammatical or punctuation errors. If I was in the middle of a story and a period was misplaced (or missing entirely) or some other indicator of a pause was missing, my entire flow would be thrown off and it would cause me to either have to re-read the entire sentence or just trudge along without acknowledging the mistake.
I eventually learned my lesson after a few mishaps. I would usually read the script the whole way through, marking punctuation in my own style along the way.
The same was true when I worked in radio. The station where I worked did lots of contests and so the sales team would require the DJs to make announcements about the contests and of course to mention the advertisers. Our programming staff trusted the sales staff to enter in our 10-15 second on-air readings. I knew for sure that I would have to re-write these myself with my own punctuation and pause indicators as the sales staff would just write the way they thought it should sound (which of course was always boring-sounding).
Another example of delivery from when I worked in radio. When I first started at this Top 40 station, I had come from working in a news setting where the tone tended to be a little more professional and serious-sounding. My Program Director once told me that I sounded like an old man and that people would be bored by my on-air formality. He gave me a few examples of what he wanted me to sound like and told me that he knew I could do it, I just needed to relax (he thought I was too tense) and just pretend I was talking to a room full of people in their early 20s. I worked on my delivery (I did the whole stand up and smile while you talk technique), incorporated hand motions and just acted as if I was talking to a friend who was sitting in front of me. Within a few shifts, I improved greatly and it felt awesome!
When I was on TV, I relied on teleprompters and scripts to give the news. When I had to do voice overs during clips, I would often rely on the script as written by the reporter who created the individual stories. Due to deadlines, reporters would often just sloppily write their voice over and hand it in to our director who would hurriedly hand it to me while I was miking up. There were a few instances where coincidence would have it that I didn't skim over the script beforehand and the reporter made grammatical or punctuation errors. If I was in the middle of a story and a period was misplaced (or missing entirely) or some other indicator of a pause was missing, my entire flow would be thrown off and it would cause me to either have to re-read the entire sentence or just trudge along without acknowledging the mistake.
I eventually learned my lesson after a few mishaps. I would usually read the script the whole way through, marking punctuation in my own style along the way.
The same was true when I worked in radio. The station where I worked did lots of contests and so the sales team would require the DJs to make announcements about the contests and of course to mention the advertisers. Our programming staff trusted the sales staff to enter in our 10-15 second on-air readings. I knew for sure that I would have to re-write these myself with my own punctuation and pause indicators as the sales staff would just write the way they thought it should sound (which of course was always boring-sounding).
Another example of delivery from when I worked in radio. When I first started at this Top 40 station, I had come from working in a news setting where the tone tended to be a little more professional and serious-sounding. My Program Director once told me that I sounded like an old man and that people would be bored by my on-air formality. He gave me a few examples of what he wanted me to sound like and told me that he knew I could do it, I just needed to relax (he thought I was too tense) and just pretend I was talking to a room full of people in their early 20s. I worked on my delivery (I did the whole stand up and smile while you talk technique), incorporated hand motions and just acted as if I was talking to a friend who was sitting in front of me. Within a few shifts, I improved greatly and it felt awesome!
Icing on the Cake
A few days ago, a colleague and I were discussing the content of Crowley and Hawhee’s chapter on delivery. (No, I don’t normally discuss this textbook over coffee, but she teaches our gifted education program at school, so I often pass along information I feel would be helpful to her in developing her program …) I explained to her how Greek writing initially had no punctuation, and passed along the authors’ advice of “waiting to put in larger marks of punctuation, like paragraphs and headers, until you’ve drafted the entire discourse at least once. Then outline it and use indentations and headers to mark the divisions of the discourse.” (p 413) She found this interesting, and we went off into other topics of discussion. When speaking with her yesterday, she thanked me for talking with her about the text, and said it had “freed” her to complete her written assignment for her graduate class. As she has always been a reluctant writer, she found the authors’ advice helpful in changing her mindset about writing. This, naturally, led me to consider how I teach writing to my fourth graders. Could this be an effective strategy in getting them to “open up” when it comes to writing?
Until recently, my own main purpose for writing has been academic: writing papers for school, work, professional communication, etc. Had I read the sections of this chapter pertaining to the above conversation without having read the preceding eleven chapters, I may have found them ridiculous. After all, isn’t it the job of classroom teachers to make sure that our students have a strong command of the English language, both verbal and written? However, in the scheme of things, and depending on the author’s purpose, it seems to make perfect sense. As an elementary teacher, I fully support the idea that students must learn the correct (or at least socially accepted) rules of grammar. This levels the playing field, so to speak, for effective communication to occur, both in verbal and written discourse. Once students understand the rules, they can figure out how to effectively break them, again depending on their purpose.
It seems to be a question of balance. How do we teach the students to write within the parameters of school expectations, while freeing them to express themselves without the confines of grammar and usage rules? Perhaps we can brainstorm an answer in tonight’s class discussion.
Finally, I refer back to the original topic of delivery. (By the way, I originally wrote the preceding sentence as, “Finally, back to the original topic of delivery.” But because it lacked a subject, I went back to edit. Here we go again with rules! I liked the sentence better in it’s original form.) Delivery, to me, seems to be the icing on the cake. It doesn’t matter how much time and energy one expends on the first four rhetorical canons; without effective delivery, whether it be oral, written, or visual, the discourse means little. It’s the power punch that appeals to the audience’s “eyes and ears” and gets them to pay attention to the message. Without it, you’ve wasted your time.
Delivery
**Please excuse the issues with spacing and font style in my post. For some reason, I can't correct them*
When the authors mention page the concepts of page literacy vs. electronic literacy, I immediately thought of Lynne Truss’ punctuation guide, Eats, Shoot & Leaves. In her final chapter, entitled “Merely Conventional Signs,” she talks about the same concept; she just uses different terminology.
When the authors mention page the concepts of page literacy vs. electronic literacy, I immediately thought of Lynne Truss’ punctuation guide, Eats, Shoot & Leaves. In her final chapter, entitled “Merely Conventional Signs,” she talks about the same concept; she just uses different terminology.
“I blame all the emails and text messages,” people say, when you talk about the decline in punctuation standards [and in our case aspects of page literacy]. Truss continues-“ Well, yes. The effect on language of the electronic age is obvious to all, even though the process is only just begun, and its ultimate impact is unimaginable (151).
And image all that has changed since Truss made that statement, seeing that the book was published in 2003. She later comments that the written word is adapting to “the most immediate, universal and democratic written medium that has ever existed” (152).
And image all that has changed since Truss made that statement, seeing that the book was published in 2003. She later comments that the written word is adapting to “the most immediate, universal and democratic written medium that has ever existed” (152).
What resonates with me about this whole idea of two types of literacy, is how quickly many people (not all) have thrown “standard” and “traditional” conventions to the wind and are accepting less than standard writing. The have your ideas printed to the “Almighty Page” requires careful construction, proofreading, and usually some type of funding. If non-standard language makes it to the page, it usually has a purpose or is a sign of artistic license. The electronic sphere, on the other hand, is filled with writings and rants by the artists and literate types, but it is also filled with writings and rants of people who truly don’t know the difference between its and it’s or two, to, and too. It’s frustrating to see that what I, and many others, are trying to teach and reinforce as being important is deemed worthless in parts of the electronic world.
I guess my rant further supports the authors claim “usage allows Americans to discriminate” (417). Put please understand that I’m not discriminating against a particular group of people, I’m criticizing society’s acceptance of certain behavior. If people can break the rules with impunity, the more power to them. I realize that it’s not a black/white issue, but I can’t help but feel frustrated that what I do for a living is not being enforced or supported by the ever-growing electronic world.
The idea that strong delivery requires volume, stability, and flexibility is a valid point. I witness the results of poor delivery in my classroom. In some cases, my students, who fail to engage their peers with their speeches, presentations, and anecdotes, commit it. Other times, I hear the moans and groans of students as the criticize other teachers’ delivery systems – “He’s so boring,” “ The way she laughs ruins my mornings,” or “I can’t believe he lectures from his desk”! And once in a while, because I work hard to see it doesn’t happen, I notice that my delivery fails. I’m the one who misses, because I’m lacking one of these three. If it’s not a matter of volume, stability, or flexibility, then it’s probably a matter of me not having practice with a particular subject. The authors comment that comedians and newscasters lie on opposite ends of the delivery spectrum, Comedians are expected to and are almost required to use gestures in their delivery, while newscaster are expected to remain still and expressionless. When these two stray from the norm, the effects can be memorable. For example, when our class discussed our 9/11 memories, many of us reflected on what we remember about the news anchors: the tears, fear, and language. It was unusual and therefore, effective. On the other hand, some of us find that the funniest people are the people who can tell a joke or do something funny without reacting in the way we expect them to. Dry humor, sarcasm, dark humor, etc.; work well, while others prefer slapstick behavior and punch line humor. Most days, I find myself in the middle of this spectrum. I have to be part comedian, part newscaster. I must say, some days it’s much more difficult to be the newscaster when I’m in a room full of energetic and silly teenagers.
Before reading this chapter, I immediately associated delivery with the oral aspect, although, written delivery is just as important. For some reason, I didn’t consider the written part to be delivery, but it obviously is. Combining the two types comes into play a lot. I used to write for ABC 27 News. It was interesting because I felt as if most of the formal writing training that I had in school, totally went out the window. Writing for television news is quite different from formal writing for class. I had to transition from trying to write creative, elaborate styled sentences to summarizing the main facts. These facts are written at a sixth grade level because you don’t want to speak above the viewer. It is also imperative to write a story that takes approximately thirty seconds to read because there is a lot of news to cover in a short period of time. As a writer, I quickly learned which anchors spoke fast and could handle more words per story and who delivered stories at a slower pace. The anchors have to make important delivery decisions as well. They need to consider their pacing, pausing, inflection, and tone. They need to make professional delivery choices as well. It would obviously not be appropriate to deliver a story about murder with a smile. They need to keep the viewer engaged by a talking head.
On another note, I am a sucker for the picture theory. When I am browsing books, I judge by a cover. If a color, font, or image jumps out at me, I will totally pick up that book and read the back. When I am searching for shampoo, I’m always drawn to the visually appealing bottle along with the words chosen to depict the product (ex. full volume, or sleek). If there is a picture on a menu and the item looks appetizing, then I will order that item. It is always disappointing when the food that is delivered does not look like the picture. For example, they always put little water droplets on the lettuce and have big slices of deep red tomatoes on a juicy burger. This is not always what is brought to the table. I am also somewhat of a layout snob. I hate when a particular font or image is used that does not accurately portray the intended message. The use of white space and bolding/italicizing/underlining need to be considered as well.
Overall, I feel that this is quite an interesting topic and is more diverse than I initially realized. I think that we will definitely have some intriguing conversations that will be sparked from this chapter. I am looking forward to class tonight.
On another note, I am a sucker for the picture theory. When I am browsing books, I judge by a cover. If a color, font, or image jumps out at me, I will totally pick up that book and read the back. When I am searching for shampoo, I’m always drawn to the visually appealing bottle along with the words chosen to depict the product (ex. full volume, or sleek). If there is a picture on a menu and the item looks appetizing, then I will order that item. It is always disappointing when the food that is delivered does not look like the picture. For example, they always put little water droplets on the lettuce and have big slices of deep red tomatoes on a juicy burger. This is not always what is brought to the table. I am also somewhat of a layout snob. I hate when a particular font or image is used that does not accurately portray the intended message. The use of white space and bolding/italicizing/underlining need to be considered as well.
