Rhetorical Competence Research Articles

The Risks of Acknowledgment: Performing the Sex-Selection Identification and Abortion Debate

This article focuses on the performance of an Indian feminist street play that addresses issues of sex-determination testing and sex-selection abortion. In my analysis, I explore the rhetorical competence these activists exhibit as they raise concerns about the ethics of discarding fetuses identified as female and struggle with the constraints of performing the absence of these girl fetuses, given feminist desires to simultaneously maintain the right to abortion and abolish sex-selection abortion. I also focus upon the critical appropriation of traditional women's folk culture to create a compelling feminist performance aesthetic. For activists and audience members, the performance of this counter-narrative holds the potential to open space and time for talk (as well as meaningful silence) that is personal, interpersonal, and significantly political.

The relation of knowledge of textual integration devices to expository text comprehension under different assessment conditions

In this study we propose a theoretical construct (called rhetorical competence) that represents the ability of readers to detect, understand, and use the linguistic cues or discourse markers that texts contain. We measure one of the three postulated components of rhetorical competence (knowledge of textual integration markers), assessing whether readers correctly interpret these markers while reading. The influence of this skill on reading competence is examined in a correlational study of 185 sixth-grade pupils (aged 11–12 years) using different assessment materials (a standardized test and an academic text) and reading conditions (habitual and aided). Multiple regression analyses of the data indicate that knowledge of textual integration devices makes a significant independent contribution to expository text comprehension under most assessment conditions when the effects of working memory, prior knowledge, and word recognition skills are controlled.

Odyssées maritimes et translatio vers la cité de Dieu dans le manuscrit de l’Ovide Moralisé, Rouen BM 0.4

This article studies how the books 12 to 14 of the Ovide Moralisé carry an important political message and intend to be a kind of principis regimen. Recent studies on the translation of Ovidian Metamorphosis at the beginning of the 14th century haven’t taken into account this opinion, concentrating on the predication book hypothesis. In the books 12 to 14 where the Trojan myth and the narration of the new city foundation, Rome are very important. Clergy and rhetoric competence of the characters, especially of Ulysses, prophetic voices (Sybille and Enee), apocalyptic discourses and power imaginary (Moses and mystical wedding) induce a political interpretation. In this way, the analysis of the translation, of the allegorical interpretations and the organization of the manuscript of Rouen BM 0.4 (iconography and structure of the text) enlarge the perspective suggesting a curial and ecclesiological reception

Can Differences in the Ability to Recognize Words Cease to Have an Effect Under Certain Reading Conditions?

In this study, we aimed to ascertain whether it is possible to create reading contexts that eliminate the impact of word recognition on reading comprehension and permit pupils with reading disabilities (RD) to attain a level of comprehension similar to that of their peers without RD. Specifically, the study compared a traditional reading situation with one of reading with aids (joint reading). In both situations, pupils' comprehension level was assessed by means of a summary and a series of inferential questions, and we controlled the effect on comprehension of word recognition, previous knowledge, rhetorical competence, and working memory. The results showed that the aids provided during reading do not eliminate the effect of word recognition, but they do permit readers with RD to attain a comprehension level similar to that of their peers.

Semántica y pragmática de la ironía verbal

Se hace un estudio del multifacético y resbaladizo concepto de la ironía verbal con especial incidencia en sus aspectos semánticos y pragmáticos. Desde el punto de vista semántico, la ironía se reconoce como un discurso negativo indirecto que funciona gracias a la relación cognitiva de antonimia. En tal sentido, postulamos que los mensajes irónicos tienen en su forma lógica una negación invisible, pero siempre presente. Pragmáticamente, la ironía se entiende a la luz de la idea de los grados de saliencia aplicada al papel del contexto y se apoya considerablemente en la dinámica de la intención comunicativa. La multiplicidad de factores que se ponen en juego en la interpretación irónica nos lleva a postular la necesidad del concepto de competencia irónica (como parte de la competencia retórica). Este concepto intenta dar cuenta de las abigarradas estrategias aplicadas tanto en la producción del texto irónico (el rol del enunciador) como en la interpretación de las ironías por las que vivimos (el rol del enunciatario)

Understanding patients' lived experiences: the interrelationship of rhetoric and hermeneutics.

