This week in Dual-Credit English 1302 was a fun one, as we took a look into how rhetoric affects daily lives in marketing as we tried to sell candy by the wrapper alone, which proved to be a lot harder than what one might think. We also saw how rhetoric should not be used in the form of the poor website and business practices of some companies offering to write papers for students. It brought up a good conversation about what counts as plagiarism and what doesn’t, and served as a helpful reminder that plagiarism comes in all sorts of forms, and that companies will even try to get you to pay for them to plagiarize for you! (If you’re not going to write a paper, at least plagiarize your paper yourself and save some money.) It also reminded me that there are a ton of scams out there, and that a strong knowledge of rhetoric and when it is effective can help you to not be tricked by these sorts of things.
Picking a time I used rhetoric in real life was hard this week, as I could not figure out what to say, or which moment was worthy of analysis. However, I settled on an encounter I had with my best friend, Kam. For background, Kam has been best friends with a guy named Thomas for several years, since they were in elementary school, but the thing is, Thomas is inherently problematic in almost everything he does. No one really enjoys spending time with him outside of Kam, and lately he has been getting ruderer than usual with her. He claimed stuff was ¨rightfully¨ his when he had no merit and some other things that were just rude, but her main issue that day was over a DnD discord that Kamdyn runs. His character was just being rude for being rude´s sake, and was not correct for what he said he was going to play, and this had been causing problems for Kam long-term as none of her players wanted to speak with him. I had been trying to convince her to talk to him about it, or preferably, ask him to leave the session. She had been justifying his continued staying in this session as it was ¨rude to ask him to leave.¨ Kam is using mainly using pathos in her argument, stating many emotional reason as to why he could not leave this session, or why she could not talk to him about his character, the main reason being she did not want to upset him.
I countered with the argument that leaving him in the session was affecting other people and making them upset, and clearly making her upset. I then used some logic basically saying that if he continued in the session, it would cause the story to fail as the character he is playing is not the character originally promised, leading to a void in the plot. I also brought up a bit of ethos, stating that he is undermining her authority of her position as the Game Master because of him refusing to make new character when she asked him to, therefore ruining his own credibility.
I was successful in my argument, further confirming that more than one form of rhetoric is much more effective than one.
As I mentioned in the last blog post, I will be spending time reflecting on how rherotic can help make a fictional character more likeable, or more believable in the sense of my personal DnD campaign. The entire plot is about making my party members believe that the game is good, and for them to convince their fellow members that they are not the one that holds the card of The Betrayer. There are interesting reasons as to why everyone has their own ideas as to who is The Betrayer, and no one has caught on to the one that actually bares the card. I will be discussing why one particular character has not been found out as The Betrayer, and why I do not think she will be long term.
The character is named Enrima, she is a blind bard who seems like an okay enough character and doesn’t poke her nose where it doesn’t belong like her fellow party members do, often minding her own business and playing a more calming element to the mass chaos of the party and game. However, she seems to have an almost divine knowledge of where and when things are gonna happen, and is incredibly powerful and has been since the beginning. Yet no one suspects her. This is because my friend Kam, who plays her, and I have built such a strong rhetorical argument against any suspicion the party may have had towards her.
To start with the more logic side of the argument, we must look at Enrima in terms of class and her physical disability. I stated at the beginning of the game that The Betrayer would have to fight of The Leader of the party in an almost equal fight to the death that would result in one of the two sides´s death. The party leader in question is a level twenty Paladin, who is seemingly immortal. Her base damage is consistently over 25. There is no way a bard would even have a chance comparatively, not like some of the other party members could. On top of the fact that Enrima is also blind, it does not make sense, in a logical manner, that Enrima could give the party leader an almost even fight, let alone win because of the spells she has and her given class.
The next thing to consider in Enrima´s credibility is her character itself. She is neutrally aligned, which one may think makes her more suspicious but is played so well that everyone trusts her regardless. Enrima has gotten close with all the party members, but as not seemed desperate or a bit too eager to make these connections. She has been defensive for her closer friends, been there for every party member at least once when they were emotionally struggling and gone out of her way for her party’s mutual benefit. She doesn’t seem to have any alternative motives due to the fact that she has been a good friend, she has stayed and helped people when it did not benefit her, but more importantly she seemed genuine because of the way she went about it. She did not pry, she instead sat there next to them, talked very little or more if they needed it and played her music. This action was building emotional trust with her team, bonding with them in order to gain trust. She was building an emotional bridge between her and her party in a way that didn’t seem forced as it was consistent in the means of her character.
The logical and emotional means that were used in convincing the party that Enirma is innocent has built up her own credibility so much that not a single person suspects her.
Citations
Dice- my friend took a picture of their dice for me
Liz Doolin, Lab Blog for English 