Mommy learns to write

1. Mommy learns to write By Laura HarriS

2. Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a working mother who decided that she was tired of her job. Becoming a writerhad always been appealing to her, so she decided to go back to college. When she told her children. . .

3. They all had something to say… Homework all the time. Welcome to my life. That is dumb. You won’t get a job. You go girl! Great. She won’t have time to bug me about playing video games. Why do you wantto go to school?

4. Why did she want to go to school?

5. I want to go to school because I want to learn how to be a better writer and to use rhetoric to present my ideas better. Red Rick. What is that?

6. Good question. Men have been trying to figure out what rhet-or-ic “is” for thousands of years. Our understanding of rhetoric today comes from the things these men taught.

7. People started talking about rhetoric a long time ago in a place called Greece.

8. Rhetoric has to do with expressing your thoughts well. Sometimes Greek citizens had to go to court without lawyers and they didn’t know how to say the right things to get what they wanted. A man named Corax wrote a book to teach the people how to share their thoughts more clearly. He taught the people that speeches had three parts: an introduction, an argument, and a conclusion. If a person wrote a speech with these three parts, then he would be expressing his thoughts well.

9. This rhetoric idea caught on. Other Greeks started talking about it. There were not any video games back then, so people liked to talk about ideas in their spare time.

10. Another Greek who taught about rhetoric was Potagoras of Abdera, who said there is no such thing as absolute truth. Every different situation determines what is true. He thought that a good argument, or rhetoric, changed according to the situation. Rhetoric could be used to prove something right or wrong.

11. What did he mean by that?

12. He meant that sometimes the right answer to a question depends on the situation. For example, if you are crossing a street, the right time to cross is after you have looked both ways to see that no cars are coming. The wrong time to cross the street is when you see a car coming. I understand. There is a right and a wrong time to cross the street. It is right when you are following the safety rules.

13. You are starting to understand this rhetoric idea.

14. There were other Greek teachers who talked about rhetoric. Men like Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Plato Isocrates Aristotle

15. Isocrates believed that politics and rhetoric could not be separated. He thought people who gave good speeches should help run the country or should at least talk about good ideas for the country. Rhetoric was giving good speeches to influence people.

16. Plato was a student of a famous Greek teacher named Socrates. He had a school that he called “The Academy.” At his school, he taught philosophy, which is the study of why we think and do things. He also taught that we should use facts in our speeches and when we write. • He did not think like Isocrates that right and wrong depended on the circumstances. He thought the best rhetoric was based on knowing truth and how people act, which he called human nature. Rhetoric was making a good argument using facts and things we know about how people behave.

17. Aristotle was a student of Plato and wrote an important book called Rhetoric. He identified the major canons of rhetoric: invention, organization, elocution, delivery, and memory.

18. He made cannons. Cool!

19. No, he did not make cannons, though that would have been really cool. He gave us tools to use so we would know how to say things that would get people to do or to think a certain way or even understand us better. Aristotle’s canons, or tools, help us to give good speeches.

20. Aristotle’s tools included: • Invention—That means having a really good idea. • Organization—Putting that idea down on paper so other people can understand what you are talking about. • Elocution—That means giving some pizzazz to your speech or being excited about your message. • Delivery—Doing a good job talking in front of people. • Memory—Remembering to use all the great ideas you thought of. Rhetoric is using tools to help you express your ideas well.

21. This is all complicated stuff. Rhetoric is hard to learn without studying. This is one of the reasons that I am going to school.

22. The Romans taught us about rhetoric, too.

23. Who were the Romans? The Romans were great conquerors who fought many battles and controlled a lot of countries. They were in power for hundreds of years. They also liked to dress up really fancy and give speeches.

24. Cicero was one of those fancy dressing Romans who liked to give speeches. • He thought speeches should be fancy like Roman clothes. • Speeches were either: • Plain which meant they used simple words and were about simple things, • Moderate which meant they used a little bit bigger words and talked about more things, or • Grand and used really big words and talked about all kinds of great ideas. • Rhetoric was thought to be the use of fancy words to win an argument.

25. The Romans didn’t stay in power forever, though. During the Middle Ages, people in the church had a lot of power. St. Augustine was a preacher who taught about rhetoric. He thought that preachers needed to teach in an interesting way that made people feel good. Rhetoric was used in letter writing and they even taught it in schools during this time. Rhetoric was teaching in an interesting way that made people feel good.

26. People didn’t think rhetoric was important during the Renaissance period. They were more interested in logic which means using factsto win an argument. Rhetoric was thought to be the use of fancy words to win an argument when you didn’t have good information.

27. This is Sir Francis Bacon. Doesn’t he look elegant? He liked to dress fancy, but he didn’t like all the fancy talk he found in rhetoric. He thought that you should study things to determine what is right and wrong. Rhetoric was thought of as something used to trick people into thinking something instead of letting them figure it out for themselves.

28. Nowadays, people realize how important rhetoric is and how it can be used as a tool to help make ideas better understood and to share information. People use what was taught by the Greeks, the Romans, and other great teachers to help them better express their ideas. There are still some people, however, who think that rhetoric is just a bunch of fancy words used to win an argument.

29. What is rhetoric? Rhetoric is talking and writing smart. It is using tools to help us write and speak better so people understand what we are trying to say. It also helps us get what we want. Like a treat before dinner. Maybe I will go to school and learn about rhetoric, too.

30. The END