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/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear » January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies

January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies

Plan for the Day

We’re going to continue the semester preview and get into our readings and other fun stuff. I know we have a few things to cover from last week, so let’s start there.

  • Slovic, Paul. “Perception of Risk”
  • Withey, Michael. Mastering Logical Fallacies
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Otherside” {Video and Lyrics}
  • Antonello da Messina. Vergine Annunciata

Then, we’ll get into tonight’s scapegoating readings and try to figure out how to deal with nihilism…we’ll see.

Scapegoating, Ideology, Video Games

In this chapter, the author explains that scapegoating video games not only follows a pattern of blaming children’s materials for being bad but also follows a not uniquely American practice of fearing the Other. Some big takeaways from the reading specific to this class are below:

Need to Blame

  • p. 57: “…the rhetoric against certain children’s entertainment has often been for protecting children.”
  • p. 57: “American culture has a history of conjuring false reasons for apparent social problems (both real and imagined).”
  • p. 58: “Related to human desire to have problems solved is that humans have a difficult time with meaninglessness; things have to happen for a reason.”
  • p. 58: “Focusing on an evil-regardless of whether or not there is any truth to the situation-puts a face or a name to something causing problems.”
  • p. 65: “…we find ourselves thinking in binaries we just defend as pure instead of thinking of spectrums, gradients, or circles that lend themselves better to dialectical exchange.”
  • p. 68: “Doubt and uncertainty are not anxieties Americans want to feel.”

Limits of Empiricism

  • p. 59: “Using a cultural studies lens means looking at texts as products influenced by prevailing cultural ideology.”
  • p. 59: Surveys aren’t enough–“Rarely will people claim they indulge in misogynist media because they identify as mis­ogynists.”
  • p. 60: “Members of a culture do not always locate or acknowledge the relativism of cultural myth because cultural values are absolute to them.”
  • p. 61: polysemic: words have multiple meanings.

Manufactured Evil

  • p. 61: [From Barker & Jane]–“…’language is a tool for doing things in the world and not a mirror that reflects objects.'”
  • p. 63: “Getting rid of that evil rallies members, allowing them a chance to fellowship with others as they mutually condemn manufactured evil.”
  • p. 66: “Sometimes even a fantasy text is enough to scare established authorities who fear the text threatens their version of reality.”
  • p. 66: “…show[ing] constituents they are working to find the solution.”

Scapegoating

  • p. 64: “Rhetorically, people use scapegoats to reify evil, blaming an easy target that is innocent or, perhaps, not fully to blame for a social ill.”
  • p. 68: “Politicians and cultural crusaders need to rally supporters, so they play on hopes and fears to prove they are doing something. The need to place blame is a way to subconsciously take control over a problem that is too difficult for quick, easy solutions.”
  • p. 69: “The scapegoat is easy to point to and chase, directing attention to a concrete, yet innocent, group.”

Cafeteriarization

  • p. 64: “In postmodern life, the lasting ideologies allow cafeteriarization.”
  • p. 64: “…maintain[ing] Orwellian doublethink, which is holding two contradictory ideas at the same time.”

The Anti-Semitism of Henry Ford, the United States, and the World

Besides learning that Henry Ford inspired Hitler, what connections can you draw between the anti-immigration sentiment of the 1920s and Nazi propaganda against Jews. We will be covering some of this when we read Passmore’s Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, so this will be a start into the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in Western ideology.

PBS. “Ford’s Anti-Semitism.” American Experience.

At this point, I’m more interested in us noticing the difference between this article and the next one. Consider the rhetorical strategies.

  • para 1: “Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic views echoed the fears and assumptions of many Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
  • para 3: “…distributed half a million copies to his vast network of dealerships and subscribers.”
    • “As one of the most famous men in America, Henry Ford legitimized ideas that otherwise may have been given little authority.”
  • para 7: “There were many places…in which ‘the Jew’ serves as, at that point of time, almost both a theological and a kind of racialized symbol of forces that people considered to be nefarious.”
    • Rhetorically, the author uses quotation marks to identify that she refers to the stereotypes associated with the group.
  • para 10: “[The Dearborn Independent] was Henry Ford’s newspaper, and pretty much anything Henry Ford did was news.”
    • Think about the power of celebrity entrepreneurs of today.
  • para 11: “Henry Ford’s ability to gain a national audience with his words made him a very dangerous person.”
  • para 20: “Hitler was very aware of Henry Ford, of Henry Ford’s writings, and praised them.”

