QQC2

Isocrates claims that our ability as human beings to persuade each other and to make our desires known is what distinguishes us from animals. He states that speech has played a role in all inventions, or specifically, the institutions of human beings. He further states that speech is also how humans learn right from wrong and how they tolerate or address the unknown. An interesting claim that Isocrates makes given Bitzer’s theory of rhetoric and rhetorical discourse is that humans utilize speech to resolve conflict within their own minds. Although Isocrates doesn’t explicitly address or issue a theory of rhetorical discourse, he does suggest that humans are capable of creating rhetorical discourse when dealing with internal conflicts. It is unclear whether or not this claim contradicts Bitzer’s theory or not, but at the very least, it raises the question of the limitations and definition of audience with respect to notions of rhetoric and rhetorical discourse because audience is crucial to how Bitzer defines whether or not any discourse that may occur is ultimately rhetorical. And so I guess my question would be how do other people see the intersection of Isocrates' and Bitzer's ideas? 

Yauncey does a good job of citing how the advancement of technology has presented new challenges in establishing the worth and relevance of English departments and suggests a model of teaching genre and their applications to preserve our relevance in light of the trend of changing technologies, but I wonder if anyone out there might be unconvinced that scholars of English and writing necessarily need to rise to the occasion of mastering all these changing technologies in order to justify their presence in the academy or if our skill sets and the seemingly perpetual deficit in English and writing education might be enough? Does anyone feel that fitting in a comprehensive curriculum in writing and writing technologies might in fact further complicate the successful education of college students with respect to writing in light of the never ending complaints that students don't write well?