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
    • SEACS 2022 Presentation
    • SEACS 2023 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 13th: Introduction to User Design
    • February 15th: Instructions for Users
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • February 20th: The Rhetoric of Technology
    • February 22nd: Social Constructions of Technology
    • February 6th: Plain Language
    • 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 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
    • March 13th: Introduction to Information Design
    • March 15th: More on Information Design
    • March 20th: Reporting Technical Information
    • March 27th: The Great I, Robot Analysis
  • 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
    • February 14th: Fascism and Other Valentine’s Day Atrocities
    • February 21st: Fascism Part 2
    • February 7th: Fallacies Part 3 and American Politics Part 2
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
    • March 7th: Fascism Part 3
  • 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
    • How to Lie with Statistics
    • 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 » March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric

March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric

What ailment do horses fear most? Hey fever!

  • Mary Wollstonecraft was a proto-feminist, and here are subsequent movements:
    • first-wave
    • second-wave
    • third-wave
    • fourth-wave feminism
  • Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition
  • WWI Propaganda Posters (quick look)
  • Last Extremists (15 min)*
    *Please note that this video contains a reference to sexual assault that could be seen as mitigating the severity of such actions. I assure you there’s a larger comment on patriarchy’s denigration of women that the video is making, and it’s very difficult to believe the intent is to downplay the seriousness of any crimes.
  • Lia Thomas in context

Feminist Rhetorics

This article on ThoughtCo. from Richard Nordquist might be helpful in understanding the ways scholars are approaching feminisms and rhetorics (notice the plural usage).

Before getting into Poirot’s article, let’s return to some basic Aristotelian concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos:

  • Ethos: “[There is persuasion] through character whenever the speech is spoken in such a way as to make the speaker worthy of credence; for we believe fair-minded people to a greater extent and more quickly [than we do others] on all subjects in general and completely so in cases where there is not exact knowledge but room for doubt.” (Aristotle 1.2.4, Kennedy p. 38; Part 2, para. 3 Online)
  • Pathos (Aristotle 1.2.5, Kennedy p. 39; Part 2, para. 4 Online; Chapter 2-[1356a]): “[There is persuasion] through the hearers when they are led to feel emotion [pathos] by the speech.”
  • Logos (Aristotle 1.2.6, Kennedy p. 39; Part 2, para. 5 Online; Chapter 2-[1356b]): “Persuasion occurs through the arguments [logoi] when we show the truth or the apparent truth from whatever is persuasive in each case.”

Aristotle probably assumed an audience made up all, half, some, or none of their minds prior to a speech, but, as we learned, he placed an emphasis on the ways audiences were moved during a speech. It’s hard to believe that no one has an opinion about a common topic beforehand. Also, it’s rare that someone actually has an opinion about everything…anyway, in your analyses, it’s best to consider a type of persuasive approach rather than get bogged down in the infinite number of ways a message could be conveyed.

We have to draw boundaries when we present a topic in writing or speaking to attempt a coherent argument. One of the goals of academic projects is to not “bite off more than you can chew.” When you discover the secret of how to avoid attempting too much in your initial go at a project, please let me know your secret!

Other Ways to Define the Three Modes of Persuasion

Aristotle defined these terms about 2500 years ago, so we should consider a few updates. Although rhetoricians might not all agree with the expanded definitions below, if they don’t recognize the instability of meaning, they’re not recognizing fundamental etymological transitions.

  • Ethos:
    1) the presentation of or appeal to one’s character
    2) the characterization of a document or speaker (consider this to be the “look and feel” of a document, its attributes)
    Notice the two parts of this definition…be able to analyze a document from both parts separately.
  • Pathos: not really any change I can think of
    1) appeal to emotions
    2) but scrutinize “feel” vs “feeling”
  • Logos:
    1) appeal to logic; explicit or implicit deductive arguments
    2) stating assumed facts (e.g., statistics, addresses, date/time)

Remember, we often describe emotions (anger, happiness, sadness, etc.) as our “feelings.” However, be aware of an oversight we often have with the word “feel.”* One can feel good** in terms of emotion, but one can also feel something is right, wrong, common, typical of a group, etc. In that sense, “feel” is synonymous with “think” or “believe,” and it shouldn’t be immediately associated with emotions (or pathos). Consider the phrase the “look and feel” of the something. That phrase refers to the attributes of something: it could be physical as in the “look and feel of pinecone,” or it could be more abstract as in “the look and feel of a city,” which means the attributes of that city. This comes up when people say a place is a character in a film or TV show (i.e., the character of Baltimore in The Wire).

