A change in Style, in Topics, and in Attitude

Originally, this blog was made so that I could blog about Humor in our lives, and how it related to the topics discussed in my Rhetoric of Laughter class. However, with permission from my new professor, I am able to change this blog from humor to Gender (which I had intended to do anyway even before I started this class - see this post) in order to further my studies.

Although humor may still come into play for this blog, the focus will be primarily on gender and how I see it, what is changing, and how far we've come. I hope you enjoy reading this!

P.S.: Professor Rensing, please do not count this as my first blog post, this is for my other followers...all four of them!

First Entry: Working Definition of "Rhetoric"

In order to fully understand this blog, readers will have to have a basic understanding of what Rhetoric actually means. Prior to taking this class (and, heck, even a little today) I had no clue what Rhetoric was. And the average reader (anyone outside this class) may be in a similar boat. So to provide a background, this first post will be a basic definition for an understanding of what is to come.

Rhetoric, through history, has been defined as the art of persuasion. Arguably the most well-known name in the study of Rhetoric (although many may not know he wrote about it) is Aristotle. Aristotle, however, is not the end-all-be-all of the study of Rhetoric. Lloyd Bitzer and Richard Vatz (among others of course) have also studied (at length) Rhetoric.