Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory » February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]

February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]

Happy 2sdays! 2/2/22

St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine, Books 1-4

St. Augustine (not to be confused with St. Augustine, FL),* although considered to be somewhat ancient, is noted as a transition between ancient rhetoric and the Middle Ages (hey, history has to be divided somehow…). He was well-versed in the pagan rhetoric of Greece and Rome (which he mentions in On Christian Doctrine), but he converted to Christianity and “was interested in rhetoric as a means of persuading Christians to lead a holy life” (Corbett, p. 549, 3rd ed.). Obviously, St. Augustine believes truth comes from the divine and believes scripture to be divinely inspired, set down by magnificent men through whom the divine speaks.

*A note on pronunciation: Although words can have multiple meanings and pronunciations, there’s an interesting distinction between the British pronunciation (aw-GUS-tin) and the American one (aw-GUS-teen) according to the OED.com. Then again, using that pronunciation makes you sound pompous.

St. Augustine is an important figure in the development of scholasticism–the foundation of schooling in Western civilization. St. Augustine is one figure trying to reconcile Christian beliefs with (even more) ancient beliefs.

Book 1

The gist of Book 1 (and the Prologue) is to describe “faith at the present time” (p. 33). Here are some highlights:

  • Ability to understand comes from God (Pro. sec. 8, p. 6)
  • Signs and signifying (1.2.2, p. 8; then, got to 2.1.1, p. 34)
  • Using vs. enjoying (1.4.4, p. 9-10)
    • “…if the amenities of the journey and the motion of the vehicles itself delighted us, and we were led to enjoy those things which we should use, we should not wish to end our journey quickly, and, entangled in a perverse sweetness, we should be alienated from our country, whose sweetness would make us blessed.”
    • hmm…what other “motions” are we not supposed to like more than the goal?
  • Medicinal metaphor (1.14.13, p. 15)
    • “Our malady arose through the corrupted spirit of a woman…”
  • What is to be loved…(1.23. 22, p.19)
  • Purity and health come from the divine (1.23.23, p. 20)
  • All good comes from the divine (1.31.34, p. 27)

Book 2

The gist of Book 2 is to describe signs and their value. Here are some highlights:

  • “..no one doubts that things are perceived more readily through similitudes and that what is sought with difficulty is discovered with more pleasure” (2.6.8, p. 38)
  • “…two reasons why things written are not understood: they are obscured either by unknown or by ambiguous signs. For signs are either literal or figurative” (2.10.15, p. 43)
  • Comments on Astrology/Astrologers (2.21.32, p. 56)
    • Astrology condemned and consider fruitless (2.29.45-46, pp. 65-66)
    • What does Aristotle say about oracles? (On Rhetoric, 3.5.4)
    • We’ll compare this to Wollstonecraft’s view of astrology in a few weeks
  • Social Institutions (2.25.38+, pp. 61-63)
    • “For all practices which have value among men because men agree among themselves that they are valuable are human institutions” (2.25.38, p. 61)
    • “…signs are not valid among men but by consent” (2.25.38, p. 61)
  • Useful institutions and gender (2.25.39, p. 62)
    • “…there are thousands of imagined fables and falsehood by whose lies men are delighted, which are human institutions. And nothing is more typical of men among those things which they have from themselves than what is deceitful and lying. But the useful and necessary institutions established by men with men include whatever they have agreed upon concerning differences of dress and adornment of the person useful for distinguishing sex or rank.”
    • “Finally, the thousands of fables and fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is to be considered more peculiarly man’s own and derived from himself than anything that is false and lying. Among the convenient and necessary arrangements of men with men are to be reckoned whatever differences they choose to make in bodily dress and ornament for the purpose of distinguishing sex or rank” (online version)
  • “Human institutions are imperfect reflections of natural institutions or are similar to them” (2.26.40, p. 62)
    • Anthropocentrism
  • Institutions pertaining to reason (2.31.48, p. 67)
    • Science of disputation
    • Science of numbers
  • The truth of valid inference comes from the divine (2.32.50, p. 68)
    • “The principle that if the consequent [conclusion] is false the antecedent [premise] must also be false was not instituted by men but discovered” (2.32.50, p. 69; emphasis mine)
  • Mechanical arts (2.39.58, pp. 73-74)

Book 3

The gist of Book 3 is to discuss ambiguous signs in scripture. He discusses translations and, for the most part, believes them to be accurate, but some might be mistranslated. Here are some highlights:

  • Literal words rarely cause ambiguity (3.4.8, p. 83)
  • Figurative words, however, are more likely to be ambiguous (3.4.9, p. 83)
  • “He is a slave to a sign who uses or worships a significant thing without knowing what it signifies” (3.9.13, p. 86)
    • “it is an evil of wandering error to interpret signs in a useless way” (3.9.13, p. 87)
  • Polygamy vs. Bygamy (3.12.18, p. 91)
    • The ancients are given passes for some practices that are condemned contemporarily (3.22.32, p. 98)
  • “…the Scriptures: some things are taught for everyone in general; others are directed toward particular classes of people” (3.17.25, p. 94)

Book 4

In Book 4, St. Augustine finally starts discussing rhetoric. This book is concerned with teaching what one has learned about scripture and the divine. He covers deductive arguments (i.e., syllogisms), avoiding lies, and eloquence. What are some highlights?

