Precis 8/25

Consigny, Scott. (1974). Rhetoric and Its Situations. Philosophy & Rhetoric, 7(3) 175-186.
Scott Consigny's rhetoric explanatory piece, "The Rhetorical Situation" (1974) asserts that rhetorical situations are tools and we are able to change exigencies with our given tools. Consigny argues one can try and respond to exigencies to change them. By thinking of exigencies as tools helps us escape the idea that we can’t change all of our exigencies because they do matter. Consigny is presenting his own argument in response to Bitzer and Vatz. Consigny is speaking to Bitzer, Vatz, philosophers, and those interested in studying rhetoric, bringing the idea of exigencies back into the rhetorical study world. 
"In part one I argue that Bitzer correctly construes the rhetorical situation as characterized by "particularities," but misconstrues the situation as being thereby determinate and determining" (176).
I think it is interesting to see that Consigny agrees with parts of Bitzer; however, he creates an argument against Bitzer alleging he is too "determining"in his studies. 
"The rhetor's task is not to answer questions and solve well-formulated problems, but rather to be able to ask good questions and to formulate or discover relevant problems in an indeterminate situation" (177).
I think this is a strong statement that really allows the reader to understand the point Consigny is attempting to argue, showing us how to use the tools we have to change our exigencies. 

Losh, Elizabeth, Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon. (2014).Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's 35-63.
Losh, Alexander, Cannon, and Cannon's "Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing" explains the rules of rhetoric and the meaning of certain words like "ethos, pathos, logos" to create a guide for understanding rhetoric. The guide uses a series of comics to explain key information of rhetoric using funny pictures to capture and hold the readers attention. This point of this piece is to give readers a better understanding of how to write and why rhetoric is important to everyday life, especially in writing. The article is meant for those who are new to rhetoric, need a refresher on rhetoric, or simply want to expand their knowledge on the subject.
"Actually, the ancients developed the concept of rhetoric to facilitate discussion" (37).
This quote was interesting to me because I always thought of rhetorical questions as something that aren't meant to be answered (as seen in the text), so learning that the word has the opposite meaning came as a surprise to me!
"ETHOS is the credibility that a speaker or writer brings to the subject that he or she is communicating about" (44).
I found this page extremely helpful and I know it will behoove me in the future, so I wanted to be sure to mark it down! Knowing a strong definition of ethos, pathos, and logos, along with examples will engrave them into my mind so I am always aware of them when writing!