Applied Rhetoric

I think rhetoric is pretty cool stuff.  It is the heart of all communication.  I enjoy reading and talking about rhetoric, but that is never enough.  Rhetoric is always philosophical and theoretical.  I never see enough people actually applying their rhetoric.

The irony is that rhetoric is all around us.  It's communication, and how often are we ever not communicating?  The only question is how well we are doing it.

I think of rhetoric as the art of taking a scene, thought, feeling, or belief that is in your head, and transferring it to another person's head with the least amount of signal decay possible.  In that case, you can test yourself in everything you do.

When you tell a story to your friend, how well does your friend get what you said?  How many questions need to be answered or reanswered?  When you're at work, can you explain something to your boss in a way that is not angering or would do anything else to make or a negative workspace?  If you re a salesman, can you communicate that the item you sell really is worth the money and that they would be better off having it?

Talking shop is great, but talk is cheap.  If you think you have a firm grasp on how to communicate effectively, then start doing it.  The only way to know if your theory is worth a damn is to apply it.  Then you know for sure.