I finished reading Covino's essay Rhetorical Pedagogy and felt as if by reading it, I now understand less about rhetoric than I did before. It is clear that he has read just about all that there is to read on the subject, what isn't clear is what he really thinks about the subject. I would have really preferred to been shown a clear argument on what he has concluded about the meaning of rhetorical pedagogy. Instead, he presents us with, seemingly, every idea about rhetoric ever presented alongside laundry lists of books and authors and seldom without even a brief summary of what these authors have to say.
My grasp of rhetoric, at least up until now, was a fairly simple notion of the search for truth. Begin with the big picture, and whittle the question down bit by bit until the focus of the big picture is captured and identified. Start big, end small. The questions are regulated by the ethos, pathos and logos, but there is still the idea of reaching, or at least attempting, to reach a conclusion. Covino manages to begin with the big picture and make it into an even larger picture, brings it even further out of focus and drops the name of anyone he could find along the way.
In his defense, there is the question of audience. Yes, anyone reading this essay may be either familiar with many of the author's ideas before reading this essay, or looking for sources for thier own research purposes. That still doesn't make it okay to list five authors, multiple times, in one paragraph within a ten page essay.
I could be making the mistake of confusing a writer writing about rhetoric with the idea of an actual rhetorician. At the same time, I have no greater an understanding of what Rhetorical Pedagogy is as there were no clearly defined terms to his essay, and certainly no moral reason for it.
I am probably totally wrong, and anyone reading this is going to think I am an idiot for not seeing some easily defined and clearly presented points jumping off of the pages of this essay. Maybe I have been blinded by my dislike for the way this essay was written.
2 comments:
i need to get my wisdom teeth out and i keep putting it off. almost a year now.
I understand your frustration, Jake. My favorite essay in the book so far is Tobin's, because his approach is more personal and his voice strong. But do re-read the introduction to the book: each author was asked to introduce graduate students to an approach in the field partly by mentioning important and useful books and scholars. I just now re-read Covino's essay, and it's useful to mark actual points he makes about the history of rhetoric and its application to writing instruction, skimming over or ignoring the bibliographic statements. But a more readable account of rhetoric for composition teachers is in a book by Erika Lindemann, A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. Perhaps I should have ordered that instead! Steve
Post a Comment