Overall, I feel that this is quite an interesting topic and is more diverse than I initially realized. I think that we will definitely have some intriguing conversations that will be sparked from this chapter. I am looking forward to class tonight.
Disappointment or Misunderstanding
I was somewhat disappointed by this chapter. In reflecting on the reading, I gravitated towards the opening of the section on Delivery of Written Discourse on page 411:
“Are rhythm and physicality confirmed to the spoken word? Does written discourse extend to the eyes and ears of the audience? Certainly it is impossible to stomp one’s feet in written prose, yet there are ways in which written discourse nevertheless attends to the ears and eyes of the audience” (411).
After reading this, I think I mentally uttered a resounding—Yes! This is the stuff that I live for! Being an English teacher to a population of significantly apathetic teenagers who see words and writing as solely a utilitarian means to get a grade, I had hoped that this would provide some epiphany as to how to encourage them to be as powerful and animated in their writing as they are orally.
And then discussion of punctuation, spelling, and grammar followed.
Some of this discussion, as a teacher, I disagreed with namely because this is the very advice that provided my students with misconceptions about things like comma placement that causes their written, academic writing to be incorrect. An example being the advice to “read your writing aloud, like the ancients did, and mark the places where you pause. Put punctuation in these places” (413). Grammatically this is incorrect; when students do this, they end up separating subjects from verbs or further complicating the clarity of their message.
Another section that caused me pause was the section on page 416 on Correct Rules II: Traditional Grammar and Usage. Here, I found the writing to be greatly biased against certain approaches to grammar that have been and are currently taught in our education system. The authors even admit these biases, “A more biased and yet more accurate definition is this: usage rules are the conventions of written English that allow Americans to discriminate against one another” (417). The fact that the authors admit their bias, but then depict this bias as more accurate, left me with a negative outlook on this whole section.
This is not to say that I disagree with some of the philosophies in this section, but the strong, overt opinions that came across from the authors distracted me from the content that I typically would have agreed with. I think that this was an odd choice to end the book in this manner. So much of the earlier chapters allowed for the authors to show their biases. Which they probably did, yet not in such an overt manner; and I appreciate that. In material that is meant to be an educational source, in particular a textbook, personally I like to see as little influence from the authors’ personality and opinions as possible.
However, after my experiences in this class, I realize that in searching for a work free from personal input and bias, I might just be searching for the impossible. Everything is based in rhetoric and it is nearly impossible to find a piece of writing, art, architecture, or the like that does not present its crafter’s views in some manner. Yet, why make your views so apparent and risk offending in a textbook about rhetoric and the chapter on delivery in the section on grammar, nonetheless.
Coming full circle to my original point, I think that my initial negativity in approaching this chapter was because I wished for it to be more like the chapter on style. Style in my view is how figuratively to make feet stomp in your writing. Tropes such as repetition, figurative language, figures of thought and the like accomplish this task. So then delivery must be simply how you make your arguments look and sound.
Ahhh! Hence why much of the chapter focused on appealing to the eye and ear in both oral, written, and digital discourse, “All delivery is concerned with two different things, namely voice and gesture, of which one appeals to the eye and the other to the ear, the two senses by which all emotion reaches the soul” (409).
So in approaching the canon of delivery, it is necessary when dealing with rhetoric to appeal more to the spoken word or how your writing rhythmically flows than how it serves a grammatically correct purpose:
“The early origins of punctuation were therefore rhetorical, and while punctuation functions these days to mark more than pauses for breathing, it is nonetheless important to bear in mind the rhetorical value of punctuation. It seems to us that practitioners of modern rhetoric sometimes forget the rhetoric of punctuation in favor of rules about sentence structures” (412).
In reflecting back on this statement, I whole heartedly agree with its premise. Yet, the fact that the discussion on these sentence structures was biasedly delivered consumed so much of my energy in reading this chapter, that had it not been for this blog post—perhaps I would have never came to this realization.
On an ending note, a highlight of this chapter for me was the commentary on font types affecting ethos, “some fonts, like the ones designed to resemble the type used in comics, are not really appropriate for serious matters” (421). Comic Sans is probably the most hotly debated font in society today. I instantly remembered the ridicule of the Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavaliers, in writing a letter which featured the font dominantly:
Cavs owner's letter mocked for Comic Sans font
Clearly illustrating the point that Crowley and Hawhee make in this section about the importance of how you present you information, and it also confirms how delivery, as the fifth canon, is not any less important in exposing your thoughts and opinions than the earlier four.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Delivery: Last But Not Least
When one thinks of delivery, as it refers to rhetoric, it is likely that the first thought that comes to mind is oral discourse. We don’t often consider the ways in which written discourse demands a certain presentation in order to be deemed effective. Even the quote by Isocrates at the opening of Chapter 12 in Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students suggests that because of its limitations, as far as the elements of delivery available go (as compared to oral discourse), written words “make an indifferent impression upon [their] hearers” (qtd. in Crowley and Hawhee 405). This, Crowley and Hawhee tell us, has influenced the ways in which modern rhetors approach rhetoric, virtually abandoning the known aspects of delivery and substituting a specific format for composition (406). As I read this, I could not help but think back to some of the earlier discussions of the semester when we collectively expressed frustration over the education system’s reliance on the five-paragraph essay format that has become somewhat commonplace. I believe that this is the “set format” that the authors reference. And, as we acknowledged then and would probably reiterate now, such formats do little to empower the message.
As I continued through the chapter, confirming that written discourse does have its own features to engage the senses, I began to consider where I most frequently see these features used. The answer is business writing. Writing in the business world employs, and, in fact, requires specific rules, formats and presentation elements if the message is to be well received and acted upon by the recipient. Among these features are shorter, more manageable paragraphs; a precision of words; headings or subheadings (often bolded, underlined or italicized); plenty of white space; and so on, features which Crowley and Hawhee recognize as belonging to the domain of visual rhetoric. The more reader-friendly the message and manner in which it is delivered, the more likely it is to be attended to. And yet, even in business writing, these common features sometimes seem to amount to a simple consideration of arrangement and style. How ironic then that Crowley and Hawhee wed these canons and equate them with delivery: “Under such conditions, delivery tends to collapse into arrangement and style” (406).
Later the authors suggest, “In written discourse, attending to the ‘ear’ of the audience has to do with editing a discourse so that it is accessible and pleasant to read” (412). This statement causes me to wonder if, perhaps, the choices we make that influence how the message is delivered in written discourse are more purposeful, more calculated—in other words, mightn’t one have to work a little harder with the delivery of written discourse than one does with oral discourse in which tone, volume, gestures, and body language seem more natural. For example, it seems innate to want to look a person in the eye, connect with him when giving a message through oral discourse. In the same way, at least for me, gestures and body language tend to be instinctive too. Rarely do I think too hard about what outward movements will accompany my speech. Together this eye contact and these gestures draw the listener in and create a sort of intimacy with him that encourage attention. To create a similar effect with writing seems infinitely more challenging.
Two final points in the chapter stood out to me. The first reflects the question of whether to teach grammar or not, especially at the secondary level (where it does typically remain a part of the curriculum). Crowley and Hawhee state, “Every native speaker of a language has intuited the grammar rules of her language by the time she is five years old” (416). From this perspective then it would seem such attempts to teach grammar would be rather fruitless, and based on conversations with countless English educators over the years, indeed it has been. Much of one’s understanding of the rules of grammar are grounded in one’s experience with and exposure to the rules as practiced in one’s immediate communities rather than in the classroom. This tendency to recognize appropriate grammatical constructions “by ear” rather than in written form informs my practice of having students read their writing out loud during revision sessions. What students ultimately discover when they engage in this process is that they catch such grammatical errors by hearing them much more readily than when they merely read them. Their familiarity with oral constructions enable them to create more effectively structured written discourse, which brings me to the second point.
Crowley and Hawhee address usage rules, telling the reader that understanding usage, too, is tied to one’s community; however, rhetorical situation can influence how one uses words: “Despite their manifest unfairness, usage rules exist; they are enforced by people with power; and so they must be observed in situations where they have been decreed to be important” (417). When I read this, I immediately recalled an essay I read quite a few years ago by Barbara Mellix titled “From Outside, In."
(http://facultyfiles.deanza.edu/.../MellixFromOutsideIn.doc)
In this essay, Mellix grapples with a similar issue. Like the authors, she recognizes how one’s use of language is dependent upon audience, purpose, time and place. As an African-American, she recounts using the language of her culture around her own friends and family, but she indicates that her parents enforced a “proper” use of language when she was around white folks. As an adult now, Mellix still identifies with the language of her culture and finds it appropriate to pull it out when among those who understand and value this rich literacy history of the culture. I think Crowley and Hawhee might just agree that this usage is both appropriate and useful.
As I continued through the chapter, confirming that written discourse does have its own features to engage the senses, I began to consider where I most frequently see these features used. The answer is business writing. Writing in the business world employs, and, in fact, requires specific rules, formats and presentation elements if the message is to be well received and acted upon by the recipient. Among these features are shorter, more manageable paragraphs; a precision of words; headings or subheadings (often bolded, underlined or italicized); plenty of white space; and so on, features which Crowley and Hawhee recognize as belonging to the domain of visual rhetoric. The more reader-friendly the message and manner in which it is delivered, the more likely it is to be attended to. And yet, even in business writing, these common features sometimes seem to amount to a simple consideration of arrangement and style. How ironic then that Crowley and Hawhee wed these canons and equate them with delivery: “Under such conditions, delivery tends to collapse into arrangement and style” (406).
Later the authors suggest, “In written discourse, attending to the ‘ear’ of the audience has to do with editing a discourse so that it is accessible and pleasant to read” (412). This statement causes me to wonder if, perhaps, the choices we make that influence how the message is delivered in written discourse are more purposeful, more calculated—in other words, mightn’t one have to work a little harder with the delivery of written discourse than one does with oral discourse in which tone, volume, gestures, and body language seem more natural. For example, it seems innate to want to look a person in the eye, connect with him when giving a message through oral discourse. In the same way, at least for me, gestures and body language tend to be instinctive too. Rarely do I think too hard about what outward movements will accompany my speech. Together this eye contact and these gestures draw the listener in and create a sort of intimacy with him that encourage attention. To create a similar effect with writing seems infinitely more challenging.
Two final points in the chapter stood out to me. The first reflects the question of whether to teach grammar or not, especially at the secondary level (where it does typically remain a part of the curriculum). Crowley and Hawhee state, “Every native speaker of a language has intuited the grammar rules of her language by the time she is five years old” (416). From this perspective then it would seem such attempts to teach grammar would be rather fruitless, and based on conversations with countless English educators over the years, indeed it has been. Much of one’s understanding of the rules of grammar are grounded in one’s experience with and exposure to the rules as practiced in one’s immediate communities rather than in the classroom. This tendency to recognize appropriate grammatical constructions “by ear” rather than in written form informs my practice of having students read their writing out loud during revision sessions. What students ultimately discover when they engage in this process is that they catch such grammatical errors by hearing them much more readily than when they merely read them. Their familiarity with oral constructions enable them to create more effectively structured written discourse, which brings me to the second point.
