“From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies” – Jenny Edbauer

Jenny Edbauer, a professor apart of the english department at The Pennsylvania State University, writes “From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies”. This writing is found in an academic journal. This piece of writings talks about what rhetoric is and how many other writers and philosophers. In this writing, Edbaur times in many other definitions of rhetoric that have been used in the past. She goes into great depth into explaining what each of these authors meant when they gave their definitions. For this piece of writing, the main audience for this writing is other scholars that are studying what rhetoric is and how it can be used. I came to this assumption based off of how dense the writing is and what language is used throughout the writing. They use language that seems too complex for regular people who are just invested in the subject.

Edbaur asks many different questions about what rhetoric is and when exactly is can be used. Throughout the piece of writing talks about when rhetoric can be used and how exactly it is used. Along with other writers that we have read in the class, this author talked about how situations. Edbaur believes that rhetoric is based a lot of of the situation and who you are around. One of the main things that this author is trying to show is how many different definitions there are of rhetoric and how throughout time it has changed and so many other people have their own definitions of what this word means.

In this reading, Edbaur brings up the concepts of discourse and how that can affect rhetoric and how one uses it. She talks about how within discourses one can and will act different based off of who they are with and the situation that they are in. She talks about how persuasion is apart of rhetoric. This is similar to many other philosophers define rhetoric.