Synopses & Reviews
THE RHETORICAL ACT: THINKING, SPEAKING AND WRITING CRITICALLY, Third Edition teaches liberal arts students how to craft and critique rhetorical messages that influence. The text is a compelling invitation to students of Communication and Language Arts to become articulate rhetors and critics of their symbolic universe. Consistent with the first two editions, the third edition takes as its starting point a traditional humanistic approach to rhetoric. The book reaffirms the ancient Aristotelian and Ciceronian relationships between art and practice & that you cannot master rhetorical skills without an understanding of the theory on which such skills are based. THE RHETORICAL ACT, Third Edition departs from traditional textbooks in several ways. It treats rhetorical action as the joint effort of rhetor and audience, emphasizing the audience's active, collaborative role. Students will encounter critical models for recognizing the opportunities and constraints of rhetorical action. This book will help your students become discerning speakers and critics who can assess situations, conceive rhetorical possibilities, examine and produce actual rhetorical messages, and compare their efforts and those of fellow students to the discourse of journalists, politicians, advertisers and other public persuaders.
Review
"I very much like the overall orientation of this text. I fount it was quite compatible with how I teach the public speaking course. In the advanced course, I want students to understand why they need to do certain things when preparing speeches. So many speaking textbooks just give a series of lists...I think the Campbell/Huxman text gives the theoretical explanations students need to understand the reasoning behind certain actions."
Review
"I find (the text) refreshing, cogent, and engagingly written. The pedagogical approach of working from example... appeals to me."
About the Author
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. She is author or co-author of many critically acclaimed titles in rhetoric, including THE INTERPLAY OF INFLUENCE: NEWS, ADVERTISING, POLITICS, AND THE INTERNET (6th ed., 2006), as well as many journal articles. She received a fellowship at the Joan Shorenstein Center in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award, and the National Communication Association Woolbert Award for scholarship of exceptional originality and influence. She was selected as the 2002 Distinguished Woman Scholar in the Humanities and Social Sciences by the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota, and in 2007 she was selected to deliver the Ada Comstock Women's Scholar Lecture at the University of Minnesota. She has taught at the University of Kansas; City College of C.U.N.Y; S.U.N.Y. at Binghamton and Brockport; the British College in Palermo, Sicily; and California State University at Los Angeles.Susan Schultz Huxman is an associate professor and director at the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. She received her undergraduate degree in English from Bethel College in Kansas, and her master's and doctoral degrees in communication studies with an emphasis on rhetoric from the University of Kansas. She has won numerous teaching awards, including the WSU Academy for Effective Teaching Award bestowed by the Kansas Board of Regents in 2006. She regularly teaches honors public speaking, rhetorical criticism, and strategic communication in organizations. An active scholar, she has published in the field of rhetorical criticism and U.S. public address. She engages in a range of professional speaking opportunities each year to advance the discipline, develop support for the school, and showcase scholarship in action.
Table of Contents
Preface. Prologue: "WHY STUDY RHETORIC?" Part I: FUNDAMENTALS OF RHETORICAL ACTION. 1. A Rhetorical Perspective. 2. The Rhetorical Act. 3. Crafting Your Rhetorical Act. Part II: RESOURCES FOR RHETORICAL ACTION. 4. The Resources of Evidence. 5. The Resources of Argument. 6. The Resources of Organization. 7. The Resources of Language. PART III: CONTEXTS OF RHETORICAL ACTION. 8. Challenges Arising from the Audience. 9. Challenges Arising from the Subject and Purpose. 10. Opportunities and Challenges Arising from the Rhetor. PART IV: SPECIAL CONSTRAINTS ON RHETORICAL ACTION. 11. Understanding Evaluation. 12. Understanding Visual Rhetoric. 13. Understanding the Medium of Transmission. 14. Understanding Occasion. Epilogue: "WHAT IS RHETORIC?" Index.