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Rhetoric

Rhetoric Midterm

In the text box, enter your question (label it QUESTION, in all caps) and directly beneath it your answer (ANSWER in all caps). Be sure to include your name in your post.

As a guide to the kinds of questions I'm looking for, use the 30 midterm review questions posted on the EXAMS page of the course website. As an alternative to writing out an answer, you can refer us to a particular page in one of our textbooks or a page (provide URL) on our course website. You may post as many questions and answers as you like up until the evening of the midterm exam. However, I will have finished making up the exam by Sunday night, October 21, so if you'd like to see your question considered for the exam, post it by Sunday evening. I can't promise that I'll use your question (or even a version of it), but the review should be helpful in any case. Each evening I'll check the postings on the forum and correct or delete any misinformation that I might find there. Posting questions and answers isn't a requirement, but there's not a single good reason not to post at least one Q & A.

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Subject:		(Q & A) (Exam Question 19 "The Ring of Time")
Name:		Jie Chen
Date Posted:		Mar 14, 08 - 8:53 PM
Email:		jaelchen@gmail.com
Message:		QUESTION: The rhetorical concept of identification, introduced by 20th-century rhetorician Kenneth Burke, is related to the classical notion of ethopoeia. Briefly yet specifically, explain how essayist E. B. White employs the strategy of identification in "The Ring of Time." ANSWER: Burke defines identification as “any of the wide variety of means by which an author may establish a shared sense of values, attitudes, and interests with his readers.” In “The Ring of Time”, White, to reveal his true emotion, puts himself into the background to observe the circus performance of the two women. He parallels the performance of the riders with his writing performance, through which he “observes and judges his own performance as well as that of the circus girl he has set out to describe.” In the other words, style-of rider, of writer—has become the subject of the essay. He admits that he has “failed in his effort to describe what is indescribable”, which implies that his artistic failure is incomparable with the natural creativity of the girl’s performance. Through writing “The Ring of Time”, Write shares his values with the readers: writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, yet they create, inform and shape life by finding inspiration within. [Jie Chen]
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Re: (Q & A) (Exam Question 19 "The Ring of Time") by Nordquist · Mar 16, 08 - 9:08 PM

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