Crowley and Hawhee address usage rules, telling the reader that understanding usage, too, is tied to one’s community; however, rhetorical situation can influence how one uses words: “Despite their manifest unfairness, usage rules exist; they are enforced by people with power; and so they must be observed in situations where they have been decreed to be important” (417). When I read this, I immediately recalled an essay I read quite a few years ago by Barbara Mellix titled “From Outside, In."
(http://facultyfiles.deanza.edu/.../MellixFromOutsideIn.doc)
In this essay, Mellix grapples with a similar issue. Like the authors, she recognizes how one’s use of language is dependent upon audience, purpose, time and place. As an African-American, she recounts using the language of her culture around her own friends and family, but she indicates that her parents enforced a “proper” use of language when she was around white folks. As an adult now, Mellix still identifies with the language of her culture and finds it appropriate to pull it out when among those who understand and value this rich literacy history of the culture. I think Crowley and Hawhee might just agree that this usage is both appropriate and useful.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Funny Thing Happened on my way to the printer
Here is my article summary... so sorry... I used all my semester sheets without realizing it:
Gallagher, Victoria J. “Memory as Social Agent: Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials.” New Approaches to Rhetoric. Eds. Patricia A. Sullivan and Steven R. Goldzwig. London: SAGE, 2004. 149-171. Print.
• Many rhetoric scholars will argue that there is no rhetorical point in studying memorials or any other visual or artistic object. However, Gallagher’s memorial study is just as rhetorical as that of a scholarly article on a speech or novel. According to rhetoric and composition professors, Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, in their book, Ancient Rhetoric for Contemporary Students, “An ancient teacher of rhetoric named Aristotle defined rhetoric as the power of finding the available arguments suited to a given situation” (Crowley and Hawhee 1). Therefore, if rhetoricians still believe in this stance, Gallagher’s article should be acknowledged as a rhetorical text since she is providing suitable proofs to a particular issue.
• Not only is Gallagher providing ample examples and countering other arguments in this piece, but she is creating “a rhetorical situation” (Crowley and Hawhee 22). A rhetorical situation is important to scholars because it identifies a specific position that needs to be further addressed. According to Crowley and Hawhee, “their [ancient scholars] study [of rhetoric] was preparation for a life of active citizenship” (22). This belief in knowledgeable inhabitants has not changed and it is this notion of education and civic activism that first inspires
• Ethos and Pathos play large roles in this article
• This new field of rhetorical study that Gallagher’s article is championing for is that of visual rhetoric. Crowley and Hawhee define “‘visual rhetoric,’ [as] a branch of rhetorical studies that considers all aspects of the visual-from the persuasive force of images to words and how they function as images” (Crowley and Hawhee 419). In her article, Gallagher writes that “a critic must also analyze the form, substance, and context of artifacts. In terms of museums and memorials, this means paying particular attention to the material nature of the artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 156). In this statement, Gallagher is arguing that monuments must be fully studied since everything from its construction materials, to its lighting features and display either heighten a visitor’s awareness of the issue at hand or not. In other words, the memorials medium, lighting and location can also provide an individual with either a positive or negative feeling or outcome. Gallagher states that “unlike speeches or written texts, memorials ‘remain in our perceptual fields as long as we are nearby. They do not fall silent . . . nor are they put away’” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 156). Thus, Gallagher argues that monuments are continuous rhetorical situations that need to be studied. She believes that the monuments’ contents will be regularly discussed and interpreted by numerous and diverse rhetors whose opinions will reflect the kairos at the time of their presentation or article. Crowley and Hawhee define kairos as an “exact or critical time, season, opportunity” and thus “kairos is not about duration but rather about a certain kind of time” (Crowley and Hawhee 45).
Gallagher, Victoria J. “Memory as Social Agent: Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials.” New Approaches to Rhetoric. Eds. Patricia A. Sullivan and Steven R. Goldzwig. London: SAGE, 2004. 149-171. Print.
• Many rhetoric scholars will argue that there is no rhetorical point in studying memorials or any other visual or artistic object. However, Gallagher’s memorial study is just as rhetorical as that of a scholarly article on a speech or novel. According to rhetoric and composition professors, Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, in their book, Ancient Rhetoric for Contemporary Students, “An ancient teacher of rhetoric named Aristotle defined rhetoric as the power of finding the available arguments suited to a given situation” (Crowley and Hawhee 1). Therefore, if rhetoricians still believe in this stance, Gallagher’s article should be acknowledged as a rhetorical text since she is providing suitable proofs to a particular issue.
• Not only is Gallagher providing ample examples and countering other arguments in this piece, but she is creating “a rhetorical situation” (Crowley and Hawhee 22). A rhetorical situation is important to scholars because it identifies a specific position that needs to be further addressed. According to Crowley and Hawhee, “their [ancient scholars] study [of rhetoric] was preparation for a life of active citizenship” (22). This belief in knowledgeable inhabitants has not changed and it is this notion of education and civic activism that first inspires
• Ethos and Pathos play large roles in this article
• This new field of rhetorical study that Gallagher’s article is championing for is that of visual rhetoric. Crowley and Hawhee define “‘visual rhetoric,’ [as] a branch of rhetorical studies that considers all aspects of the visual-from the persuasive force of images to words and how they function as images” (Crowley and Hawhee 419). In her article, Gallagher writes that “a critic must also analyze the form, substance, and context of artifacts. In terms of museums and memorials, this means paying particular attention to the material nature of the artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 156). In this statement, Gallagher is arguing that monuments must be fully studied since everything from its construction materials, to its lighting features and display either heighten a visitor’s awareness of the issue at hand or not. In other words, the memorials medium, lighting and location can also provide an individual with either a positive or negative feeling or outcome. Gallagher states that “unlike speeches or written texts, memorials ‘remain in our perceptual fields as long as we are nearby. They do not fall silent . . . nor are they put away’” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 156). Thus, Gallagher argues that monuments are continuous rhetorical situations that need to be studied. She believes that the monuments’ contents will be regularly discussed and interpreted by numerous and diverse rhetors whose opinions will reflect the kairos at the time of their presentation or article. Crowley and Hawhee define kairos as an “exact or critical time, season, opportunity” and thus “kairos is not about duration but rather about a certain kind of time” (Crowley and Hawhee 45).
Thursday, November 4, 2010
I have to say that I liked this chapter a lot. I found it very empirical. I could easily relate many of the artificial memory strategies to my daily life. I could do this either because I found them really helpful or because I have used them myself before.
It especially made me think a lot about my daily struggle with memory. For example, I struggle to remember all the things that I have to complete in one day, or to make a phone call, or to bring my grocery list to the grocery store. Before I go to the store, I usually write a list. But, I always forget to bring the list with me. So, since I did not memorize the items I needed (because I wrote them) I always forget something. Crowley and Hawhee’s discussion of organizational memory on page 382 was extremely useful. Next time, I will definitely organize the items alphabetically, and then I will memorize the number of items. That way I can make sure I have all what I needed and it liberates me from the need to remember to bring the list! Another aspect in my life where these strategies can be helpful is with my migraines diary. I suffer from migraines, so I keep a diary of migraines. But every time I get a migraine it is hard for me to write down the details of it. Then, when I go to the diary, many times I have forgotten about it. Thus, I am going to try either organizational memory or the association with images and places.
I also found interesting the importance of repetition and cultural memory. I remember in elementary school, having to memorize the catholic prayers…. It was a requirement for Religion class. I remember struggling to memorize the credo the longest prayer of all. But I finally made it, and I think it was through repetition. Since I used to go to the mass every Sunday, I must have memorized it by repeating it every week. Now, it has been a long time since I don’t go to church, but when I go I still can pray most of prayers, even the longest ones, out of my memory.
This chapter also reminded me of a story that my great grandmother used to tell me. I never memorized it and I have been trying to find it for a very long time with no luck. I remember very well her telling me the story. I remember that I loved to hear it and I remember that it was extremely sad. She had memorized it…. Every time I would ask her to tell me the story she would start telling it without looking at any book. I do not even recall her saying “what was next?”, “hmm… let me think”. Nowadays I regret not having memorized it. Reading this chapter made me regret it even more… I could have used these strategies to memorize it…
When I got to the electronic memory system, I realized that my email is my electronic memory system. I send myself an email every week with my assignments for the week, I create to do lists that I email to myself as well, and gmail has a great tool call tasks. Plus, it also has a calendar tool. My email is my storage for my daily professional and student life. Moreover, it is also the memory of my personal life. It contains emails that I have sent to my closest friends telling them news about my life, or conflicts and difficult situations that I have had to face… It also contains emails where I discuss with my sister issues concerning our family. Since these days everyone has an email address, we could say that each one of us is telling the story of their own lives and storing it in the electronic memory called email account.
Though nowadays we have so many electronic memory tools and they have become intrinsic parts of our lives, I agree with the authors when they say that “it is more accurately to think of electronic memory as a supplement to, or expression of, human memory” (387). I think they are just tools that we use to support our own memory, just like the ones used by Simonides. I don’t think our use of memory will ever disappear. As I have learned in my philosophy class about memory and imagination, memory is at the core of our mental activity, and is fundamental for human experience. Being able to recall our previous experiences and emotions give depth to our daily life.
It especially made me think a lot about my daily struggle with memory. For example, I struggle to remember all the things that I have to complete in one day, or to make a phone call, or to bring my grocery list to the grocery store. Before I go to the store, I usually write a list. But, I always forget to bring the list with me. So, since I did not memorize the items I needed (because I wrote them) I always forget something. Crowley and Hawhee’s discussion of organizational memory on page 382 was extremely useful. Next time, I will definitely organize the items alphabetically, and then I will memorize the number of items. That way I can make sure I have all what I needed and it liberates me from the need to remember to bring the list! Another aspect in my life where these strategies can be helpful is with my migraines diary. I suffer from migraines, so I keep a diary of migraines. But every time I get a migraine it is hard for me to write down the details of it. Then, when I go to the diary, many times I have forgotten about it. Thus, I am going to try either organizational memory or the association with images and places.
I also found interesting the importance of repetition and cultural memory. I remember in elementary school, having to memorize the catholic prayers…. It was a requirement for Religion class. I remember struggling to memorize the credo the longest prayer of all. But I finally made it, and I think it was through repetition. Since I used to go to the mass every Sunday, I must have memorized it by repeating it every week. Now, it has been a long time since I don’t go to church, but when I go I still can pray most of prayers, even the longest ones, out of my memory.
