Rhetoric Blog Post #1

Before I began reading about rhetoric in Chapter 1, I failed to realize how present rhetoric actually is in our day to day lives. Rhetoric is everywhere, especially here at Clemson. Students are bombarded with e-mails almost every day, ranging from the likes of the Clemson bookstore to Clemson athletics. The main thing in common with all these messages are that they usually display rhetoric in some way. Clemson athletics has recently been using perks, such as free airfare to anywhere in the country to try to get more people involved and attending sporting events. Rhetoric is often compare to persuasion in certain ways; however, I believe rhetoric paints a bigger picture than just persuasion. Rhetoric is defined as "the ability to discern the available means of persuasion in any given situation." Basically, rhetoric is when someone, based on the situation, attempts to convince his/her audience to act in a certain way. Rhetoric can involve words and images, as well as cartoons, comic strips, etc. Visual rhetoric is a strategy of persuasion that occurs through images. These images sometimes contain words, while at other times they're strictly images. The job of the writer is to appeal to the audience through the images and words he chooses to use. The rhetorical situation calls the connection that is present between the author, audience, and text. The relationship between these three is often illustrated through a triangle. For rhetoric to be achieved, one must be able to communicate according to the triangle.
       With football season recently ending, coaches have begun to shift their focus to recruiting, trying to secure commitments from the top players in the nation. When I think of the job that coaches do to try to get these high school athletes to attend their school, I can see a role of rhetoric being involved. Using more words than images, college coaches are in these players ears trying to persuade them in so many different ways. Among the topics coaches choose to recruit off of include what conference they play in, proximity to home, chances of winning a national title, chances of playing early, and the list goes on and on. In each recruiting pitch made by the coach, rhetoric is somehow used. The coaches are attempting to make a certain appeal to the kid. Their job is to create enough interest in the prospect that he wants to come to this university and see what the life is all about.