Achieving Stasis: Continuing Our Rhetorical Exercise

The Four Questions of Stasis

Let’s start by reviewing the fours questions of stasis AND expand them in the way Crowley and Hawhee suggest (64-72):

• Conjecture: Does an issue exist? Did it happen? Is it true? Where did the issue come from? What was its cause?
• Definition: What kind of thing or event is it? To what larger class of thing does this issue belong? What are its parts?
• Quality: Was it right or wrong? Should it be sought or avoided? Is it more desirable than other alternatives?
• Policy: What should we do? Should some action be taken? What actions are possible or desirable? How will proposed changes make things better?

REMEMBER: Moving towards stasis, using the above questions, is a tool to help rhetors invent thorough arguments. I’d like us to use the above questions of stasis when looking at one of our classmate’s second blog post. We can try to understand to what degree the post is answering each stasis question, with the goal of helping that classmate invent the most thorough argument possible.

Using Stasis to Develop Your Arguments

Working in pairs, and using the materials provided, go back to your second blog posts, re-reading them for attention to the questions of stasis. Take turns doing the following: Divide your sheet of paper into four parts: conjecture, definition, quality, and policy. Ask yourselves the questions associated with each point of stasis and write your answers to the corresponding parts.

Homework

Read Chapter 4 “The Common Topics and the Commonplaces: Finding the Available Means” (ARCS 88-117).

Research. Building on the issue you identified in Blog Post 2, use the expanded stasis questions (64-72) to develop your argument about your issue. Develop at least two propositions or points to answer each question. Write down all the propositions you can think of, even the wildest and most imaginative, even those with which you do not necessarily align yourself. You are also responsible for citing at least two sources that represent different approaches to the issue in your answers. PLEASE INCLUDE AN IMAGE OF THE WORK YOU DID IN CLASS TODAY! THIS IS DUE AS BLOG POST 3 BEFORE CLASS ON MONDAY, 9/23.