This chapter also reminded me of a story that my great grandmother used to tell me. I never memorized it and I have been trying to find it for a very long time with no luck. I remember very well her telling me the story. I remember that I loved to hear it and I remember that it was extremely sad. She had memorized it…. Every time I would ask her to tell me the story she would start telling it without looking at any book. I do not even recall her saying “what was next?”, “hmm… let me think”. Nowadays I regret not having memorized it. Reading this chapter made me regret it even more… I could have used these strategies to memorize it…
When I got to the electronic memory system, I realized that my email is my electronic memory system. I send myself an email every week with my assignments for the week, I create to do lists that I email to myself as well, and gmail has a great tool call tasks. Plus, it also has a calendar tool. My email is my storage for my daily professional and student life. Moreover, it is also the memory of my personal life. It contains emails that I have sent to my closest friends telling them news about my life, or conflicts and difficult situations that I have had to face… It also contains emails where I discuss with my sister issues concerning our family. Since these days everyone has an email address, we could say that each one of us is telling the story of their own lives and storing it in the electronic memory called email account.
Though nowadays we have so many electronic memory tools and they have become intrinsic parts of our lives, I agree with the authors when they say that “it is more accurately to think of electronic memory as a supplement to, or expression of, human memory” (387). I think they are just tools that we use to support our own memory, just like the ones used by Simonides. I don’t think our use of memory will ever disappear. As I have learned in my philosophy class about memory and imagination, memory is at the core of our mental activity, and is fundamental for human experience. Being able to recall our previous experiences and emotions give depth to our daily life.
Memory
Sorry for the late posting, class. I couldn't find time to use the computer today.
I am struggling with the idea/definition of memory systems. I understand how some of the early discussion points about ancient systems of memory define the concept of a system of memory. Even the organizational memory seems logical. I just don’t feel comfortable with the Literate Memory Systems. How are books considered a form of memory? Sure, it’s systematic…but how is it related to memory? Perhaps I’m using the word too literally, but I just can’t buy it.
I find myself most interested in the relation between writing and memory. The authors say that writers must remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue and they must consider the events of knowledge that might dominate their audiences’ memories. I immediately thought of song writing and the way the role that memory plays. Perhaps the following anecdote will serve to organize my discussion. My goal is to demonstrate the importance of cultural/memory places but also to show that their are some limitations to what we should expect from people. In high school I played in a band, and we were attempting to play a certain style of music that wasn’t very popular. The sound wasn’t commercial, and therefore it was difficult to know what other bands were doing. We were influenced by the bands we would see perform at small venues and would listen to their low-quality, self-produced demo tapes to get ideas. None of us had a “memory place” of this genre. One day I showed up to a practice with a new riff/song intro. As I played it, my friend Jimmy said “That’s the riff from a Joshua Fit For Battle song!” I had never heard JFFB. Jimmy knew about them because he had seen them perform somewhere in Delaware and had their demo. He quickly ran and got the JFFB demo and played it for me. Sure enough, it was EXACTLY the same. The strumming pattern and tempo were identical. Because the genre we were writing music for was so new, no one had a memory place to draw from and compare against. I guess the point of this is…in order to participate (in anything really), we have to know what’s been done. This leads me to authenticity. How closely are memory systems and authenticity linked? And how do these relate to the practice of “thinking on one’s feet”? Because thinking on your feet requires a person to draw information, opinions, experiences, and words from their memory, is there a requirement on authenticity? How can a speaker be certain that they aren’t repeating what someone else is saying or has said? I’m assuming this because an issue of kairos/memory tapping. Does thinking on one’s feet give the speaker more liberty to use, borrow, and adapt because it’s probably an unconscious decision? Or do speakers need to be held to the same standards as a writer?
The ancient memory systems were interesting. I can’t recall being exposed to memory systems as a kid/student, but it seems like it could be valuable. I did, however, find some of it to be a bit excessive. I’m thinking specifically of the “Patricia Smith” example. Is it reasonable to suggest that we consider the following terms just to memorize a name and profession: Chysippos, Pryilampes, Patrician, blacksmith, astron, nautes, and star sailor. On the other hand, I liked the idea of associating an argument to a place, like the example of a house that the book uses. I actually think I could use that as a strategy in my classroom. It’s a way to stay organized without have cue cards or notes. It’s not just effective, but it’s also logical.
Do you remember when...?
I really enjoyed this chapter, and found the section on artificial memory particularly interesting. I have heard that there are various “exercises” for the brain to help keep it functioning strongly, especially as it relates to the elderly, but I’ve never thought of the memory as being “trainable,” through practice. In school we teach students certain “tricks” to help remember content. Students use things such as mnemonic devices, categorization, and music as study strategies, which sounds much like what Simonides offers on page 378. I’m currently reading a book called, Nurture Shock which includes reference to a study which taught students the idea that the brain is a muscle, and that giving it a harder workout makes you smarter. That alone improved their math scores. (Bronson, 17.) This idea makes perfect sense, but I wonder how many teachers spend enough time really instilling this in the students. For something so simple, it seems worth trying!
I wish I had known more about these memory strategies when my tenth-grade U.S. History teacher required his students to memorize the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, word for word, as a written test. If one word was missed, the student received a failing grade. Perhaps he thought that memorizing those documents was the “harder workout” our tenth-grade brains needed, but regardless, it was a temporary “smartness,” as I’m sure that by the time I started eleventh grade, I couldn’t have completed the task.
This bring up another interesting point, which involves what we should spend time “compartmentalizing” or mapping into our memories, and what we should just let pass through. While it seems important to know what the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution represent, I’m not sure the word-for-word memorization warrants storage space. Additionally, I know that I personally have a terrible time with remembering names of people I meet, and an even more difficult time remembering where I know them from. I’m hoping that tonight’s discussion will help to solidify some new ideas to aide my aging brain, in addition to what Crowley and Hawhee have to offer.
Finally, I found the section about memory relating to sleep particularly interesting, as well. Again referencing Nurture Shock, an entire chapter is devoted to, “The Lost Hour.” This chapter states that, “The brain does synthesize some memories during the day, but they’re enhanced and concretized during the night – new inferences and associations are drawn, leading to insights the next day… This is why a good night’s sleep is so important for long-term learning of vocabulary words, times tables, historical dates, and all other factual minutiae.” (Bronson, 35.) Crowley and Hawhee text seems to expand this by stating that, “ The brain is thought to process newly acquired facts, figures and locations most efficiently in deep sleep. (390) While the Bronson research references sleep and memory in children, and C & H’s information focuses on adults, both solidify the connection and importance of sleep as is relates to memory.
I could continue writing, but I’ll save it for tonight’s discussion – there are so many interesting points in this chapter! I’m looking forward to elaborating and collaborating!
Inception of Memories
I would have to say out of all of the chapters, I found this one the most interesting; I had never thought about being able to train or organize one’s memories.
However, as I read through the chapter it began to make more and more sense about the necessity in ancient times, a world without the modern conveniences of computers, databases, and the internet, for memory honed to be an effective and essential component of rhetoric.
This is not to say that these modern advances have rendered the content of this chapter obsolete, but rather it impressed upon me that to be an effective rhetor, you must train your mind to best be able to retain information that you can then easily call up if needed. This most closely displays the notion of memory as “not only a system of recollection, [but rather] a system of invention” (376). Being able to train your mind and memory to remember significant commonplaces, arguments, or proofs can undoubtedly prepare you for any situation. After all for ancients, memories were key in preparing for and delivering their positions, “whenever the need arose to speak or write, they simply retrieved any relevant topics or commentary from their ordered places within memory, reorganized and expanded upon these, and added their own interpretations” (376).
This ability presented here, the ability to think on one’s feet, so to speak, is one that I see lacking in society today. People seem all too apt to take positions, but rarely can articulate the beliefs behind those position statements. This has been made ever apparent in the recent election season. Groups of people are vehemently against candidates or political parties, and often times present misunderstandings or simply misinformation regarding the polices that these factions present. Perhaps here is where the reliance of people on their emotional responses to people or events often trumps the logical analysis of the commonplaces behind a person or situation. It is easier to say that you just dislike something or someone for personal reasons, rather then the core issues presented.
But then are these emotional responses not part of our cultural memory, and thusly still as valuable? Even if we are not able to articulate the reason behind our emotional responses, the fact that, “memories are stocked with many things besides narratives of our experiences; we remember things we learn from [a variety of people and sources], just as well as we remember experiences. Certainly we rely on our memories of all these kinds of teachings whenever we compose” (380). So, here it leads me to believe even in those dreadful arguments or moments where the opposition is unable to provide credible support for their position for which they are so stubbornly convinced, there is still some basis of truth in that position, or at least an element that has so powerfully resonated in this person’s memory that they are adamantly convinced that it is the truth.
Another element that I gravitated to in this reading was the different artificial memory systems that were practiced in ancient times. My favorite one was advancing your memory by “mental construction, consisting of a series of images connected in an orderly fashion to a series of mental places” (378). This immediately reminded me of the recent hit movie, Inception. The idea of constructing memories out of familiar places in order to better retain this information really mimicked some of the plot details of this movie, and I enjoyed examining this information with that film in mind. I guess it helped to make the memory of this reading all the more apparent, thus proving the point of this section!
I will leave with another contemporary example of these memory systems: a FedEx commercial in which the second memory system is illustrated. See you all in class!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FzwuUgg584&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Palace of Memory
Surprising as it may seem given my sports-centric nature, in my time away from the world academia, I read at least a fair amount. Not as much as I used to, given the rigors of graduate study, but still enough to consider myself a rather literate person. One of the books I greatly enjoyed from my junior year of high school on was Thomas Harris’ Hannibal. Having read both Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, I was greatly intrigued at the idea of a tale centered on the enigmatic Hannibal Lecter. In Harris’ Hannibal, Lecter goes to great length to describe a concept that is also alluded to in Crowley & Hawhee’s chapter on memory. The concept both texts have in common is the idea of memories being linked to objects, signs and symbols.
Referred to as a “memory palace” in Hannibal, this idea is one Harris’ text explores in great detail. Harris goes to considerable length to explain that the memory palace was a system used by the ancient historians, namely during the Dark Ages when much history was lost to fire and general ignorance. These historians used the same method Quintillian described as “tappable” memory; they assigned bits of information to objects, items or people they could recognize for easy recall. This allowed them to store much knowledge of history within themselves to preserve it from the informational scourge that was the Dark Ages, storing it until it could be safely physically stored or passed on to the following generation.
In Harris’ text, Lecter not only had his own memory palace, but his served multiple purposes. In addition to having facts and memories keyed to different items throughout the rooms of the palace, Lecter also lived there, as much as one can live within an entirely psychological construct. He used it as an escape from his years on incarceration, a sanctuary from all of the awful things (and inevitable march of time) that happened while he resided in the violent ward of a psychiatric hospital.
I chose this over the other (and more directly-relatable) topics covered in ARCS’ chapter on memory because outside of Hannibal, I’ve never heard of this concept referenced before. The text refers to it as artificial memory, or memory that has been carefully trained to remember things (376). It also explains how Simonides was able to recall the exact places at the table of all the victims in order to identify the bodies following the banquet massacre described in Chapter 11’s introduction.
Of course, as the text describes, memory has less of a significance for us than it did for the ancients, given how technologically inclined we are as a society. In fact, many entertainment media we consume rely on the fact that our emphasis on memory has diminished over time. They count on you to overlook maybe that one character on a long-running series once had a short-lived storyline with another, for example. Or perhaps that a journalist’s ethos was severely damaged after mis-reporting a story, as illustrated in my Mitch Albom-Jason Whitlock example. Maybe it’s as simple as your friend or significant other being friendly with someone who treated them poorly in the past. In any event, memory is a trait that is becoming less and less important to us. This made the topic (especially the ancients usage of it) extremely interesting to me. Memory may be less important to us in this digital age, but we should not allow it to continue to atrophy.
