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Coming Together Over Commonplaces

To further consider how we’re constructing our arguments, let’s take a quick look at commonplaces, or the common ideologies that circulate within culture. Because commonplaces are context-specific, they are strongly informed by kairos and, as Quintilian noted, often somewhat hidden within the fabric of the culture. We’ll look together at how Crowley and Hawhee unpack a particular commonplace of American culture (101) and also use this short series of clips to visualize the commonplaces behind the “Drill, baby, drill” example in the textbook:

IN CLASS Writing

Starting drafting Blog Post 4!

Homework

READ Chapter 5 “Logical Proof: Reasoning in Rhetoric” (118-145) or “Without further ado, introducing logos, pathos, and ethos!!!” (giant applause)

FINISH WRITING BLOG POST 4, which should offer the following:

  • Unpack the commonplaces embedded in your argument, using the Crowley and Hawhee text to support some of your claims.
  • Ensure that you’re identifying competing ideologies that are embedded in your issue.
  • Your ideas should be organized into unified paragraphs.
  • Cite your sources. (See my model citation below.)
  • This should be no less than 500 words and posted before next class on Mon, Sept. 30.

Work Cited

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 5th ed., Pearson Education, 2012.

andreaefthymiou Uncategorized

Commonplaces & Common Topics: More Heuristics for Building Arguments

We’ll build on the work you’ve been doing using kairos and stasis theory as tools for invention by adding additional tools to your repertoire: common topics and commonplaces.

Crowley and Hawhee define commonplaces as sentiments or “statements that regularly circulate within members of a community,” while topics “refer to any procedure that generates arguments” (89). Common topics operate much like stasis theory in that common topics encourage rhetors to consider conjecture (if an issue exists), degree (if an issue is better or worse than something else), and possibility (the likelihood of occurrences related to the issue at hand). We’ll begin class today by continuing the invention process you performed in groups using stasis theory to consider the common topics of degree and possibility (93-96).

In-Class Group Work

Return to your group’s poster. Using the small post-it notes, add common topics of degree and possibility to your poster, trying deliberately to invent arguments that you did not initially consider.

Homework

Review Chapter 4 “The Common Topics and the Commonplaces.” We’ll finish working in this chapter during next class.

Work Cited

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 5th ed., Pearson Education, 2012.