My previous definition of Rhetoric consisted of being persuasive by having the ability to communicate information at the correct time and for the correct audience. However, after reading passages from Quintilian and Cicero, I have updated my definition slightly. While I still consider Rhetoric to be persuasion through communication, this persuasion not only involves what you say but how you say it. Basically, it is speaking well and providing adequate information regarding the topic at hand, successfully persuading the individual(s) present to accept your point of view.

Christine is basically stating how men and women are a, in their own rights, checks and balances to one another. However, with women being in the position given what society deems them as, it is rather difficult to have any power in this checks and balances system. With that being said, she is expressing what good woman can do and what good may come of it.

The scenario in which she talks about men’s tendency to go to war could be hindered by a woman’s emotion expresses this. (pg. 547)

The Good Man is important to Roman rhetoricians because good men are known to have exceptional character, and character is an extremely important value in Rome. Herrick even says, “Character was an extraordinarily important element in the social and political milieu of Republican Rome” (91), and that character was more or less a fixed quality that “demands or determines” a person’s actions. (91) Therefore, an individual with good character will be a good man and a good man is more successful at rhetoric than a man that isn’t.

Final Draft Warlitner B)-11jn7ki

1.) Before this class I hadn’t the slightest clue of what Rhetoric was. I had always thought of it as just a fancy word for English, but now that I’ve been exposed to the writings, discussion, etc, I am confident in saying that I know where Rhetoric came from, who brought it, problems it faced, things it was used for, and how its definitions and uses can still be debated even today. I also learned through research on my paper that while education was beginning to become more widespread with the Sophists teaching in public places like the agora, the sharing of ideas from one person to another was taking place. You had the higher class whose education consisted of “book smarts” and years of rigorous, scheduled training, the middle class whose education was not as drawn out as the higher class but still prevalent, and the lower class whose education was based on whatever trade they happened to be involved in.

2.) In my opinion, class discussions were the most effective because, as you may know, the readings can sometimes be very difficult to piece together and understand. In class discussions helped because they would always paraphrase the writing and, for lack of a better term, put the readings into a language I could understand. If I had issues with the meaning of a term or phrase, it was as simple as highlighting it in the text and asking about it in class. This I found extremely helpful.