The Rhetorical Stance: Hard to Write, Easy to Say

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a fantastic first week back!

So, while I was reading The Rhetorical Stance by good ol' Mr. Booth, I started thinking about his commentary on the difficult task of simultaneously keeping both your audience and subject matter in mind. Striking the delicate balance between what you're trying to say, and to whom you are saying it seems to be quite a difficult rhetorical task when it comes to writing. Booth goes on and on about it, giving various examples of his experiences of rhetorical failure... but, I also started to realize that though it might be a difficult thing to do when it comes to writing, we use the same rhetorical tools every day when it comes to speaking, and we do it almost effortlessly. For example, you wouldn't typically go up to the average adult cursing up a storm and going on about how hungover you are from the rager you had the night before. In monitoring your speech in front of your mother or your teacher, you are keeping in mind the relationship between speaker and audience. Similarly, you would not say, go up to your group of friends who are discussing weekend plans and start going on about the trials of childbirth and house keeping... that would be both weird, uncomfortable, and awkward. The author also talks about undervaluing the subject and over valuing pure effect. So, again, we seem to do this naturally without even thinking. Say for example, you were leading a conference dedicated to explaining the history of tortillas- you wouldn't start going on and on about the latest celebrity gossip just because you know it would get a rise out of the audience. Just because I love to hear about Brangelina doesn't mean that the Tortilla Symposium is the best place to indulge in my love for celebrity news...It just seems like common sense; this sort of filtering behavior has become second nature in our social day to day interactions, so why does it seem to be so hard to do in writing? Some food for thought! Speaking of food, I need some breakfast, so you all have a lovely day!!!