Throughout her book, Cindy Johanek portrays a near-crisis situation in the field of rhetoric and composition: she laments the "prominent place" of anecdotal evidence that belies "our rejection of the quantitative," and warns us that the "near-abandonment of research that seeks and analyzes numerical data" will divide us "further into the more private worlds of personal stories" (11). She argues for an inclusive paradigm in composition and rhetoric studies, one that focuses on the type of research the field needs versus the kind we like. And she assumes that what we like is bad for the field. Many readers will find the arguments over paradigms, current-traditional rhetoric, and quantitative/qualitative debates familiar, but Johanek takes a uniquely strident approach in championing the neglected realms of empirical research.
Rhetoric and Composition is a featured book on Wikibooks because it contains substantial content, it is well-formatted, and the Wikibooks community has decided to feature it on the main page or in other places.This wikitext is designed for use as a textbook in first-year college composition programs.This book is written as a practical guide for students struggling to bring their writing up to the level expected of them by their professors and instructors.This book is written by real college writers who know what it takes to earn an A on their writing projects.
This ambitious new encyclopedia covers rhetoric from all times and places in some 200 signed entries by 120 scholarly contributors from around the world. Bibliographies are appended to each article, and the index and a Synoptic Outline of Contents provide fine access points. Typical articles include "Public Speaking," "Queer Rhetoric," "Synecdoche," and "Science." This work abstracts rhetoric from people, places, and cultures in search of the "principles" of rhetoric, excluding, for example, entries for relevant historical figures. This emphasis on the abstract differentiates it from the Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition (Garland, 1996), which has more than twice as many entries in about the same number of pages and includes, for example, entries for people. Though these two excellent books often duplicate each other, both include information and insights not found in the other. Libraries serving patrons concerned with the art and history of rhetoric should have both. Given the high price of both books, other libraries will have to choose between the practicality of the older one and the more theoretical emphasis of the newer one.
A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture) Edited by Wendy Olmsted and Walter Jost A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical
Criticism offers the first major survey in two decades of the field of
rhetorical studies and of the practice of rhetorical theory and
criticism across a range of disciplines. The contributions are written
by leading scholars from a variety of different fields and have all
been specially commissioned for this volume. They focus on specific
works, problems, or figures, pursuing theory and criticism from an
engaged and practical perspective. The volume also includes an overview
of rhetorical traditions, providing examples of rhetoric from ancient
times to the present day. Designed to be accessible to a range of
students and scholars, A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism
elaborates in fascinating ways just what it means to "think like a
rhetorician." (Amazon.com).
Global Metaphors: Modernity and the Quest for One World
The advent of the twentieth century saw an incredible advance in scientific technology. By the inter-war period of the 1920s and early 1930s cars, planes and radios were a part of everyday life, and science became a popular cult for a new age. Faith in science surged amidst an atmosphere of intellectual and social crisis.
Jo-Anne Pemberton looks in detail at the rhetoric used by the political classes of the time that propagated a vision of a new global unity, and reveals the way in which those same metaphors and imagery are used today in the rhetoric of globalization. Then, as now, the idea of "one world" was challenged by notions of manyness and multiplicity.
Drawing parallels between then and now, "Global Metaphors" reveals how much of the appeal of globalization rhetoric relies on shimmering technological fantasies about the future. Today this also incorporates images of the environment which are used to reinforce the idea of an interconnected world. While this seductive imagery is impelled at one level by the romance of scientific invention, Pemberton reveals the way in which it is also used to cement particular political, economic and cultural interests as universal goods. Arguing that our current debate about globalization is in effect a rerun of the same debate from the inter-war period, she explores why globalist thinking gains currency at particular moments in history, and looks beyond this to the interests, values and cultural biases it belies.
The book explores many similarities between early twentieth century discussions of modernity and late twentieth century debates about post modernity