  • While the great faculty of eloquence, which is of great value in urging either evil or justice, is it in itself indifferent, why should it not be obtained for the uses of the good in the service of truth…? (4.2.3, pp. 118-119)
  • Acute and eager minds learn through hearing rather than following rules (4.3.4, p. 119)
  • Dialect, diction, community (4.3.5, p. 120)
  • Think like me and you’ll get it…(4.6.9, p. 123)
  • On teaching and student understanding (4.12.27, p. 136)
  • The grand style to move the audience (4.21.48, p. 156)
  • Moderate/temperate for delight (4.23.52, p. 160)
  • Persuasion in subdued, moderate/temperate, and grand styles (4.25.55, pp. 161-162)

Anatomy of Oratory and Arguments (time permitting)

What can we say about the rhetoric of these religious perspectives?

One of the, if not the, most disgusting film in American cinema, Birth of a Nation (1915).

  • What is the rhetoric of this ending, one that St. Augustine would privilege?

The Southern Baptist Convention’s History of Promoting White Supremacy

  • In accordance with St. Augustine’s “teachings,” some groups wanted to make sure postbellum churches maintained paternalistic control over Blacks:
    • Just as the slaves had prayed from the balconies of white churches in the Old South, so it would be in the New South. Actually, Baptists of this persuasion believed that dislocations in the secular sphere necessitated a continuation of traditional religious arrangements. The freedmen, these Baptists pointed out, were neither financially nor intellectually prepared for separation from white churches. Black ministers were illiterate, and soon would lead a “childlike” population into scriptural error and superstition. In 1866, for instance, the Colorado Association of Texas, after a warm debate, adopted a majority report opposing separation on the grounds that blacks possessed insufficient “intelligence and education . . . to keep the doctrines and ordinances in God’s work pure and unmixed with human error when unaided by the superior intelligence of the whites.”3 Underlying this position was the belief of many Southerners that any progress among blacks was dependent upon contact with the “superior” race. (Storey 212)
    • As a Baptist from Houston, Texas, explained in 1868, separation would be tantamount to leaving the freedmen “a prey to the combined evil of ignorance, superstition, fanaticism, and a political propagandism more dangerous and destructive to the best interests of both whites and blacks than Jesuitism itself.” Duty and self interest, therefore, demanded “that our churches should retain the negroes in their membership, and control their [Negroes’] action so far as they [white churches] have a moral right to do so.” (Texas Baptist Herald, November 11,1868 cited in Storey 213)
    • By “Jesuitism,” he means Catholicism, so St. Augustine would probably not be supportive.
  • Eventually, the SBC affirmed their divine commitment to antiracist beliefs…
    • “Resolution On Racial Reconciliation On The 150th Anniversary Of The Southern Baptist Convention” (1995)

Others Used Biblical References to Justify Their Case For or Against Segregation and/or Civil Rights

  • Billy Graham was committed to integration as early as 1957 (if not earlier)
  • Bob Jones, Sr., ironically, was more accepting of diversity than a large swath of Southern whites
    • However, his school didn’t allow Blacks until 1971 “but only on the condition that they were already married, and married to someone of the same race” (Taylor).
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech (3 April 1968)
    • While King called his followers to exercise their natural rights as American citizens, he also portrayed their struggle for equality as a modern-day Exodus, using the biblical tale to give the civil rights movement a structure or narrative to follow. In his speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” King discusses time periods in history that he would have liked to personally see. He says, ‘I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land.’ Here, as King declares that he would have liked to see the Israelites’ arduous escape from Egypt, he reminds his followers that the Israelites suffered before gaining their freedom from the pharaoh, just like how his own listeners were suffering. (Tuason para. 4)

The X-Files “Signs & Wonders” (Season 7, Episode 9: 2000)

  • Here’s the full episode, but you’ll have to sit through several ads. I’d like us to cue it up to timestamp 17:00.
  • This video isn’t as good a quality, but it starts exactly when we want to observe.
  • What do you make of The Waterboy (1998) and critical thinking?

I created a web page to help us think about arguments and oratory. Let’s focus on Nikki Giovanni’s “We Are Virginia Tech” and a discussion about the “Misery Index.”

Next Week’s Reading

Before we jump a 1000+ years and discuss Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method in three weeks (3/15–after spring break), we’re going to read the first two chapters of Cy Knoblauch’s Discursive Ideologies (pp. 1-48), which should help fill in the historical gaps…somewhat.

Don’t forget that your Mini-Rhetorical Analyses are due next week by 6:00 pm on 3/1.


Works Cited

Storey, John W. Southern Baptists and the Racial Controversy in the Churches and Schools During Reconstruction. The Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Spring 1978), 211-228.

Tuason, Ramon. “The Biblical Exodus in the Rhetoric of Martin Luther King.” The Stanford Freedom Project. Fall 2015.
https://stanfordfreedomproject.com/multi-media-essays-on-freedom/the-biblical-exodus-in-the-rhetoric-of-martin-luther-king/

Skip to toolbar
  • Log In