Being a facts and figures junkie, this article speaks to me on many different levels. For one, it serves to solidify my understanding of Logos - from a theoretical aspect to a more practical one. It connects the dots that have been placed in the last couple of weeks at ILS class, whereby we have mainly focused on more abstract concepts. Moreover, it opened my eyes to the whole idea that virtually everyone trying to sell something to me, whether via promotion in person or via advertisement, taps into Logos (and most definitely Pathos and Ethos, though that is out of the scope of this discussion) in an attempt to sway me.
In working through the writing assignments during the Logos phase, I’ve come to realize that many aphorisms chosen by my fellow students are constructed with simple words by their authors. Clever permutation of simple words allows authors to create more complex structures and convey multiple ideas. As such, I’ve noticed that the benefit of an author’s use of accessible language is twofold – one, to reach out to a larger audience, and two, to ensure that it “sticks” with readers.
A particular finding which struck a chord with me talks about how fluent things are familiar and comfortable. As an international student, I often crave simple, Chinese food. The very taste of my carbohydrate staple back home, plain white rice, is something that I have to go back to once every week. Potatoes and pasta just don’t fill me up like white rice does. That also probably explains why grandma’s brownies and mom’s apple pies always taste so good.
As we have dealt with much theory over the past couple of weeks, a real-life example of Logos in action definitely helped to sensitize me to the whole idea of the “science” of persuasion. It all started to make sense – semantic value, word choice, diction level, schemes, word order, arrangement and syntax, all had a place in every aspect of our lives. Think about it, our everyday conversations with people, advertisement, literally everything we see and hear goes through the whole process of rhetorical figure. What is ultimately transmitted strongly defines our emotions, thoughts and actions. Such is the moving power of rhetoric.
The article got me thinking, why do college students choose to do chapter summaries? Well, with thorough revision of the material, they are able to better sort and compartmentalize the information into simpler, more organized pieces. What was previously a spew of information in the textbook has now become a useful, coherent flow of ideas. It is always through this flow of digesting dense information, breaking it down into an understandable format that processing really begins. The same concept applies to language.
Unfortunately however, the notion most commonly conveyed nowadays is that intelligent people speak in complicated prose. It seems desirable to speak in flowery language, where only a select few, if any, can understand. Our society is conditioned to believe that people whose opinions are more intricate, more complex, more multi-faceted are smarter than those who communicate in clear and intelligible thought. Culture often associates simplicity with ignorance. It is most certainly not a good thing if someone calls you a simpleton.
Despite what we are all led to believe, I feel that people who over-complicate things are not necessarily more intelligent. On the contrary, they may be less experienced, more confused and lack the mental flexibility to grasp the material in different ways.
Therefore, enlightened is the person who can take a complicated issue and express it clearly in simple terms.
In conclusion, I feel that the article by Bennett is a useful piece in giving just one of the many real-world examples of how rhetoric is so pervasive in our lives. It reinforces my understanding of the integral part that Logos plays in expressing a thought and putting forth an argument. After all, who doesn’t want to sound convincing?
In working through the writing assignments during the Logos phase, I’ve come to realize that many aphorisms chosen by my fellow students are constructed with simple words by their authors. Clever permutation of simple words allows authors to create more complex structures and convey multiple ideas. As such, I’ve noticed that the benefit of an author’s use of accessible language is twofold – one, to reach out to a larger audience, and two, to ensure that it “sticks” with readers.
A particular finding which struck a chord with me talks about how fluent things are familiar and comfortable. As an international student, I often crave simple, Chinese food. The very taste of my carbohydrate staple back home, plain white rice, is something that I have to go back to once every week. Potatoes and pasta just don’t fill me up like white rice does. That also probably explains why grandma’s brownies and mom’s apple pies always taste so good.
As we have dealt with much theory over the past couple of weeks, a real-life example of Logos in action definitely helped to sensitize me to the whole idea of the “science” of persuasion. It all started to make sense – semantic value, word choice, diction level, schemes, word order, arrangement and syntax, all had a place in every aspect of our lives. Think about it, our everyday conversations with people, advertisement, literally everything we see and hear goes through the whole process of rhetorical figure. What is ultimately transmitted strongly defines our emotions, thoughts and actions. Such is the moving power of rhetoric.
The article got me thinking, why do college students choose to do chapter summaries? Well, with thorough revision of the material, they are able to better sort and compartmentalize the information into simpler, more organized pieces. What was previously a spew of information in the textbook has now become a useful, coherent flow of ideas. It is always through this flow of digesting dense information, breaking it down into an understandable format that processing really begins. The same concept applies to language.