Understanding each patient's situation or lived experience evolves from a nurse's sincere communication with the patient. Through rhetoric, the nurse's use of competent language and expressions is more likely to engage the patient in a dialogical discussion that brings forth an open, honest display of feelings and emotions. Through hermeneutics, the nurse gains an accurate understanding and interpretation of a patient's beliefs, values, and situations that supports explanations of meaning. Thus, with rhetoric being the words or expressions that give rise to hermeneutics or the interpretation, the blending of the two creates a rhetorical-hermeneutical relationship that provides accurate understanding of a patient's true lived experience. Consequently, knowing the patient depends upon the nurse's rhetorical competence and accurate assessment of each patient's authentic self. Nurses should seek to interpret and understand the lived experiences of patients in order to limit or prevent misunderstandings and inaccuracies in communication. The truth that emerges from the expressed rhetorical-hermeneutical interrelationship will enhance nurses' sensitivity to patient matters, produce relationship outcomes that emerge from a consistent and effectively applied set of interpersonal principles, and more importantly, successfully influence nurses' lives and those of their patients with meaning that ultimately improves the human condition. Thus, nurses' communication and perceptive understanding of each patient's world or lived experience becomes an integral and necessary component to effectively carrying out the practice role of caregiving.

Oral Traditions in Greater Mexico

Oral Traditions in Greater Mexico Marcia Farr (bio) What Américo Paredes (1993) once called Greater Mexico now exists all over the United States. That is, the Mexican diaspora (perhaps Cuauhtémoc’s true revenge) is evident from Alaska to Georgia, and everywhere in between. This presence of Mexicans is particularly notable in Chicago, the global Midwestern city, which now counts a million persons of Mexican descent in its metropolitan area (U.S. Census 2000). Mexicans, like all peoples, bring their oral traditions with them in such transnational migrations. Mexican oral traditions rely on a wide range of genres, from the more canonical corridos (narrative folk songs with poetic structuring; see Herrera-Sobek 1990, Limón 1992), proverbs (Dominguez Barajas 2002), riddles, and jokes to varying types of informal narratives. The richness of these oral traditions illustrates the creativity and high value placed on rhetorical competence (Briggs 1988) within Mexican cultures and the importance of the poetic in Mexican verbal art and life. Although demographers, sociologists, and anthropologists have studied transnational Mexican communities, little work has focused on oral traditions within these populations (Farr 1994, 1998, 2000, in press; Guerra 1998). Oral traditions, of course, can be performed in public, more formal settings, or in private, more intimate ones. The commercialization of corridos on CDs enables their almost constant public performance on Spanish language radio stations. At the other extreme are the intimate contexts of family and home, in which oral traditions live on the tongues of and in the space between persons, contexts that are often out of the range of interested researchers. My deep involvement with a social network of Mexican families, both in Chicago and in their rancho (rural hamlet) in northwest Michoacán, over the last decade and a half has given me access to such intimate contexts, and especially to all-female conversations within them. The developing awareness over recent decades of the reflexivity of ethnography allows us to recognize the effect of gender and other identities on the research process. In this respect, my gender has been significant in opening access to the rich [End Page 159] world of female talk in these families, transcending other aspects of identity in importance. I have thus been able to describe three culturally embedded ways of speaking within this group: 1 franqueza (frank, candid talk), respeto (respectful talk that inscribes traditional age and gender hierarchies), and relajo (joking talk that, like fiesta or carnival, turns the social order “upside down” and thus provides a space for social critique). Particularly during the verbal frame of echando relajo (joking around), women (and men) address the inevitable tensions of the existing social order, frequently treating gender with a humorous critique. In the storytelling that abounds during relajo, people construct their politics with poetry, utilizing parallelism, repetition, quoted dialogue, and other oral poetic devices that persuade through aesthetic pleasure. Given the large and growing number of Mexicans in the U.S., and especially of Mexican children in schools, such portraits of verbal art can persuade teachers and others of the creativity and verbal dexterity in Mexican oral traditions, aspects of communicative competence that can be constructively built on to develop verbal skills in the academic register. Marcia Farr Ohio State University Marcia Farr Marcia Farr is Professor of Education and English at Ohio State University. Her recent work includes explorations of oral language and literacy within Mexican families in Chicago and Mexico, and an edited book, Ethnolinguistic Chicago: Language and Literacy in the City’s Neighborhoods (2003). References Briggs 1988. Briggs 1988 Charles Briggs. Competence in Performance: The Creativity of Tradition in Mexicano Verbal Art. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar Domínguez Barajas 2002. Domínguez Barajas 2002 E. Domínguez Barajas. “Reconciling Cognitive Universals and Cultural Particulars: A Mexican Social Network’s Use of Proverbs.” Unpub. diss., University of Illinois at Chicago. Google Scholar Farr 1994. Farr 1994 Marcia Farr. “Echando relajo: Verbal Art and Gender among Mexicanas in Chicago.” In Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Women and Language Conference, April 8–10, 1994. Ed. by Mary Bucholtz et al. Berkeley, CA: University of California. pp. 168–86. [End Page 160] Google Scholar Farr 1998. Farr...

