Week 12

Rhetoric means to use language to persuade. The things we say and the things we write can be rhetoric. Even though the way we dress and act are ways to persuade, I don't think they are necessarily rhetoric. I know that a lot of people consider rhetoric to include almost everything about a person, but I like the more specific definition. If it included everything, it would be persuasion and there would be no point to have the word rhetoric. I've only heard the word rhetoric in English classes. It's not used in day-to-day conversations in American society as I've seen. I haven't noticed if the word is considered negative or positive. I feel like it's more neutral. It could go either way. Rhetoric is definitely used in my subculture. Working retail, we are constantly using language to persuade customers to buy our products. In my mini-ethnography I will write a lot about this rhetoric that we're constantly using. Not only will I discuss the rhetoric used in my subculture, but I'll also use rhetoric to persuade my readers to believe that the employees at the Fossil store in Greenwood Park Mall are unique and different from the employees at other similar stores. Though the main focus of my mini-ethnography will be to inform and explain the behaviors and rituals of the people in my subculture, it will have an underlying theme meant to persuade.