You know what they say about history and memory, after all…
Referred to as a “memory palace” in Hannibal, this idea is one Harris’ text explores in great detail. Harris goes to considerable length to explain that the memory palace was a system used by the ancient historians, namely during the Dark Ages when much history was lost to fire and general ignorance. These historians used the same method Quintillian described as “tappable” memory; they assigned bits of information to objects, items or people they could recognize for easy recall. This allowed them to store much knowledge of history within themselves to preserve it from the informational scourge that was the Dark Ages, storing it until it could be safely physically stored or passed on to the following generation.
In Harris’ text, Lecter not only had his own memory palace, but his served multiple purposes. In addition to having facts and memories keyed to different items throughout the rooms of the palace, Lecter also lived there, as much as one can live within an entirely psychological construct. He used it as an escape from his years on incarceration, a sanctuary from all of the awful things (and inevitable march of time) that happened while he resided in the violent ward of a psychiatric hospital.
I chose this over the other (and more directly-relatable) topics covered in ARCS’ chapter on memory because outside of Hannibal, I’ve never heard of this concept referenced before. The text refers to it as artificial memory, or memory that has been carefully trained to remember things (376). It also explains how Simonides was able to recall the exact places at the table of all the victims in order to identify the bodies following the banquet massacre described in Chapter 11’s introduction.
Of course, as the text describes, memory has less of a significance for us than it did for the ancients, given how technologically inclined we are as a society. In fact, many entertainment media we consume rely on the fact that our emphasis on memory has diminished over time. They count on you to overlook maybe that one character on a long-running series once had a short-lived storyline with another, for example. Or perhaps that a journalist’s ethos was severely damaged after mis-reporting a story, as illustrated in my Mitch Albom-Jason Whitlock example. Maybe it’s as simple as your friend or significant other being friendly with someone who treated them poorly in the past. In any event, memory is a trait that is becoming less and less important to us. This made the topic (especially the ancients usage of it) extremely interesting to me. Memory may be less important to us in this digital age, but we should not allow it to continue to atrophy.
You know what they say about history and memory, after all…
Monday, November 1, 2010
Memory and Ethos Creates for a Winning Combination
First off, I loved this chapter. Hands down this has to be one of the best chapters so far. I also love the fact that I can actually attach a youtube clip of a song entitled “Memories” from the Weber musical “CATS” which actually demonstrates Crowley and Hawhee’s main argument in this chapter. But to be completely honest, I really fell in love with this chapter once Crowley and Hawhee started talking about “Literate Memory Systems” (383). In this section, they are completely talking my language especially when they mention the “Dewey decimal or Library of Congress cataloging systems”(385). Please do not even get me started on the “card catalogues” (385). Talk about memories and their (memories) influence on people, the card catalogues are the reason I am still a reader, writer and student. Last semester, I had to write a literary narrative paper for another Dr. Kearney class and I was amazed at how influential the role of card catalogues played in my literary development.
The real focus of this blog is about the relationship between memory and ethos. While reading this chapter, I could not help but to note how memory can positively or negatively impact the ethos of a rhetor and writer. More importantly, it appears in this chapter that if a person can memorize a great deal of things and successfully reproduce it either in a presentation or written statement that the individual will appear wise and gifted. For example, while at the conference in Savannah, I realized that some of the popular (well-known) and praised speakers were scholars who not only had been attending the organizations joint conference for years but were also the ones who had memorized their papers. These scholars were dynamite and engaging and when asked more in depth questions, they seemed to have been well read and mentioned numerous texts, articles and authors that interested listeners should become familiar with. Indeed, many people would say that is THE scholar on Shakespeare, etc. The reason this person was granted a favorable ethos is the fact that he or she had a fantastic memory and because he or she has provided plenty of examples from numerous texts. (Even in scholarly articles, readers love to see a well written piece that provides enough scholarly and accepted examples to declare that the writer is knowledgeable about his or her topic. For example, if I am writing a thesis on Alcott, you better believe that I will have numerous Madeline Stern examples cited throughout my piece since she is THE ALCOTT Scholar, otherwise, I will risk the rejection of my thesis because I have neglected to involve Stern in my work.). Crowley and Hawhee best summarize this thought when they write that “We often being reading a book by looking at its index, to see if it lists any terms related to our current research or if it lists the names of persons who are important thinkers in the area we are researching” (384).They also write that “Obviously, people who speak in public need reliable memories” since “memory requires an attunement during the moment of speaking or composing, a recognition of the right time for recalling an illustrated examples, argument, and so on” (375). Thus, a person can gain a reputable ethos, like being called a scholar, when he or she demonstrate that he or she has mastered the whole concept of memorization based on the audience’s positive feedback.
However, memorization and a good ethos are not only limited to speeches. Writers also strive to have a likeable ethos so that they can sell books. In the writing world, the ethos scholar is traded for the ethos of best selling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, etc. Thus we see that the most important part of the relationship between memory and favorable ethos is that the “Composition, whether written or oral, would then amount to selection, combination, and amplification of appropriate topics and their variations to suit a particular occasion” (377). Once again, we see that writing and speaking are complex processes that centers on a situational audience. In fact, Crowley and Hawhee write that “writers do have to be able to remember information or to recall where it is located and, more broadly, to remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue before. It is also of a crucial importance to be aware of what events or knowledge might dominate the memories of a particular audience” (375).
This quote made me think about the article I am reading for this class. In the article, “Memory as Social Action. Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials” by Victoria J. Gallagher, Gallagher tries to discuss the importance of the four civil rights monuments in the hope that readers will invest time in going to one or all four so that they can better understand the true history of the civil rights movement in this country. Crowley and Hawhee write that “we remember things we learn from teachers, parents, clergy, relatives and friends, the media and books, just as well as we remember experiences” (380). Thus, Gallagher discusses how these civil rights monuments allow visitors to recall these past events and lessons. She writes that “analyzing the built environment, including public memorials, monuments, and museums existing in the public spaces of urban America, is essential to understanding how cultural artifacts create, sustain and reproduce racial ideologies” (qtd in Sullivan and Goldzwig 150). This statement is suggestive of Crowley and Hawhee’s idea on cultural memory. They write that
“Cultural memory was formed after 9/11 in myriad ways: the continuous replay
on television of the disintegrating towers; photographs of victims pinned to every
available nearby surface-storefronts, telephone poles, fences; widespread praise
for heroic first responders; display of the American flag; expressed admiration for
New Yorkers and how they were able to pull together in the face of such dreadful
circumstances… give rise to new commonplaces or resurrect old ones…”
(Crowley and Hawhee 381).
We can see that these items serve to remind us what happened on that day. Gallagher, Crowley and Hawhee all believe that these items forever impact our lives and the items significance will forever reveal around the respective events (9/11 and the numerous events that occurred during the civil rights movement). Gallagher agrees with Crowley and Hawhee’s cultural memory theory when she writes that “inscribed in a memorial discourse, which both honors the accomplishments and reminds us of the tragic losses accrued during the civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162).
However, Gallagher is aware that some visitors will be unfamiliar with the numerous events of the civil rights movement. She believes that in order to inform a post 60’s student with the commonplaces of the civil rights there needs to be “ an interest in learning about the past, not simply through reading history but also through ‘experiencing’ it via multiple modes … all the sites appeal to the multiple senses, particularly hearing and touch in addition to sight, and they seek to form emotional identification through physical layout, personal narratives, and juxtaposition of symbols and artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). Otherwise, the civil rights memorials and their message will be lost and neglected. She even equates how two negative experiences (near one of the memorials were “several sites commemorating [the] Civil War and Civil War life in Montgomery, including the preserved and restored White House of the Confederacy and the location of the action block were slaves were bought and sold” and her second negative experience involved “two women at the city of Montgomery’s visitors center who, when asked for directions to the civil rights memorial, were quick to assure me that there were other sites more worthy of my time and attention”)influenced her experience at a particular monument and encouraged her to “provide a composite vision of the ongoing nature of racial identity development: education, remembrance, self-reflection, participation, and paradoxically, a break with the past” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162, 165, 171).
Thus, this chapter was an extremely interesting one. It obviously will be playing a large part in my article paper but it also showcases how both writers and rhetors can have a good ethos when they remember to invoke excellent examples and other well known scholars in their work. I love how words can mean thing to one group and different thing to another. Found two interesting tropes (metonymy) in this week’s reading. First off, the mention in the Gallagher article of “the White House of the Confederacy” was charming and priceless (qtd.in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). If she had not added that it was a southern replica it would have confused the reader since most twenty-first century readers associate “‘the White House’ for the president of the United States” (Crowley and Hawhee 357). The second metonymy was the term “stacks” (386). Crowley and Hawhee define stacks as “The rooms and shelves that hold books” (386). For Penn State Harrisburg students, the term stacks can relate to the college’s cafeteria. Embarrassing but sadly true story. Last year was my first year here at PSH and I was walking from the parking lot into Olmstead. I heard some guy talking to another student about meeting up in the stacks later to go over their presentation. I have an old fashion library background and I was dumbfounded as to how the students were going to discuss their project because I knew what stacks meant. Two days later, a student asked me if I knew where stacks was and I said, yes. I told him that stacks are in the library and it appears to be mostly the second and third floors that have the most. The student thanked me and hurried away. I learned later from a fellow student that Stacks was the cafeteria and I was so embarrassed. So now I make it a point to verify what stacks or Stacks are in question.
The real focus of this blog is about the relationship between memory and ethos. While reading this chapter, I could not help but to note how memory can positively or negatively impact the ethos of a rhetor and writer. More importantly, it appears in this chapter that if a person can memorize a great deal of things and successfully reproduce it either in a presentation or written statement that the individual will appear wise and gifted. For example, while at the conference in Savannah, I realized that some of the popular (well-known) and praised speakers were scholars who not only had been attending the organizations joint conference for years but were also the ones who had memorized their papers. These scholars were dynamite and engaging and when asked more in depth questions, they seemed to have been well read and mentioned numerous texts, articles and authors that interested listeners should become familiar with. Indeed, many people would say that is THE scholar on Shakespeare, etc. The reason this person was granted a favorable ethos is the fact that he or she had a fantastic memory and because he or she has provided plenty of examples from numerous texts. (Even in scholarly articles, readers love to see a well written piece that provides enough scholarly and accepted examples to declare that the writer is knowledgeable about his or her topic. For example, if I am writing a thesis on Alcott, you better believe that I will have numerous Madeline Stern examples cited throughout my piece since she is THE ALCOTT Scholar, otherwise, I will risk the rejection of my thesis because I have neglected to involve Stern in my work.). Crowley and Hawhee best summarize this thought when they write that “We often being reading a book by looking at its index, to see if it lists any terms related to our current research or if it lists the names of persons who are important thinkers in the area we are researching” (384).They also write that “Obviously, people who speak in public need reliable memories” since “memory requires an attunement during the moment of speaking or composing, a recognition of the right time for recalling an illustrated examples, argument, and so on” (375). Thus, a person can gain a reputable ethos, like being called a scholar, when he or she demonstrate that he or she has mastered the whole concept of memorization based on the audience’s positive feedback.
