Literary and Rhetorical 2/15/18

The objectives of today's class were "To identify literary/rhetorical devices" And then to "Evaluate the impact of rhetorical devices in an argumentative speech." After we were done going over the objectives Mr. Rivers then told us to wish our group members a good morning and to talk about the differences between literature which is a noun and the adjective literacy. He told us to compare that to Rhetoric which is also a noun that comes from Rhetorical which is an adjective. When we were done discussing the difference, he then told us to write down the actual definitions. Literature is narrative writing that is intending to tell a story. An example of that would be the Great Gatsby written by F.Scott. Fitzgerald. And a rhetoric is used more for argumentative writing. The definition is intending to persuade someone to something. And an example of that would be Michael Moore's documentary which argues that gun laws are too lose. After that he then had us figure out whether a metaphor would go into a piece of literature or an argumentative piece. Some argued that it was just literature because you can be comparing the characters, the setting, and the themes. Where as to an argumentative piece you can have a negative connotation or could be comparing two different argumentative pieces. If you really think about it, a metaphor can be used in both of these types of writing to either further your story or to prove a point. After we were done with that, we went back to the beginning of the year and talked about literary devices. As a group we talked about what one we knew and then as a class we went over all of them. We didn't get to talk about whether they can be used to further our argumentative essays but we will eventually get to that. After that we went on to listen to a speech that we will later examine the argument and what literary devices support it. We didn't have time to finish the speech in class today so we will be doing that tomorrow.

Overall, I think it would be very useful to know what literary devices help prove a point and what ones can further a story. You can be able to use this in college when you are doing hundreds of research papers and essays. It will be useful in the long run to know that literary devices can be used in both argumentative and narrative writings. Knowing how to write Narrative and argumentative essays can help you in college and knowing literary devices can help you make your writing stronger.