Why Rhetoric is Important in a Discourse Community

As a health teacher, you must talk to different people in different ways using rhetorical appeals. For example, if you are talking to another colleague or an administrator, you will tend to use more logic because you want to sound like you know what you're talking about. However, if you're talking to a student, you might try to be more emotional to talk to them because often, adolescents listen to emotion more than reason. A situation where this might happen would be if you're talking about how cigarettes are bad for you.

With a colleague, you could use statistics and research studies. With students, they may understand more if you show them a video of what smoking does to their body and how it can affect their life financially, physically, and socially. Using rhetoric in a discourse community such as teaching health is important. You must understand who you're talking to, and if you want to relay information, you should consider which way would work best - logically, morally, or with emotion.

Over the course of the semester in Writing & Rhetoric 150 class, I had to practice how to locate rhetorical appeals through secondary research as well as primary research. In our first project, we had to do secondary research by analyzing a document in our discourse community and a website. The document I chose was a class syllabus for a physical therapy class. In this, I located logos, ethos, pathos, Kairos, and constraints. For my website, I tried to keep it closely related to my document, so I chose the American Physical Therapy Association. On the website, I also found logos, ethos, pathos, Kairos, and constraints. At the end of the project, I had to tie together everything I found and concluded what rhetorical device I felt was most used.

My second project, which was my primary research, required me to interview someone in my discourse community. After the interview, I had to interpret the different ways this person uses rhetoric in their discourse community by finding logos, ethos, pathos, and Kairos. My participant was Jourden Armstrong. Jourden teaches health at Flushing High School in Flushing, Michigan. She graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in teaching health. After interviewing Jourden and interpreting rhetoric in her discourse community, I had to close the project explaining how I will use my findings from the first project and the second project in the future. The project I am doing now involves gathering up my primary and secondary research and concluding it all in one big project. I am going to show how rhetorical appeals are used within this discourse community.

Understanding how teachers use rhetoric is important not only to teachers but also to students. We, as students, must understand why a teacher teaches a certain way, why they talk a certain way, and why they present themselves in a certain manner. It is important because it demonstrates how teachers employ different methods to help us comprehend the information. Every time a teacher says something, their primary concern is ensuring you understand the topic. They aim to do this in a way that enables success in their class. As a teacher, they care about your success, and thus, they may present themselves and communicate differently to a student than they would with a colleague. Understanding the way that teachers use rhetoric and why they use it can foster a greater respect for teachers. Often, students do not comprehend why a teacher may lecture a certain way or why a teacher assigns group work. This project will help students achieve a better understanding of the teaching methods their teachers use and foster increased respect between student and teacher.

I plan on presenting this project through PowerPoint. I chose PowerPoint because I believe it is the most effective way to relay information in an organized and efficient manner. I plan to start by posing a question to my audience: have they ever taken a health class? Since it is required to teach health, I already know the answer. This question is designed to set the tone for the project by proving a point. I aim to demonstrate that health education is essential and that the profession of teaching health is more important than it appears. From there, I will explain my reasoning for choosing to teach health, acknowledging that I will not be making a significant income. I will conclude that portion of the presentation by discussing the various roles a health teacher must undertake.

After explaining why I want to teach health and describing what I expect to do as a health teacher, I will present my findings from my primary and secondary research. Regarding my secondary research, I will provide a brief overview of what the document is about, followed by an explanation of how I found rhetorical appeals within the document. I will proceed to do the same for my website. However, since my primary research involved an interview, I will approach this aspect slightly differently. I will talk about my participant and why she was credible for my interview. After providing a brief description of my participant, I will discuss my findings from her interview, focusing on the different ways she communicates within her discourse community and who she talks to. Instead of quoting her on how she uses rhetorical appeals, I will discuss the three main rhetorical situations a teacher must handle and how they employ rhetorical appeals to suit their situation. The three scenarios I will address involve the teacher communicating with students, other colleagues, and a student's parents.

In each of these situations, I aimed to keep the presentation engaging by showcasing clips from movies such as Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Blind Side, where teachers are placed in these rhetorical situations. I selected these clips as the movies are widely recognized and can make the project more appealing and relatable. At the end of the project, I will explain why it is crucial for teachers to use rhetoric and how it influences a student's learning process. I will conclude by summarizing the main points of my PowerPoint presentation.

My goal is to get my audience to understand why using rhetoric is especially important in the profession of teaching health. I plan to achieve this by giving examples verbally as well as visually. Teaching health is an important discourse community because it helps adolescents understand their bodies and helps them in other ways to remain healthy. I hope to leave the audience with a much better understanding of the different ways a health teacher accomplishes their job by using rhetoric.

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