Consider the “look and feel,” the ethos, of the following webpages:

  • FACETS Multimedia
  • Family Friendly Charlotte

*Grammar/usage fun: Can you feel bad, or do you feel badly?
**Of course, if the rhythm feels good to you…

These terms–ethos, pathos, and logos–may be important for your Rhetoric/al Project, so please, please, please ask questions if the terms are confusing. If we have time tonight, though, we’re going to go over assumptions based on experience, bias, conventional wisdom, etc. One type of rhetorical analysis, and I argue Poirot is doing this, compares similarities in discourse. What might we say about a group of designs for pizza places…

  • Toppers Pizza
  • Giacomo’s Pizzeria
  • Tony’s Pizza
  • Farley’s Pizzeria
  • Inizio Pizza Napoletana

Hawthorne’s Pizza can be said to have a “contemporary” design. What other page does it look like? You probably visit this page a lot! Here’s another Italian-style restaurant, Mamma Ricotta’s.

Kristan Poirot’s “Domesticating the Liberated Woman”

Now that we’re all wanting pizza…let’s dive into the reading! Kristan Poirot is an Associate Professor in Communication at Texas A&M. Let’s consider these areas of the text:

  • p. 264: “[Poirot] read[s] woman-identification rhetorics in I terms of broader discursive efforts to manufacture “woman” in a way to meet various movements’ demands.”
  • p. 265: Main thesis–“woman-identification’s ultimate rhetorical failure might not be its expulsion of certain kinds of women (i.e., heterosexual ) from feminism, but its commitment to liberation that necessarily entailed a rhetoric of confinement and containment, domesticating woman and feminism.”
  • What does Poirot mean about “domesticating “woman and feminism”?
  • p. 266: “containment rhetorics…attempt to tame the threat of alternative views through discipline and confinement, clearly articulating the other as outside of the dominant values and structures of U.S. culture.”
    • “dissent was domesticated when the press and administration success fully redirected the agitator ‘s energy into a much more palatable and culture affirming activity–voter registration.”
    • Obviously, voter registration and voting rights have been fully establish today and aren’t contested…
  • p. 267: Via Murphy–“domestication” had the goal “to strengthen the status quo, minimizing the damage that alternative rhetorics and/or social dissent could inflict on dominant values and meanings.”
    • “social movements them selves participate in modes of containment and/ or domestication.”
  • pp. 267-268: “identity political movements are prohibitatory,* demanding that subjects conform to predetermined (recognizable) definitions and, sometimes, politically viable identifications.”
    *Why you ought to be more generous and forgiving when using [sic] in quotations from other sources…
  • p. 268: “identifications create disciplinary and boundaried locales. These locales normalize and strengthen a supposed border between the movement’s claims to radical authenticity and the status quo.”
  • p. 269: Media…part of the solution or the problem?
    • Planned Parenthood has a media wing: Associate Dir. of Arts & Entertainment job (pdf created from a LinkedIn ad)
  • p. 270: Betty Friedan on the “lavender menace”
    • I highly recommend Hulu’s Mrs. America series
  • p. 271: “the mainstream press demonized feminism through its cove rage of unpalatable radical elements and the inauguration of reluctant leaders.”
  • p. 272: Radical feminists wanted to explode hierarchies and assumptions of traditional social relationships.
  • p. 273: Woman must free themselves first before a revolution can occur.
    • What might Wollstonecraft think?
  • p. 275: Quoting Tate (2005)–“”W-I-W” ‘provided a rhetorical site of revolutionary identity, a constitutive rhetoric marked with the telos of liberation from male tyranny,’ positioning ‘lesbian feminists at the center of feminist identity’.”
  • p. 299, n5: “constitutive rhetoric” as “a discourse that constitutes an identity that presumes to be both pre-given and ‘natural'”

The Life of Brian (1979) “So funny it was banned in Norway”

Here are some clips that require a caveat because they’re a bit dated on the humor. However, I think you’ll find that the parody might reflect the infighting that Poirot brings up in her article.

  • Religious/political sectarianism: The People’s Front of Judea
  • Cost-benefit analysis on revolting against the Romans
  • The right to have babies and pronoun politics
    • This might seem transphobic today, but others herald it as prophetic. Remember, this was humor form 1979, so you should determine whether or not it ages well.
    • Btw, a few Jewish groups were not happy about the film when it came out

Be on the lookout for texts you can use to construct an argument about rhetoric, meaning making, or discourse in general. Any ideas for your Rhetoric/al Project?

Next Week

We’re back to a more normal reading load next week. You’ll have Ch. 3 from Knoblauch along with an article on Canvas: Glen McClish’s “The Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Frederick Douglass.” Also, I added Judith Butler’s very quick read “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”; Angela McRobbie’s “Feminism, Postmodernism, and the ‘Real Me'”; and Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience” (cited by Poirot) for those wanting to explore today’s discussion further. These aren’t required reading.

Although this is more appropriate for a class one cultural studies, you might want a refresher from last year’s New Media class: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality and McRobbie and Rich. Again, these aren’t required but are possibly helpful, so enjoy!

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