Williams 1-44

Although this week's blog assignment consisted of reading quite a bit of history which I personally dislike but I still enjoyed reading about some of my favorite philosophers. The first page talks about how important composition is that some professionals refer to rhetoric as "rhetoric and composition." Think about it what ever we write for assignments, reports for a job or internship or anything at all it is to persuade or influence someone or an audience. That is how important composition truly is, we need it at every aspect of our daily life.
As a student I would have to agree myself that teaching writing is becoming more and more complicated today. I feel that half the time teachers are expecting students to focus on methods without fully understanding those themselves. That leads to a serious discrepancy. It is true that a good teacher will always try to influence a student in a way that will improve his/her performance. Then comes my favorite part - "the greek philosophers." My most favorite has to be Protagoras. I actually put up his quote as facebook status about men himself being the sole judge of his beliefs the moment I read it!
I think his teachings are so straight forward and most importantly it relates to justice and respect for others. That is me or at least I try to be that way, respect everyone and judge no one but yourself.
Aristotle is definitely my all time favorite. I loved how Aristotle called rhetoric an art and that produces something specific. And the fact that he unlike his teacher, Plato, did not obsess over using rhetoric only for the common use for speakers. Rhetoric is an art it is an art of persuasion...the art of rhetoric.
The last few pages talks about contemporary rhetoric and composition. It basically gives us an idea of how conditions are only getting worse now. I will go back to my first statement of how teachers expect students to focus on methods that the teachers are not fully sure of themselves. We see how the Harvard model failed to to change the situation of reducing unsatisfactory writers. I think another problem with teachers is that they try to teach the way they were taught as students. I think that is a big problem simply because each student is different and they have different styles that need to be approached differently.