However, memorization and a good ethos are not only limited to speeches. Writers also strive to have a likeable ethos so that they can sell books. In the writing world, the ethos scholar is traded for the ethos of best selling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, etc. Thus we see that the most important part of the relationship between memory and favorable ethos is that the “Composition, whether written or oral, would then amount to selection, combination, and amplification of appropriate topics and their variations to suit a particular occasion” (377). Once again, we see that writing and speaking are complex processes that centers on a situational audience. In fact, Crowley and Hawhee write that “writers do have to be able to remember information or to recall where it is located and, more broadly, to remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue before. It is also of a crucial importance to be aware of what events or knowledge might dominate the memories of a particular audience” (375).
This quote made me think about the article I am reading for this class. In the article, “Memory as Social Action. Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials” by Victoria J. Gallagher, Gallagher tries to discuss the importance of the four civil rights monuments in the hope that readers will invest time in going to one or all four so that they can better understand the true history of the civil rights movement in this country. Crowley and Hawhee write that “we remember things we learn from teachers, parents, clergy, relatives and friends, the media and books, just as well as we remember experiences” (380). Thus, Gallagher discusses how these civil rights monuments allow visitors to recall these past events and lessons. She writes that “analyzing the built environment, including public memorials, monuments, and museums existing in the public spaces of urban America, is essential to understanding how cultural artifacts create, sustain and reproduce racial ideologies” (qtd in Sullivan and Goldzwig 150). This statement is suggestive of Crowley and Hawhee’s idea on cultural memory. They write that
“Cultural memory was formed after 9/11 in myriad ways: the continuous replay
on television of the disintegrating towers; photographs of victims pinned to every
available nearby surface-storefronts, telephone poles, fences; widespread praise
for heroic first responders; display of the American flag; expressed admiration for
New Yorkers and how they were able to pull together in the face of such dreadful
circumstances… give rise to new commonplaces or resurrect old ones…”
(Crowley and Hawhee 381).
We can see that these items serve to remind us what happened on that day. Gallagher, Crowley and Hawhee all believe that these items forever impact our lives and the items significance will forever reveal around the respective events (9/11 and the numerous events that occurred during the civil rights movement). Gallagher agrees with Crowley and Hawhee’s cultural memory theory when she writes that “inscribed in a memorial discourse, which both honors the accomplishments and reminds us of the tragic losses accrued during the civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162).
However, Gallagher is aware that some visitors will be unfamiliar with the numerous events of the civil rights movement. She believes that in order to inform a post 60’s student with the commonplaces of the civil rights there needs to be “ an interest in learning about the past, not simply through reading history but also through ‘experiencing’ it via multiple modes … all the sites appeal to the multiple senses, particularly hearing and touch in addition to sight, and they seek to form emotional identification through physical layout, personal narratives, and juxtaposition of symbols and artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). Otherwise, the civil rights memorials and their message will be lost and neglected. She even equates how two negative experiences (near one of the memorials were “several sites commemorating [the] Civil War and Civil War life in Montgomery, including the preserved and restored White House of the Confederacy and the location of the action block were slaves were bought and sold” and her second negative experience involved “two women at the city of Montgomery’s visitors center who, when asked for directions to the civil rights memorial, were quick to assure me that there were other sites more worthy of my time and attention”)influenced her experience at a particular monument and encouraged her to “provide a composite vision of the ongoing nature of racial identity development: education, remembrance, self-reflection, participation, and paradoxically, a break with the past” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162, 165, 171).
Thus, this chapter was an extremely interesting one. It obviously will be playing a large part in my article paper but it also showcases how both writers and rhetors can have a good ethos when they remember to invoke excellent examples and other well known scholars in their work. I love how words can mean thing to one group and different thing to another. Found two interesting tropes (metonymy) in this week’s reading. First off, the mention in the Gallagher article of “the White House of the Confederacy” was charming and priceless (qtd.in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). If she had not added that it was a southern replica it would have confused the reader since most twenty-first century readers associate “‘the White House’ for the president of the United States” (Crowley and Hawhee 357). The second metonymy was the term “stacks” (386). Crowley and Hawhee define stacks as “The rooms and shelves that hold books” (386). For Penn State Harrisburg students, the term stacks can relate to the college’s cafeteria. Embarrassing but sadly true story. Last year was my first year here at PSH and I was walking from the parking lot into Olmstead. I heard some guy talking to another student about meeting up in the stacks later to go over their presentation. I have an old fashion library background and I was dumbfounded as to how the students were going to discuss their project because I knew what stacks meant. Two days later, a student asked me if I knew where stacks was and I said, yes. I told him that stacks are in the library and it appears to be mostly the second and third floors that have the most. The student thanked me and hurried away. I learned later from a fellow student that Stacks was the cafeteria and I was so embarrassed. So now I make it a point to verify what stacks or Stacks are in question.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Making the Most of Memory
I have decided, after reading our text’s discussion of the fourth canon of rhetoric, that if effectiveness as a rhetor relies on memory, I am in deep trouble. I am afraid age, time, information overload, and a number of other factors have had a serious impact on my memory (I appreciated the article on p. 388 that tells us that sleep facilitates memory consolidation, which, I guess, implies what sleep deprivation might do to memory). I must admit that I have listened intently to one of my teenagers’ stories from school, complete with names of people I don’t know, only to realize that later I cannot recall a specific detail of the story they have relayed, much to their disgust. It is not that I have not listened; rather, I believe, this situation represents a purposeful selectivity regarding what is transmitted to memory. Since I have evaluated the information provided and found it to be limited in its capacity to be useful later, I allow it to be quickly and easily forgotten.
So too, if I give credence to the key elements of memory that Crowley and Hawhee point to (concentration, repetitive exposure and association/classification) (379), one can see why these stories do not hold much weight when it comes to my remembering them, as my engagement in these activities during the storytelling is minimal.
I see this at work in my tendency to not remember things told in passing (gossip). Again, because such information seems unimportant, I do not take the time or make the effort to focus, review, or associate the information with something that might relate. This does not mean, however, that if someone mentions some part of the story later I won’t remember, but I would probably not be able to generate the story, or at least the details of it, on my own.
And yet, this chapter did trigger my memory when it came to the discussion of methods recommended for enhancing one’s artificial memory. A number of years ago I was employed part time at a post-secondary technical school, working with underprepared students. Part of their preparation for attending school involved an intensive two-week program of study strategies. Among the topics addressed in the course was memory strategies. Many of the suggestions provided in our text were among the techniques I incorporated in the class. For example, the association process of placing the items to remember in certain locations, which our chapter talks about, was akin to the Memory Walk exercise demonstrated in the class. Students were instructed to envision a familiar place (like a bedroom) and place the ideas or items they wanted to remember in a specific spot in the room. Later, by taking an imaginary walk around the room, they could remember what (and, of course, where) each item was.
Another technique that seems to mimic the concept of ordering that was discussed in our text was a grouping activity we did. Students on one side of the room were given a list of random words and had 2 minutes to study and remember as many as they could. Students on the other side of the room were given the same words and the same amount of time; the difference, however, was that the words with this second group of students were grouped by categories: fruits, weapons, animals, and so on. As one can guess, those with the categorized version of the list had a much higher rate of word recognition than the group with the random list, although those that had the random list who were able to identify categories also did well with their recollections. When I revealed why the students on the one side of the room did better on the task, students saw firsthand the power of memory and the potentiality for training one’s memory.
Still, my favorite memory trick was something called the Peg Method, an association/imagery method, again, similar to those discussed in our text. This method also seems to relate to the idea of organizational memory (382), as it uses a numbering system to order the items and help locate them at a later time. With this technique the rhetor already has a list of key words (pegs) upon which that which he wishes to remember will be hung: One, bun; two, glue; three, tree; four, door; and so on. The incorporation of a rhyme scheme also helps with the memory process. Let’s say I want to remember items to pick up on the way home from work. I would draw a picture in my head as I make an association between my peg and what I want to remember. Let’s say my list includes ketchup, bread, lettuce and bananas. I might imagine a bun (one, bun) filled with ketchup (the hotdog is missing). To remember the bread I would see myself with slices of bread stuck to my body (two, glue – the slices are glued to me). The lettuce would be the leaves on the tree (three, tree), and the bananas might be imagined as a wreath hanging on the door (four, door). As the text notes, “Teachers recommended that the images be vivid and strange enough to be remember easily…” (378), and these examples tend to satisfy this suggestion.
I usually demonstrated this technique to my class by asking them to give me twelve different items at the beginning of our class on memory. I didn’t tell them why. Using the Peg Method, I created my memorable associations for the words I was given. About three hours into the four-hour class, I would go to the whiteboard and write the 12 words on the board, much to the amazement of the class. When I then gave them the explanation of how I was able to remember these random items, they quickly realized that they too could train themselves to remember in this way. This method is one I still use when I have a number of things to remember, particularly if they are unrelated. I supposed that even though my gray matter is getting grayer, it, too, can still be trained.
The importance of artificial memory rings true for me when I consider my mother. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a number of years ago, her natural memory fails her more and more each day. To help her maintain some memory capacity, she attends sessions daily where she is taken through activities that help to stimulate artificial memory. These activities utilize some of the same key elements of memory that were discussed in chapter 11 and which are the basis of many of the memory techniques mentioned: concentration, repetitive exposure, association, classification, visual stimulation.
Moving on to other ideas from the chapter, the notion of memory as invention made a lot of sense as well (376). As I read this section of the chapter, I immediately thought back to when my children were little and would ask me to tell them a story. From my memories, constructed heavily by both narratives of my own experiences and what Crowley and Hawhee refer to as cultural memory (380), I could locate story ideas, interpret them in a way that would be meaningful for the children, organize them logically, and expand them in such a way as to create an entertaining tale.
I am often called to do something similar in the classroom when I need an example that will help clarify a concept I am teaching. Drawing on memory, I am able to locate a fitting example, interpret it as it relates to the concept, expand on it in an effort to make the message as clear as possible and present it in a manner that is organizationally sound. This example of the inventive nature of memory also seems to tie in well with the idea of kairos and memory that Crowley and Hawhee address. This particular moment/need for an example allows me to pull on the information that I have gathered previously, recognize its relevance to the current situation, and use it effectively to make my point. This inventive process is possible through our reliance on memory. I even think this inventive feature of memory is, in part, what allowed us to handle the laborious task of figuring out the maxims we looked at in last week’s class despite the challenging, unfamiliar wording.
And while today we do have the ability to store massive amounts of information through both written and electronic forms, I cannot stop thinking that such literate and electronic memory systems affect our natural ability to remember. How often do we hear the adage use it, or lose it. A trip to the grocery store will provide an apt example of what can happen when we allow ourselves to rely on these literate or electronic memory systems (consider the clerk who can’t make change when the electronic memory system is faulty). Likewise, when the need for a specific piece of information arises, one does not always have the time or the proper electronic equipment at the given moment to be able to look the needed information up. So while these literate and electronic memory systems have sort of taken the pressure off our personal memory systems, natural and artificial memory systems are still vitally important.
