OBJECTIVE: To create a text that articulates the similarities and differences among the Greek schools of thought (Sophistic, Platonic, Aristotelian).
we teach Truth – Plato/Aristotle
Sophisticated Sophists – Gorgias
My project was supposed to “look at the way each school understands the relationship among truth, knowledge, and rhetoric,” and to put them into conversation with one another. Overall, it should demonstrate my understanding of the material.
I had the opportunity to choose my medium and genre, so long as my selection was “rhetorically-based.” In other words, I needed to keep my audience – novice Editing, Writing, Media undergraduate students – in mind at all times.
As the most important part of the project was about putting the three schools of thought into conversation, I began to think about how I could do that in an informative and interesting way. I chose to create blogs and to write from the perspectives of each of the rhetoricians – they could then comment on one another’s blog posts.
This turned out to be a bit ambitious, as I had to create/set up the blogs and then add the content.
I chose WordPress as my blogging platform. I registered the domain names and installed themes. I made many conscious design choices during this period of setting up the blogs – layout, color scheme, etc.
When I began adding content, I reminded myself of the conventions of blogging. Shorter sentences and paragraphs, informal/colloquial tone, use of multiple modes. Each of the blog posts I wrote were short and sweet, and typically contained text alongside images or embedded video. I bolded and italicized important concepts. I used hyperlinks to reference outside sources.
After submitting my blogs, I was required to write a “rhetorical rationale,” justifying the decisions I made regarding my project and why I believed it was an effective text. Read my rhetorical rationale.