Unfortunately however, the notion most commonly conveyed nowadays is that intelligent people speak in complicated prose. It seems desirable to speak in flowery language, where only a select few, if any, can understand. Our society is conditioned to believe that people whose opinions are more intricate, more complex, more multi-faceted are smarter than those who communicate in clear and intelligible thought. Culture often associates simplicity with ignorance. It is most certainly not a good thing if someone calls you a simpleton.
Despite what we are all led to believe, I feel that people who over-complicate things are not necessarily more intelligent. On the contrary, they may be less experienced, more confused and lack the mental flexibility to grasp the material in different ways.
Therefore, enlightened is the person who can take a complicated issue and express it clearly in simple terms.
In conclusion, I feel that the article by Bennett is a useful piece in giving just one of the many real-world examples of how rhetoric is so pervasive in our lives. It reinforces my understanding of the integral part that Logos plays in expressing a thought and putting forth an argument. After all, who doesn’t want to sound convincing?
Being able to feel confident that a written work is more legitimate or truthful because of superficial characteristics is in this time a very advantageous trait. But it comes at the cost of believing rhetorical fallacies like stereotyping are permissible under certain circumstances. Not stereotyping on the basis of moral efficacy would greatly complicate how and what we choose to believe. Our daily lives are full of rhetorical fallacies to the point where it’s an integral and necessary part of our lives. Just being able to go on the internet and quickly discern between “this I believe” and “this I don’t believe” because: the fonts too big, too bright or because this uses a lot of final fee modifiers at the end of sentences it’s more believable. The physiological reasoning for why we use logical fallacies is probably immensely complicated but it allows us to live our daily lives without being in constant internal conflict. What your post pointed out to me was how domineering rhetoric is on our lives despite weather we choose to acknowledge it or not.
ReplyDeleteToday’s culture revolves around simplicity. The article clearly states multiple examples of how minimalism exists almost everywhere: in advertisements, slogans, language, cooking. Take language for example. In the past decades and centuries, they way in which people spoke sounded like romantic poetry. Metaphors, imagery and colorful language were embedded within their sentences. It sounded so surreal and graceful.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, society aims to simplify culture wherever and whenever possible. We already shorten our spoken language and make everything sound so casual. Emailing and texting have butchered the English language. Misspelling, not punctuating, and abbreviating all words confirms how simple and lazy we all have become. Each and every one of us is guilty of this. Don’t get me wrong, I do it too. Although I hate to admit it, abbreviating and cutting sentences short to fit the limit of 160 characters in a single text, makes language easier to comprehend. Short and sweet always gets the idea across and never leaves your audience questioning your point.
On the other hand, most intellectual persons write using elevated vocabulary and prose to sound more cultured. Sometimes, this works but other times, just leaves your audience dumbfounded and confused. Same goes for speaking. The average individual is not used to hearing a formal speech when having a conversation with a friend or coworker. A simple language sounds more appealing to the human ear because most of us speak nonchalantly. People who talk to sound sophisticated just confuse their listeners because the formal language sounds foreign to us. We are accustomed to direct, to the point language that is clear cut and gets to the main topic fast.
The author presents the articles ideas clearly by breaking down the text and thesis and utilizes examples to do so. Personally, I agree with the simple is better argument. Like his example of craving plain white rice, as an America, I also crave the common French fry and burger. I love sushi and eel and fish and elaborate cultural dishes my mom prepares, but sometimes that box of Mac N’ Cheese sitting in the cupboard is all you want.
Simplicity thrives in daily life and one can find it just about anywhere. However, I do think it is important to have a cultured, professional side to language and personality. You could not survive in this competitive world if you did not know how to speak eloquently or write a collegiate essay. Although the idea of simplicity flourishes, the overall knowledge of formality is a key skill to possess, but in everyday life, I do believe simple equals true.
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ReplyDeleteBennett’s article was surprising in some ways yet expected in others. It doesn’t surprise me that the average person would rather think about something familiar or less complicated versus something unfamiliar or more difficult to comprehend. However I don’t think that this necessarily means the easier is true. It simply means that it is preferred by most, and most don’t want to have to consider the logical backbone or think thoroughly through an argument; they just make a decision based on which seems easier to comprehend at first glance. But does this mean that most people don’t like spending their time and energy thinking about complex concepts and trying to figure them out? Then why is it that people like crossword puzzles and Sudoku so much?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I do agree with you in the fact that simplicity is often associated with lack of intelligence in our culture. This is true to an extent, since one must be at least somewhat well-educated in order to have an extensive vocabulary or craft multi-faceted arguments and still be clear and competent. However it is true that a deeper understanding of a complex concept is required to explain it in a simple and clear way.