In concluding my comments on this chapter, I return to the story presented at the beginning of chapter 11. I cannot recollect (proof of my natural memory’s failings perhaps) where I had heard or read the story of Simonides, but I immediately recognized my familiarity with it. While fable-like in its presentation, it certainly summarizes well the most prominent theme of this chapter: the power of memory.
So too, if I give credence to the key elements of memory that Crowley and Hawhee point to (concentration, repetitive exposure and association/classification) (379), one can see why these stories do not hold much weight when it comes to my remembering them, as my engagement in these activities during the storytelling is minimal.
I see this at work in my tendency to not remember things told in passing (gossip). Again, because such information seems unimportant, I do not take the time or make the effort to focus, review, or associate the information with something that might relate. This does not mean, however, that if someone mentions some part of the story later I won’t remember, but I would probably not be able to generate the story, or at least the details of it, on my own.
And yet, this chapter did trigger my memory when it came to the discussion of methods recommended for enhancing one’s artificial memory. A number of years ago I was employed part time at a post-secondary technical school, working with underprepared students. Part of their preparation for attending school involved an intensive two-week program of study strategies. Among the topics addressed in the course was memory strategies. Many of the suggestions provided in our text were among the techniques I incorporated in the class. For example, the association process of placing the items to remember in certain locations, which our chapter talks about, was akin to the Memory Walk exercise demonstrated in the class. Students were instructed to envision a familiar place (like a bedroom) and place the ideas or items they wanted to remember in a specific spot in the room. Later, by taking an imaginary walk around the room, they could remember what (and, of course, where) each item was.
Another technique that seems to mimic the concept of ordering that was discussed in our text was a grouping activity we did. Students on one side of the room were given a list of random words and had 2 minutes to study and remember as many as they could. Students on the other side of the room were given the same words and the same amount of time; the difference, however, was that the words with this second group of students were grouped by categories: fruits, weapons, animals, and so on. As one can guess, those with the categorized version of the list had a much higher rate of word recognition than the group with the random list, although those that had the random list who were able to identify categories also did well with their recollections. When I revealed why the students on the one side of the room did better on the task, students saw firsthand the power of memory and the potentiality for training one’s memory.
Still, my favorite memory trick was something called the Peg Method, an association/imagery method, again, similar to those discussed in our text. This method also seems to relate to the idea of organizational memory (382), as it uses a numbering system to order the items and help locate them at a later time. With this technique the rhetor already has a list of key words (pegs) upon which that which he wishes to remember will be hung: One, bun; two, glue; three, tree; four, door; and so on. The incorporation of a rhyme scheme also helps with the memory process. Let’s say I want to remember items to pick up on the way home from work. I would draw a picture in my head as I make an association between my peg and what I want to remember. Let’s say my list includes ketchup, bread, lettuce and bananas. I might imagine a bun (one, bun) filled with ketchup (the hotdog is missing). To remember the bread I would see myself with slices of bread stuck to my body (two, glue – the slices are glued to me). The lettuce would be the leaves on the tree (three, tree), and the bananas might be imagined as a wreath hanging on the door (four, door). As the text notes, “Teachers recommended that the images be vivid and strange enough to be remember easily…” (378), and these examples tend to satisfy this suggestion.
I usually demonstrated this technique to my class by asking them to give me twelve different items at the beginning of our class on memory. I didn’t tell them why. Using the Peg Method, I created my memorable associations for the words I was given. About three hours into the four-hour class, I would go to the whiteboard and write the 12 words on the board, much to the amazement of the class. When I then gave them the explanation of how I was able to remember these random items, they quickly realized that they too could train themselves to remember in this way. This method is one I still use when I have a number of things to remember, particularly if they are unrelated. I supposed that even though my gray matter is getting grayer, it, too, can still be trained.
The importance of artificial memory rings true for me when I consider my mother. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a number of years ago, her natural memory fails her more and more each day. To help her maintain some memory capacity, she attends sessions daily where she is taken through activities that help to stimulate artificial memory. These activities utilize some of the same key elements of memory that were discussed in chapter 11 and which are the basis of many of the memory techniques mentioned: concentration, repetitive exposure, association, classification, visual stimulation.
Moving on to other ideas from the chapter, the notion of memory as invention made a lot of sense as well (376). As I read this section of the chapter, I immediately thought back to when my children were little and would ask me to tell them a story. From my memories, constructed heavily by both narratives of my own experiences and what Crowley and Hawhee refer to as cultural memory (380), I could locate story ideas, interpret them in a way that would be meaningful for the children, organize them logically, and expand them in such a way as to create an entertaining tale.
I am often called to do something similar in the classroom when I need an example that will help clarify a concept I am teaching. Drawing on memory, I am able to locate a fitting example, interpret it as it relates to the concept, expand on it in an effort to make the message as clear as possible and present it in a manner that is organizationally sound. This example of the inventive nature of memory also seems to tie in well with the idea of kairos and memory that Crowley and Hawhee address. This particular moment/need for an example allows me to pull on the information that I have gathered previously, recognize its relevance to the current situation, and use it effectively to make my point. This inventive process is possible through our reliance on memory. I even think this inventive feature of memory is, in part, what allowed us to handle the laborious task of figuring out the maxims we looked at in last week’s class despite the challenging, unfamiliar wording.
And while today we do have the ability to store massive amounts of information through both written and electronic forms, I cannot stop thinking that such literate and electronic memory systems affect our natural ability to remember. How often do we hear the adage use it, or lose it. A trip to the grocery store will provide an apt example of what can happen when we allow ourselves to rely on these literate or electronic memory systems (consider the clerk who can’t make change when the electronic memory system is faulty). Likewise, when the need for a specific piece of information arises, one does not always have the time or the proper electronic equipment at the given moment to be able to look the needed information up. So while these literate and electronic memory systems have sort of taken the pressure off our personal memory systems, natural and artificial memory systems are still vitally important.
In concluding my comments on this chapter, I return to the story presented at the beginning of chapter 11. I cannot recollect (proof of my natural memory’s failings perhaps) where I had heard or read the story of Simonides, but I immediately recognized my familiarity with it. While fable-like in its presentation, it certainly summarizes well the most prominent theme of this chapter: the power of memory.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
When I was an undergraduate, we had a class called Advanced Composition. I was most excited for this class at the outset of the semester, as I enjoy writing and figured I'd develop a natural rapport with both the professor and the material.
Oof. Was I ever incorrect.
The main focus of Advanced Composition was on grammatical history and usage. Don't all gasp in excitement at once. I had an extremely hard time getting interested in the course work, as I found it very dry and banal. That's why I found this chapter in ARCS so hard to delve into. Things were often broken down into the sentence level or smaller, which was difficult for me to gel with. Things like the antistrophe and an isovolon were very tough on me not only to understand but also to stay interested in. The example on page 337 describing the compound-complex sentence in particular gave me fits. This wasn't what I expected from a chapter on style, to be sure.
It's possible such concepts are difficult for me to enjoy because I don't entirely understand them. I don't know where I was mentally when grammar was taught in my formative years, but it certainly wasn't in the classroom. I have no idea what articles are, prepositions/prepositional phrases are foreign concepts to me, and generally I wouldn't be fit to teach writing to a third grader.
To me, writing has always been just something that happens intrinsically. I don't draft, I don't brainstorm, and I don't have a process. I sit down in front of a computer and just let my mind come out through my fingers. Maybe it's because I was in therapy a bunch when I was a teenager. I didn't really start writing (well, at least anything of value) until afterwards. But I did read a great deal when I was young. I even fell asleep to audiobooks around the age of six, something I still do to this day, much to my fiancee's chagrin.
I really don't know the rules of the game we call writing. I just know internally what sounds/looks right to me. If something looks or seems awkward to me, I can tell it's probably wrong. I know not to overuse punctuation and to vary my vocabulary, but most of the rules of writing I'm familiar with (either via instruction or immersing myself in the medium) are stylistic. Or at least I believed they were.
That's why my difficulty with this chapter was so vexing. I love style. I suppose it turns out I love arrangement more. Based on this definition of style, it's hard for me to plow through the pages, let alone have my mind absorb (even rougher: to understand) the concepts Crowley & Hawhee present in this chapter. It's one of those things I've shirked for so long that I think (unfortunately) that my brain is too set into its rigid pattern. What sounds right likely is and what doesn't isn't. I can't explain why rationally. Jaclyn always asks me how the hell I can write without basic knowledge of the building blocks of writing. She can't wrap her head around the fact that I don't even know what said blocks are called, let alone how they function, and yet I can be a decent writer.
I never really have an answer for her. I just can do it. It makes me wonder: Is writing better served as an intrinsic function of expression, as mine seems to be, or something that can be broken down, quantified and taught systematically?
I'm not sure of the answer to that. I know how I lean, but I'm obviously biased. It'll be something I hope comes up in class discussion this evening, that's for sure.
Oof. Was I ever incorrect.
The main focus of Advanced Composition was on grammatical history and usage. Don't all gasp in excitement at once. I had an extremely hard time getting interested in the course work, as I found it very dry and banal. That's why I found this chapter in ARCS so hard to delve into. Things were often broken down into the sentence level or smaller, which was difficult for me to gel with. Things like the antistrophe and an isovolon were very tough on me not only to understand but also to stay interested in. The example on page 337 describing the compound-complex sentence in particular gave me fits. This wasn't what I expected from a chapter on style, to be sure.
It's possible such concepts are difficult for me to enjoy because I don't entirely understand them. I don't know where I was mentally when grammar was taught in my formative years, but it certainly wasn't in the classroom. I have no idea what articles are, prepositions/prepositional phrases are foreign concepts to me, and generally I wouldn't be fit to teach writing to a third grader.
To me, writing has always been just something that happens intrinsically. I don't draft, I don't brainstorm, and I don't have a process. I sit down in front of a computer and just let my mind come out through my fingers. Maybe it's because I was in therapy a bunch when I was a teenager. I didn't really start writing (well, at least anything of value) until afterwards. But I did read a great deal when I was young. I even fell asleep to audiobooks around the age of six, something I still do to this day, much to my fiancee's chagrin.
I really don't know the rules of the game we call writing. I just know internally what sounds/looks right to me. If something looks or seems awkward to me, I can tell it's probably wrong. I know not to overuse punctuation and to vary my vocabulary, but most of the rules of writing I'm familiar with (either via instruction or immersing myself in the medium) are stylistic. Or at least I believed they were.
That's why my difficulty with this chapter was so vexing. I love style. I suppose it turns out I love arrangement more. Based on this definition of style, it's hard for me to plow through the pages, let alone have my mind absorb (even rougher: to understand) the concepts Crowley & Hawhee present in this chapter. It's one of those things I've shirked for so long that I think (unfortunately) that my brain is too set into its rigid pattern. What sounds right likely is and what doesn't isn't. I can't explain why rationally. Jaclyn always asks me how the hell I can write without basic knowledge of the building blocks of writing. She can't wrap her head around the fact that I don't even know what said blocks are called, let alone how they function, and yet I can be a decent writer.
