Interpretism reaction paper

Essay by dirrj October 2007

download word file, 5 pages 4.3

This reaction paper will focus on three of the articles we were to read. I will highlight all three pieces and offer an explanation as I understood it when reading. I will begin with the Bizzel and Herzberg piece on rhetoric, and follow it with an overview of the Schwandt piece, and finally I will discuss the Gales article.

The first one I read was the General introduction piece by Bizzel and Herzberg. This article basically explains what rhetoric is. It felt like a "how-to" be rhetorical. He covers different types of rhetoric including classical, medieval, renaissance style, enlightenment, the 19th century, and the modern and post modern perspectives. He first discusses the classical rhetorical methods. It explains legal or forensic speech (judgment after an action has taken place), political or deliberate speech (which motivates people to an action), and ceremonial or epidictic speech (which talks about present state of affairs and trying to persuade) (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001).

He speaks of audience analysis and always knowing who you are addressing, and then goes on to a how to prepare a speech. He addresses invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. The section then moves on to discuss medieval rhetoric, and its origins. Next he discusses the renaissance stylistic rhetoric including public and private discourse. The public discourse was particularly interesting because it discussed the customs in the renaissance era and how women were often not allowed to talk in public. During the enlightenment era, it discusses how it seemed rhetoric was out of date for the times because it relied on outdated methods (Bizzell & Herzberg, 2001). Again, this piece outlines and explains the history of rhetoric and how it changed and developed over the times.

The next piece is called three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry. This book section...