To best understand why a study of rhetoric and rhetorical canon is valuable to me, it is important to understand my college and work background. The last time I took an English class was in 1998; however I use written and oral communication in my job every single day. I am an E# in the military and my job is a ### ###. A majority of my communication with my peers and supervisors is written via email. My emails, a majority of the time are focused on some sort of process improvement, submitting reports or some sort of accountability. One thing I never realized is my emails are rhetorical by nature, but I never thought of the concept of making them more appealing to my audience, which are generally people who out rank me. In one way or another, I am usually trying to sell an idea by focusing on the idea of how it can improve things for myself and those who work for me in my clinic. After reading the first chapter of “A Writers Repertoire” this has given me new ideas to also make my topics and proposals appealing to my superiors and better ways to lay out my emails, presentations and day to day communications. When I teach classes or do presentations, I do not do a lot of pre-planning on the topics. I use personal knowledge and experience. Sometimes when I have to teach one lesson, multiple times, I notice they all come out differently. I lack in having a consistent layout or go by and do not necessarily cover everything with one group one that I do with another. Using the five canons of rhetoric would probably aid me in creating presentations that would be more effective, especially since I have a wide range of audience from doctors, nurses, medics, medical assistants, and administrators.
In my opinion, using the rhetorical canons; invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery will assist me in my day- to- day interactions, bringing a more professional appeal to my writings and will help accomplish my goals in a more organized matter. This is a class I probably should have taken a long time ago, but my goal of this class is to be a better presenter whether it is in my written emails or my presentations, even just my everyday interactions. This is such a broad topic and I am anxious to explore it to its entirety throughout this course.