Critique Me

Commonplaces

2004-12-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

In ancient thought the terms topic and commonplace were used interchangeably. However, in modern thought these two terms have come to mean different things. The term topic has come to mean a place wherein the argument or the point of discussion is located. When referring to commonplaces, we are talking about the area in which a group of people share a common understanding of the topics being discussed in the discourse. A good example for commonplace is found at this website. This website is CNN’s homepage. Here there are many topics and commonplaces addressed throughout the website, all of which draw on the fact that the audience understands CNN only delivers the truth in a objective format.

Stasis

2004-12-12T15:50:00.000-08:00

In my persuasion class we learned about the rhetorical and legal principle of stasis. Stasis is a structural method that is used to determine the exact point of disagreement between a speaker and an audience or basically just between two disagreeing groups. There are four categories that the system of stasis contains that serve as a funnel for determine the problem. These four categories are conjecture, definition, quality, and policy. Using this system you ask a series of questions which help to break down the problem in a simplified manner.
An example of a type of topic that would be simplified using the system of stasis would be a student caught cheating on a test. First, using conjecture, we ask were they cheating on the test? Once there is an agreement, we move to Definition where we ask, What is cheating? If everyone agrees we move to Quality where we ask, Was it right or wrong? If there is an agreement on that finally we arrive at policy where we ask the question, What should the punishment be? Using this system we can arrive at a clear answer to the problem of cheating.

Reaction

2004-10-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

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