Rhetoric in the Writing Classroom: Tracing an Ancient Heritage

 

 

 

 

 Mocked as uptightgrammarians, more often typecast as junior-high schoolmarms than poeticpersonalities, English teachers, contrary to stereotype, actually continue a nobletradition whose origins date back to the Greco-Roman beginnings of Westerncivilization.  A scholarly anthologytitled Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse explores thisancient heritage, linking today’s writing classroom with the great names inrhetoric from Greek and Roman times.  Notingthe influence of such luminaries as Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, the book tracesthe evolution of rhetoric through time, providing a fascinating perspective onhow rhetoric and the quest for truth relate historically and inform Englishcourses today.

     While “quest fortruth” perhaps overly-dramatizes what writing students experience, Plato teachesthat a spiritual element underlies writing pursued as an act of discovery.  An essay by Jeremy Golden elaborates: “thesubject of knowledge. . .has as its starting and finishing points ideal formssituated in the mind of God.  The forms.. .represent the ultimate truth to be sought.” Plato’s rhetorical forms--particularly the famous dialectic--function asyoga for the mind, deepening the awareness of dedicated rhetoricians.  The dialectic, defined as “purifying” processof refutation and re-examination, provides a strategic formula for clarifyingideas, developing arguments, and thinking critically.  Today, English teachers invoke a basicdialectic when they encourage students to write with a reader’sperspective.  Switching roles fromwriter-based text generation to reader-based text evaluation helps students clarifyunstated assumptions and encourages a revision of content and phrasing thatteachers might call “sentence truth.”

     Plato looms largenot only for his direct influence on rhetoric but as a counterpoint for otherthinkers who modified his ideas through time. An essay by James Kinneavy describes these changes and theirperpetrators: “on the issue of epistemology Isocrates directly opposed Plato. ..In speech after speech he inveighed against the type of theory and sciencerepresented by Parmenides and Plato.”  Similarto the Sophists, a group skilled at using emotional appeals and figures ofspeech to persuade audiences, Isocrates knew how style could influence jurors, andbegan a school dedicated to the intense practice of courtroom oratory.  Unlike Plato, he did not attribute a spiritualvalue to the theory of forms nor did he require true evidence to support hisarguments.  Rather, the school emphasizedimitation and manner, an approach which ultimately had a lasting effect onrhetoric and Isocrates’ place in history. Says Kinneavy: “It was through these kinds of discourse, learned by analmost mechanical imitation, that most of the writers of western civilizationin antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance learned to write.  Isocrates, in this sense, is the father ofwestern humanism.”  Though criticizedthrough history for their emphasis on style over substance, the Sophistsnevertheless exert an influence in the today’s writing classroom.  When English teachers call attention to modeltexts, literary tropes, and artistic devices (e.g., parallel structure, activevoice phrasings, etc.), they echo Sophist principles that emphasize stylisticpresentation.

     Other names deservehonorable mention.  The widely taught(and widely disliked) five-paragraph essay originated with Quintilian, a Romanwho thought it the ideal form for courtroom oratory.  An introductory paragraph sought to win thesympathies of the jurors; a magic number of three supporting arguments soughtto justify those sympathies; and finally the conclusion reminded the jury whythey felt sympathetic.  Though criticizedby many teachers as artificial and impractical, a form stifling to creativityand irrelevant to how actual writers approach real-world writing tasks, thefive-paragraph model nevertheless exemplifies the enduring influence ofclassical rhetoric.  At its core, writingconsists of assertion and proof, a conceptual movement from general to specific(and vice-versa), patterns the five-paragraph model emphaticallyreinforces.  Designed for courtroomoratory, the five-paragraph model emphasizes that writers function inpartnership with an audience who expects clarity and organization.  The fact that English textbooks have devotedmore ink to the five-paragraph format that any other organizational approach testifiesto Quintilian’s legacy.

     The editors ofthe book conclude with a message for English departments in particular andacademic institutions in general.  At onetime, no departments existed in colleges, and rhetoric represented the maindiscipline.  During the NineteenthCentury, however, the Belles-lettres movement downplayed ancient rhetoricinfluences, advocating English studies in place of the classics.  The discipline of English severed fromrhetoric (later the concern of Speech Communication) to the detriment ofboth.  While many attempts to re-unifythe two disciplines took place over the years, not until the publication of Rhetoric:  Principles and Usage by Duhaumel andHughes did classical rhetoric return as a subject worthy of Englishstudies.  The challenge of rhetorictoday, contend the editors of Essays on Classical Rhetoric and ModernDiscourse, is to unite disciplines previously in contention with one another,to the advantage of both.

     In light ofrecent instructional trends, the book perhaps offers an additionalmessage:  proper writing instructionemphasizes the principles of classical rhetoric.  At a time when English teachers increasinglyembrace identity politics, masquerading as sociologists while they discuss“positionality,” “asymmetrical power structures,” and other notions borrowedfrom post-deconstructionist, post-relevant discourse theory, the practicalpurpose of English courses increasingly diminishes.  Most students today express little interest inagitation propaganda. Juggling work, school, and family obligations, they seeknot to disrupt the dominant paradigm but find a place within it.  In this regard they have much in common withthe tunic-clad Athenian youth who, admiring Plato in 400 B.C., sought insightfrom “the good person speaking well.” 

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