Ball and Loewe, Bad Ideas About Writing

In the overall topic of ‘Bad Ideas About Writing’, Patricia Roberts Miller writes her own short essay with the topic, “Rhetoric Is Synonymous With Empty Speak”. Before reading Miller’s writing, it seems to me that she views rhetoric is a bad way, she compares it to empty writing, which does not sound supportive. Right when I start to read the essay, I notice that Miller’s primary audience is intended for people who do not understand what rhetoric fully is. She runs into a colleague of hers from another department and he seemingly mocks her for studying rhetoric in the environmentalist field. She then goes to explain what most people’s perception of rhetoric is. She says, “A popular view of rhetoric is that it is a straightforward model of how communication should work: A person can speak the truth simply by using words that refer to true things in the world. If she chooses not to use sentences filled with words that refer to true things in the world, then she is engaged in rhetoric” (page 7). She then goes to explain that this view of rhetoric is something added on, like in a sentence, that obscures communication. She gives the example of saying a sentence like, ‘A cat is on the mat’. This sentence is plain and normal. However, a sentence with rhetoric would look something like, “The elegant feline languishes mournfully on the expensive carpet, waiting impatiently for what he sees as his lazy servants to open a can of salmon” (page 7). Although she says most people see rhetoric this way, she describes it as something that we layer onto the proposition. In her words, “Rhetoric is clothing on the idea” (page 8). After I finished reading this text, I realized I was wrong about my initial thought of what the message was going to be. Miller, in fact, tries to justify rhetoric and explain how most people have the wrong idea of rhetoric. She thinks rhetoric is a good thing and allows writers to express themselves.