Reflection Post

As everyone around scrambles to solidify their GPAs with strong performances on their final exams and the humid breeze sweeps across Norfolk, I am reminded that summer is upon us. I, as a student and amateur scholar, fondly reminisce on the last four months, reflecting on the knowledge gained and lessons learned in a class such as Rhetorical Criticism. Into the future I take with me the thought that in an environment overflowing with advertisements and marketing, propaganda and politics, propelled by the intention of control, all messages communicated by humans may be considered rhetoric. All messages between people contain a specific intent, whether conscious or not. By looking specifically at artifacts, or texts such as videos, books, scripts and the like, an individual can analyze the encoded message when armed with the proper techniques of critique. Utilizing such techniques can provide a person with a better understanding of themselves and of the people around them. It can also supply the person with a better understanding of the society they live in and the world around them as a whole. Elevating the human consciousness to create a more self-aware society that understands why things function the way they do and how they function can only improve upon the already established basis and further build towards the future in a more positive direction.

Though it may be difficult to first grasp techniques of rhetorical criticism on a path to a more enlightened environment, learning such criticism can be helpful to all members of society assisting them in contributing positively to the surrounding community, no matter local, national, or global.
In general, a knowledge of rhetorical criticism can be applied to many questions that a person might have in life and a answer, though not always satisfactory, can be concluded from research, study, and analysis. A closer look a gay rights in reference to comments made by politicians, a look at implied messages in the children's film Toy Story, or a study into the messages of N'sync as communicated through their hit singles, can all reveal certain rhetoric as relayed by the rhetor and effectively determine a conclusion as to the views behind the words or images.
One question that I personally have would be about the ideology and justification of war. To effectively come to a certain conclusion as to what that might be, I would have to look through the texts of time and research the views as communicated by those texts and find various themes, ideologies, metaphors, and other language techniques.
In retrospect of the class with all the knowledge of rhetorical criticism, one could most certainly pose any question and develop an answer for it through study of artifacts.