The Henry Ford. “Henry Ford and Anti-Semitism: A Complex Story.”

  • para 1: “As with most famous people, Henry Ford was complex and had traits and took actions that were laudatory as well as troublesome.”
    • Offering balance makes one seem fair minded.
  • para 1: “Between 1920 and 1922 a series of articles denounced all things Jewish. While officially apologizing for the articles in 1927, Ford’s anti-Jewish sentiments ran deep. Seen within the context of the times, they demonstrate the sharp realities and tensions that emerge in societies undergoing profound cultural, economic and political change.”
    • Let’s break this passage down:
      1) Statements and phrases that apologize.
      2) …that deflect.
      3) …that hold Ford to account.
  • para 3: “to counter the attacks that had been launched against him for the five-dollar day, his pacifist activities, and his 1918 run for the U. S. Senate, which he believed his opponent, Senator Truman H. Newberry, had stolen from him.”
  • para 5: Who else could be to blame…
    • “Ford’s personal secretary…[Ernest] Liebold’s anti-Semitic views are well documented.”
    • “William Cameron…editor of the Independent, was an enthusiastic supporter of the publication of the anti-Semitic diatribes.”
  • para 6: But Ford is to blame–they do own it, and I’m not the arbiter of whether or not this is an appropriate apology, but, as a rhetorician, I have a goal to identify the mode(s) of persuasion, or what appears to be motivating the passage’s meaning.
    • “However, Ford’s own attitudes towards Jews were the major reason for the publication of “The International Jew.” His anti-Semitic beliefs formed along several strands from his upbringing, attitudes, and personal beliefs.”
  • But then it’s back to he’s a product of his time…
    • “A common stereotype…”
    • “the stereotype noted above may have convinced him…”
    • Appeal to tradition (See also Withey, p. 80)–“Lastly, Ford’s growing cultural conservatism, anti-urbanism, and nostalgia for the rural past…”
  • para 9: Although forced to apologize…
    • Conclusion: “Although this seemingly ended a sad chapter in Henry Ford’s life, the episode tarnished his reputation and it has never been completely forgotten.

While I am impressed The Henry Ford discusses Ford’s anti-Semitism, the lesson here is on communication and how to mitigate the impact of a person’s less-than-desirable traits. Who’s not mentioned in this article? Don’t forget to check the article’s sources.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

This article isn’t about Henry Ford, but it makes clear he “published a series of articles based in part on the Protocols” and compiled them into “The International Jew…[which] was translated into at least 16 languages.” Both Hitler and Goebbels “praised Ford and The International Jew” (“Origin of the Lie,” para. 4).

This isn’t the only instance of ideology (and associated texts) from the United States being imported to the Nazi regime. The Scientific Racism of the 19th century, most notably the pseudo-science of phrenology, eventually led to the eugenics movement. Steven A. Farber claims, “What is often not appreciated is that Nazi efforts were bolstered by the published works of the American eugenics movement as the intellectual underpinnings for its social policies” (para. 13). Edwin Black’s War against the Weak makes a similar claim.

Next Class

We’ll catch up on whatever we didn’t get to today, but make sure you do your Weekly Discussion Post #2 before Thursday, 1/19 at 11:00 pm. Michael J. Wreen’s “A Bolt of Fear” (10 pages) and Richard Conniff’s “In the Name of the Law” (1 page) are on Canvas. You’ll also have the first third of the easy-to-read Mastering Logical Fallacies.


Works Cited

Farber, Stephen A. “U.S. Scientists’ Role in the Eugenics Movement (1907–1939): : A Contemporary Biologist’s Perspective. Zebrafish, vol. 5, no. 4, 2008, pp. 243–245. doi: 10.1089/zeb.2008.0576

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