Back Packs Versus Briefcases

      The article Backpacks vs. Briefcases:Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll  states"...our saturation in media and its images is one of the reasons why learning to do rhetorical analysis is so important. The more we know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgments about the people, situations and media we encounter" (p.46, Carroll). This is important information to have not only for writing but life in general, because the more perceptive and insightful we become about outside information, whether that be the media or just normal conversions with friends, the more we learn how to analyze the information and use it to our advantage. This allows us to become better critical thinkers, become more conscious of our behavior and our own writing.  Carroll also states, that understanding rhetoric is essential to being an informed consumer in today's society. We have messages coming at us from all different directions, constantly. We need to be informed, cautious, critical, insightful thinkers so we can weed out the things that are credible and matter versus the things that are not credible and do not matter. Carroll writes, "If we refuse to stop and think about how and why it persuades us, we can become mindless consumers who buy into arguments about what makes us value ourselves and what makes us happy" (p. 47, Carroll).
      Almost everything is rhetoric. It is how we influence others through written language, spoken words, pictures, and so on. Persuasion is huge, and to not be persuaded is very challenging, especially when something,an image, an article, or a person, seems so convincing. This is why it is imperative to analyze and be critical of outside information. Carroll quotes Kenneth Burke, a rhetorician, "...rhetoric is everywhere: wherever there is persuasion, there is rheto- ric. And wherever there is ‘meaning,’ there is ‘persuasion"(p. 47, Burke, Carroll).  There must be meaning for there to be persuasion, because without the meaning behind the idea, or the item you cannot argue for or against, you cannot agree or disagree. Meaning must come first, because it has to have substance, effect, and significance for there to be persuasion. Rhetorical context is extremely important, because it is about when and where the message is heard, seen or read. Exigence, audience and constraint are all part of rhetorical context and play a role in how we receive messages. The most vital part of all of this is what the writer or the person sending the message is trying to argue, say or make you believe. 
     It is so interesting that many, if not most, never think about rhetoric, or think about how messages effect the decisions we make or how we use rhetoric in our daily lives. It is the smallest things we do, that may can impact someone else. Without realizing it, we see and use rhetoric every single day because rhetoric really is everything.