Beyond Political Correctness: Social Transformation in the United States

Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 13 No. 2 (2003) ISSN: 1546-2250 Beyond Political Correctness: Social Transformation in the United States Cummings, Michael S. (2001). Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers; 337 pages. $23.50. ISBN 1588260062. Although not immediately obvious from its title, Beyond Political Correctness: Social Transformation in the United Statessignificantly concerns issues that involved children and youth. Itexhorts a broad, politically conscious U.S. audience to think beyondpolitical correctness when addressing societal problems, and toconsider policy alternatives with an open mind. Cummings uses ajournalistic style to accommodate and persuade a wide audience, andsupports his main argument with citations from both academic andpopular media. The book ostensibly supports a liberal political agenda– that of rallying people around several “transformational” causesrelating to children. However, while its bold critique of politicalcorrectness may arouse the attention of a wide bipartisan audience, itmay fragment the liberal vote by persuading only a portion of thatpopulation to abandon traditionally held liberal views. The book’s introduction equates the contemporary inflexibility ofpolitical correctness to the traditional rigidity of conservativedogmatism. Cummings claims that political correctness unnecessarilycensures critical discussion of ineffective policies that mightotherwise support positive change. Once a policy has been labeled aspolitically correct, the public either clings doggedly to it or rejectsit outright, depending solely on its relationship to their politicalidentity rather than on the policy’s effectiveness. Cummings supports his argument regarding the shortcomings and dogmatismof political correctness with a convincing critique of affirmativeaction. He illustrates the ironic liberal entrenchment of a policyintroduced by conservative politicians to divide and diffuse a radicalcoalition consisting largely of ethnic minorities. Consider, forinstance, the consequences of racial quotas in determining enrollmentin schools. While Cummings agrees that this policy has 177 had a positiveeffect on the percentages of enrolled minority students, it also hascertain social drawbacks. By favoring certain ethnic groups overothers, regardless of the socio-economic status of the individual, thepolicy often misses the opportunity to bolster the disadvantaged. Thismay contribute to conflict between ethnic groups, crippling efforts atradical social reform, as each notes the privileged status of theother. Finally, it potentially equates ethnicity with inadequacy,suggesting that the individual could not have succeeded on his or herown merits. Despite its shortcomings, any criticism of the politicallycorrect policy by conservatives is treated as an expression of hatred.Similarly, any criticism of the policy by liberals suggests politicalinfidelity. Essentially, the credibility of any discussion about theissue is thwarted by the identity of the author, regardless of whatthat identity might be. Bravo Foucault. Considering the problem of identity revealed through thiswellfounded critique of political correctness, one might expectCummings’ answer to be an abandonment of political labeling and an opendiscussion of problems and their potential solutions. In fact, we findmuch the opposite. Following a brief recommendation to embrace what herefers to as “synergistic,” or cooperative values in place of thecompetition typical of U.S. culture, Cummings prescribes a set ofsolutions that he calls “transformational,” meaning that they producesocietal change. However, in doing so, he uses a very competitive,partisan language. It seems as though the quest for radically liberal,transformational policy has come full circle to embrace certainconcepts long held by conservatives, such as fulltime parenting.Rather than to admit the validity of traditionally conservative views,Cummings appropriates them as a radically transformative discovery, andcontinues to dismiss conservatism. Perhaps this approach revealsCummings’ rhetorical competence – since he aims to persuade politicalliberals – but it could be rather off-putting to the conservative otherhalf. Cummings provides convincing arguments for several issues relating tochildren, despite his political slant. He begins by enumerating anextensive list of problems facing children worldwide, includingmalnutrition, physical and emotional abuse, neglect, homelessness, andlack of appropriate health care. Then he 178 introduces the ageism of U.S.policies, and their contribution to the problem. For instance, U.S.children under the age of eighteen are deprived a political voice,regardless of their intellectual maturity. In addition to theanti-environmental, conservative bias this may present duringelections, the policy symbolically silences children by treating themas incompetent. This is analogous to the controversial portrayal of aninvisible Mr. Snuffalupagus on Sesame Street,which mirrors the fact that children often suppress abusiveexperiences, rather than risk ridicule and disbelief by adults.Cummings argues that eliminating the age restriction...