I never really have an answer for her. I just can do it. It makes me wonder: Is writing better served as an intrinsic function of expression, as mine seems to be, or something that can be broken down, quantified and taught systematically?
I'm not sure of the answer to that. I know how I lean, but I'm obviously biased. It'll be something I hope comes up in class discussion this evening, that's for sure.
Chapter 10
As always…here’s my unorganized observations about the chapter: Now I know how my students feel at times – enough with the jargon. “Clarity”, “Correctness”, “Appropriateness”, “Style”, “Composition” are thrown around English classrooms and departments every day, but they certainly don’t carry the weight and specificity that Crowley and Hawhee’s usage does. Circumlocutions remind me a bit of euphemism, and I’m not sure I could define the difference between the two. Colloquialisms on the other hand, are easily distinguished. I try to avoid using that word in my class because it always gets me tongue tied. I know its meaning and how to say it, but I always mess it up. ON a side note: one of the characters in the show I was watching last night used to word, and I was impressed to hear it in TV dialogue.
The association of Kairos and style is a bit unclear to me, but I think it stems from my idea of appropriateness and balance. I understand the concept of balance in an argument, but how is that an issue of Kairos? In this same section, there is discussion about a rhetor’s sensitivity to community standards of behavior. While it is necessary to consider subject, occasion, and audience, I feel that this sometimes limits to potential of student writers. Students are often required to write for an audience that is not necessarily authentic. What is appropriate isn’t always as effective, so there are some limitations in instructing students to guide their appropriateness.
The paragraph on tropes made me think of Yoda. Isn’t Yoda practicing the type of trope that the authors call “rare?” The Churchill example has a motive and Yoda’s probably doesn’t, but is the goal about the outcome or the act of transferring words or phrases from their proper place to another? The second type, the one that transfers the meaning/significance of a word is much more common. As the chapter provides more specific types of and definitions for tropes, I was shocked at how little I actually know. I teach about and develop students’ use and understanding or a few of the tropes, but I felt ignorant as I read on. Even though I might have recognized them or referred to them as something different, here are the terms I never use: Antonomasia, periphrasis, hyperbation, catachresis. That’s 60% proficiency!
I hope to explore some of these devices and rhetorical tools in class tonight, because I’ve got much to learn. I look forward to tonight’s discussions. See you soon.
Rhetorical Style in Carranguera Music
This week’s chapter “Style: Composition and Ornament” made me think all the time about Colombian singer and songwriter Jorge Velosa. My research project in the HUM 500 class is about him. It was inevitable for me to make the connections of this week’s topic with his lyrics, music, and, in some way, philosophy. At the end of the 1970’s, Jorge Velosa got together with his friend Javier Moreno and decided to rescue the traditional music of the Andean region in Colombia. Together, they created a new kind of music that took the traditional instruments and rhythms of this particular region of Colombia and incorporated them with innovative lyrics. They named it Carranga or Carranguera. Throughout the years Carranguera music has consolidated as a new music genre.
The first connection I established between Velosa’s music and this week’s chapter was the discussion about kairos. Velosa’s lyrics show his awareness of kairos. Plato defines kairos as “the nature of the subject matter, the general attitudes and backgrounds of the audience”(331). Velosa’s music is created for the Andean peasants, and they are about their own lives and experiences. In his lyrics, Velosa tells anecdotes and quotidian situations that the peasants experience in their daily lives. A Carranga songwriter cited by Renato Paone in his dissertation La musica carranguera says “any situation of daily life can be sung by carranga. Carrangueros composers explain that all the songs are born of their own lives, their experiences and memories”. I think it is important to mention Velosa’s ethos. He is telling stories about the peasant’s lives, and he is himself a peasant. Even though he went to college and majored in veterinary, he was born in a small Andean town and was raised there by his peasant parents. Thus, he has experienced the stories he tells, he has lived them himself and the peasants admire him and enjoy his music for that.
At first, I thought that Velosa’s lyrics were written in a plain and simple style. Crowley and Hawhee affirm that this style uses “every day language” (333) which is what Velosa does. When you listen to his songs, you feel like you were listening to a peasant talk. He uses a lot of idioms and colloquial expressions that are typical of this region and its culture. These strong oral features of his lyrics are reinforced by the selection of the words he uses and the syntax of the sentences. As Crowley and Hawhee state it is “almost as though it were conversation” (333).
Although his lyrics use everyday language and syntax, they also use ornament. Thus, it could be also classified as middle style (333). In fact, his lyrics are composed in the form of coplas. The copla is a poetic composition that is frequently used in popular songs. Being a poetic form, coplas use figurative language. Velosa’s lyrics use many hyperbatons since he uses a particular word order when composing his sentences. He also uses personification when telling the story of “La pirinola”, a cow that drowns in a small creek in a way that is very common in this region. His lyrics also have sometimes a satiric tone. In these cases, he uses euphemisms or metonymy to exaggerate and make fun of situations. Additionally, his lyrics have metaphors, similes and hyperbaton. He uses these tropes to describe the landscapes, the main characters of his stories and the events that happen to them.
All in all, I thought that Velosa’s Carranguera music was a good example of a particular style that follows a specific kind of composition and ornament having, above all, its audience in mind. This particular style is the one that has permitted the peasants to identify themselves with this music, and feel it and enjoy it as with any other.
The first connection I established between Velosa’s music and this week’s chapter was the discussion about kairos. Velosa’s lyrics show his awareness of kairos. Plato defines kairos as “the nature of the subject matter, the general attitudes and backgrounds of the audience”(331). Velosa’s music is created for the Andean peasants, and they are about their own lives and experiences. In his lyrics, Velosa tells anecdotes and quotidian situations that the peasants experience in their daily lives. A Carranga songwriter cited by Renato Paone in his dissertation La musica carranguera says “any situation of daily life can be sung by carranga. Carrangueros composers explain that all the songs are born of their own lives, their experiences and memories”. I think it is important to mention Velosa’s ethos. He is telling stories about the peasant’s lives, and he is himself a peasant. Even though he went to college and majored in veterinary, he was born in a small Andean town and was raised there by his peasant parents. Thus, he has experienced the stories he tells, he has lived them himself and the peasants admire him and enjoy his music for that.
At first, I thought that Velosa’s lyrics were written in a plain and simple style. Crowley and Hawhee affirm that this style uses “every day language” (333) which is what Velosa does. When you listen to his songs, you feel like you were listening to a peasant talk. He uses a lot of idioms and colloquial expressions that are typical of this region and its culture. These strong oral features of his lyrics are reinforced by the selection of the words he uses and the syntax of the sentences. As Crowley and Hawhee state it is “almost as though it were conversation” (333).
Although his lyrics use everyday language and syntax, they also use ornament. Thus, it could be also classified as middle style (333). In fact, his lyrics are composed in the form of coplas. The copla is a poetic composition that is frequently used in popular songs. Being a poetic form, coplas use figurative language. Velosa’s lyrics use many hyperbatons since he uses a particular word order when composing his sentences. He also uses personification when telling the story of “La pirinola”, a cow that drowns in a small creek in a way that is very common in this region. His lyrics also have sometimes a satiric tone. In these cases, he uses euphemisms or metonymy to exaggerate and make fun of situations. Additionally, his lyrics have metaphors, similes and hyperbaton. He uses these tropes to describe the landscapes, the main characters of his stories and the events that happen to them.
All in all, I thought that Velosa’s Carranguera music was a good example of a particular style that follows a specific kind of composition and ornament having, above all, its audience in mind. This particular style is the one that has permitted the peasants to identify themselves with this music, and feel it and enjoy it as with any other.
Chapter 10 Thoughts
Lots of ideas jumped out at me in this chapter. I'd like to start by discussing my thoughts on the trope, metonymy. I've always been interested in how regularly the media use metonymy in articles and headlines. For example just a quick Google search of the term White House yields some of the following results:
* Child Soldiers Backlash: White House argues continuing military assistance more important than enforcing law.
* White House Takes A Stand Against School Bullying
* White House Awards $2.4 Billion for Rail Projects
...just to name a few. If a person is not familiar with the use of metonymy, I can imagine the confusion created by use of this trope. To them, the building known as the White House literally argued with someone that military assistance is more important law enforcement. Or that the White House itself actually stood up on legs against school bullying. Or that the White House actually went to an ATM or got out its checkbook and wrote a check in the amount of $2.4 billion for rail projects. That's actually what the house wrote in the Memo.
When I used to work for the Department of Public Welfare in Chester County, we had to get things approved by individuals in higher supervisory positions based out of the DPW offices in Harrisburg. When I would take eligibility issues which I couldn't approve to my supervisors, once realizing this was out of their control too, they would say, "We need to call Harrisburg and have this approved by them." I obviously knew what they meant, but I used to always joke around with my supervisor and ask, "So am I calling the actually city of Harrisburg and having this giant monster-like creature in a city costume answer the phone and approve my eligibility issue? Or do you mean calling someone within the eligibility department, which just so happens to be in the City of Harrisburg??" I used to get the 'quit-being-a-smart-ass' look from my supervisor all the time.
Another favorite trope is the antonomasia. Since I am a music lover, there are tons of antonomasias in the music world. The Chairman of the Board, The Boss, The King of Pop, The Godfather of Soul, The Queen of Soul. If you Google search the terms exactly as I wrote them (and as they are commonly known), you get the following in order: Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.
In Wikipedia, this isn't known as antonomasia, it's known as Honorific Music Nicknames. Which is basically an antonomasia for antonomasia: nickname.
* Child Soldiers Backlash: White House argues continuing military assistance more important than enforcing law.
* White House Takes A Stand Against School Bullying
* White House Awards $2.4 Billion for Rail Projects
...just to name a few. If a person is not familiar with the use of metonymy, I can imagine the confusion created by use of this trope. To them, the building known as the White House literally argued with someone that military assistance is more important law enforcement. Or that the White House itself actually stood up on legs against school bullying. Or that the White House actually went to an ATM or got out its checkbook and wrote a check in the amount of $2.4 billion for rail projects. That's actually what the house wrote in the Memo.
When I used to work for the Department of Public Welfare in Chester County, we had to get things approved by individuals in higher supervisory positions based out of the DPW offices in Harrisburg. When I would take eligibility issues which I couldn't approve to my supervisors, once realizing this was out of their control too, they would say, "We need to call Harrisburg and have this approved by them." I obviously knew what they meant, but I used to always joke around with my supervisor and ask, "So am I calling the actually city of Harrisburg and having this giant monster-like creature in a city costume answer the phone and approve my eligibility issue? Or do you mean calling someone within the eligibility department, which just so happens to be in the City of Harrisburg??" I used to get the 'quit-being-a-smart-ass' look from my supervisor all the time.
Another favorite trope is the antonomasia. Since I am a music lover, there are tons of antonomasias in the music world. The Chairman of the Board, The Boss, The King of Pop, The Godfather of Soul, The Queen of Soul. If you Google search the terms exactly as I wrote them (and as they are commonly known), you get the following in order: Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin.
In Wikipedia, this isn't known as antonomasia, it's known as Honorific Music Nicknames. Which is basically an antonomasia for antonomasia: nickname.
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