“Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America” – Herndl and Brown

The reading “Introduction” in the book “Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America” has two authors. The first author, Stuart C. Brown, a professor of rhetorical criticism at the University of New Mexico. The second author of this writing is Carl G. Herndl, another professor at the University of New Mexico, he teaches more about discourse theories than rhetoric.

Compared to some of the readings that we have read in the past, this one was more light than others. Therefore, I feel that this piece of writing was more likely targeted towards other professors or people that are interested in the study of rhetoric. It is found in a book that is a collection of essays. Throughout the piece, the authors bring up many different types of rhetoric. They also bring up many different definitions of rhetoric that have been used in the past. They quote many different writers who have studied the same topic as them. They use many examples of how rhetoric can be used and different examples of how people use it. One example that they talk about is through the environment and politics as well.

The way that the authors describe rhetoric, it makes it seem like they want the readers to notice how rhetoric can be used to view real world problems. They bring up the topic of politics and environment a lot throughout the reading. They want you to know how crucial rhetoric is. Although many definitions in the past make it seem like it can be between two people, this article shows how dominant this way of speaking can be used in a much larger way. They say that it is important to use rhetoric to people and in the right place. It can also be used to help analyze the interaction between people and how they speak to each other.

The purpose of this reading is to show how big rhetoric really is. How it can be used to persuade such a big group of people than just smaller groups of people. They bring up the topic of discourse groups and how vital they are with human interaction.