Letters and Phone-Mails to the Editor: A Comparison of Reader Input

Letters to the editor remain a popular feature of American newspapers and a major forum for public discussion and debate.1 Also, past literature documents the role letters to the editor play in a democracy.2 However, the appeal of recent communication technologies, such as e-mail and the Internet, is redefining the nature of the public forum and avenues for citizen expression.3 Adapting to technology, newspapers are providing alternative forums to traditional letters to the editor. One alternative, rooted in voice mail technology, is phone-mail to the editor. Called Sound Off, Mad Line or Back Talk, these columns publish the short, often anonymous, recorded phone messages of readers' viewpoints on timely concerns. Writing a letter to the editor involves some grammatical and rhetorical competence. As a result, letter writers are often of higher socio-economic status.4 The simplicity of phone-mail is attractive, encouraging increased reader participation. Also, telephone communication is more immediate and less formal and requires minimal coding skills.5 The opportunity to call instead of writing a letter to the editor, gives readers an equal chance of expressing their viewpoints. Research Questions Although phone-in columns have been addressed in the literature,6 one is hard pressed to find empirical data comparing phone-mail with traditional letters to the editor. This study compares phone-mail and letters to the editor, focusing on two components. The first is thematic similarities, and the second is the extent of negativity. Two research questions guided this study. RQ1: Are concerns addressed by callers similar to concerns addressed by letter writers? RQ2: What is the frequency of negative phone-mail compared to letters? Research Design A systematic comparison was made of calls and letters published in the Lowell (Mass.) Sun during calendar year 1998.7 Situated approximately 30 miles northwest of Boston, Lowell is a mid-sized community with a population of 103,439.8 The Sun has a daily subscription of 52,508 and a Sunday circulation of 55,806.9 It is a politically low-key community newspaper, with a clearly defined readership in the greater Lowell Area. In addition to traditional letters to the editor, the Sun also publishes a daily column titled BackTalk. BackTalk is an e-mail and phone-mail column ordinarily published Monday through Saturday.10 Most letters to the editor are published on Sunday, with letters to the editor also published in one of the weekday editions. In 1998, the Sun published 3,425 calls and letters, with calls accounting for 93 percent of the communication. (N = 3,185). The Sun receives approximately 12 to 15 letters to the editor per week, and every attempt is made to publish all letters received. Libelous and hate letters are eliminated. Letters must be signed and may be edited for length. No deliberate attempt is made to change a letter's intent.11 BackTalk was introduced about four years prior to the study, and is one of several phone-mail columns at Massachusetts newspapers. BackTalk receives approximately 100 messages a week, with approximately 80 percent in the form of phone-mail. BackTalk is kept short, using one or two sentences for most items. While letters to the editor must be signed, BackTalk is published with only callers' hometowns listed. All topics are eligible for inclusion in BackTalk, provided they are not libelous, slanderous or hate oriented. Calls are edited for grammar, sentence structure and elimination of vulgarity, with the aim of preserving the communicator's intent. Efforts are made to publish callers' messages that proportionally reflect the topics addressed by callers.12 On average, about 10 calls per day are published in BackTalk. Phone-mail is a unique community forum. Previous newspaper research had not content analyzed phone-mail; therefore, there was a degree of uncertainty relying on content analysis categories that had been used in previous studies. …

Developments in children's persuasive message practices

Sixty children, enrolled in second, fourth, and sixth grade, responded to a series of tasks designed to measure six persuasive message practices: creating consensus about a problem, advocating a proposal, creating an impressive message, motivating the other to act, seeking credibility, and building the other's self‐concept. Except for message impressiveness and seeking credibility, there were systematic age changes in each persuasive message practice. The findings are interpreted with a conception of rhetorical competence, and implications for instructional practice are discussed.

TheExordiumof the Areopagus Speech, Acts 17.22, 23

Martin Dibelius long ago described the oration on the Areopagus as ‘… ahellenisticspeech about the true knowledge of God’. In this paper it will be argued that theexordiumof the Areopagus speech clearly conforms to conventions of hellenistic rhetoric in regard toexordia; secondly, that thisexordiumfunctions as an introduction to a deliberation on the topic of religion; and finally, that both theexordiumand the speech as a whole bear witness to what Frederick Danker has aptly described as the author's ‘broadly ranging rhetorical competence’.

Political rhetoric and public competence: A crisis for democracy?

Political rhetoric and public competence: A crisis for democracy?