Week of September 22 Tuesday Post

Having all these rhetoricians talk about rhetoric is starting to get repetitive. They all seem to be putting their opinion on the same topic, rhetoric, and some opinions match that of others, so in a sense, to me, they are all saying the same thing, that rhetoric is important. After reading Boethius’ section I found that his personal life similarly resembled that of Cicero in the manner he was educated and raised. The passage goes on to detail some of his work.

Like I said before, this rhetoric topic is starting to become a custom topic rhetoricians discuss in their works. One original idea that I agreed with from Boethius’ reading was that “Readers may investigate each of the separate parts of the act and ignore the final product.” This idea primarily reminded me of all the reading we do for this course. As the reader, I analyze and try to comprehend what each rhetor is discussing in their writings, but like Boethius claims I always manage to find a way to understand the individual claims, but manage to miss the greater picture.

In regards to the reader, is it really our fault that we cannot keep up with a writer’s train of thought, especially that of writers likes Boethius, Cicero, and Aristotle. I believe the reader investigates separate parts in a reading to fully understand what the writer is trying to say, however in the mix of this they manage to go to in depth with the understanding that they eventually sway away from the chief point that was trying to be made. Ultimately, I blame the writer for the ignorance of the final product. An author’s writing should be understandable not extremely general like the majority of rhetors write in. With general writing comes the unfortunate reality of having to focus on separate parts of a reading too much that a reader ends up not understanding the final product as a whole.