Harold G. Barrett

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Harold G. Barrett is an American Emeritus Professor of Speech Communication at California State University. [1] He is also a writer [2] rhetorician [3] on the subject of ethics [4] and civility [5] [6] in communication.

Contents

Early life an education

Barrett earned an A.B., 1949, and an M.A., 1952, from the University of the Pacific. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1962 from the University of Oregon.

Career

During his career Barrett published a number of books. One of his better known works, Rhetoric and Civility Human Development, Narcissism, and the Good Audience, was published in 1991. In this book Barrett discusses classical rhetorical theory and interprets it for use in all interactions, exploring origins in infancy of the rhetorical disposition and the rhetorical indisposition. Barrett provides four case-study chapters of the lives of individuals illustrating unhealthy narcissism and rhetorical failure, and illustrates how unfavorable narcissism can give adverse direction to the rhetorical imperative and lead to problems in relationships. Barrett offers a rhetorical corrective. [3] [7]

Barrett also published a number of journal articles on various subjects related to rhetoric and effectiveness in verbal communication, [8] both currently and in historical context. [9] [10]

For many years Barrett was the coordinator of California State University's Conference in Rhetorical Criticism. [11]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Public speaking Performing a speech to a live audience

Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking to an audience, including pre-recorded speech delivered over great distance by means of technology.

Rhetoric Art of discourse

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic, is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. Taking place in Athens in the early fifth century, the demos "the people" created "a strategy for effectively talking to other people in juries, forums, and the senate". Aristotle defines rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion" and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law, for passage of proposals in the assembly, or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies; he calls it "a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics". Rhetoric typically provides heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. The five canons of rhetoric or phases of developing a persuasive speech were first codified in classical Rome: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

A sophist was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught arete – "virtue" or "excellence" – predominantly to young statesmen and nobility.

Gorgias was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. "Like other Sophists, he was an itinerant that practiced in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to ask miscellaneous questions from the audience and give impromptu replies." He has been called "Gorgias the Nihilist" although the degree to which this epithet adequately describes his philosophy is controversial.

Isocrates Ancient Athenian rhetorician

Isocrates was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and written works.

Kairos Right or opportune moment

Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning 'the right, critical, or opportune moment'. In modern Greek, kairos also means 'weather'.

Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and how the artifacts, as discourse, inform and instruct, entertain and arouse, and convince and persuade the audience; as such, discourse includes the possibility of morally improving the reader, the viewer, and the listener. Rhetorical criticism studies and analyzes the purpose of the words, sights, and sounds that are the symbolic artifacts used for communications among people.

Visual rhetoric is the art of effective communication through visual elements such as images, typography, and texts. Visual rhetoric encompasses the skill of visual literacy and the ability to analyze images for their form and meaning. Drawing on techniques from semiotics and rhetorical analysis, visual rhetoric expands on visual literacy as it examines the structure of an image with the focus on its persuasive effects on an audience.

Techne is a term in philosophy that refers to making or doing, which in turn is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root "Teks-" meaning "to weave," also "to fabricate". As an activity, technē is concrete, variable, and context-dependent. The term resembles the concept of epistēmē in the implication of knowledge of principles, in that "both words are names for knowledge in the widest sense." However, the two are distinct.

Ethos Greek word meaning "character"

Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of Orpheus exhibit this idea in a compelling way. The word's use in rhetoric is closely based on the Greek terminology used by Aristotle in his concept of the three artistic proofs or modes of persuasion. It gives credit to the speaker, or the speaker is taking credit.

Incivility is a general term for social behaviour lacking in civility or good manners, on a scale from rudeness or lack of respect for elders, to vandalism and hooliganism, through public drunkenness and threatening behaviour. The word "incivility" is derived from the Latin incivilis, meaning "not of a citizen".

Elocutio is a Latin term for the mastery of rhetorical devices and figures of speech in Western classical rhetoric. Elocutio or style is the third of the five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the craft and delivery of speeches and writing.

<i>The Education of a Christian Prince</i> Book by Erasmus of Rotterdam

The Education of a Christian Prince is a Renaissance "how-to" book for princes, by Desiderius Erasmus, which advises the reader on how to be a good Christian prince. The book was dedicated to Prince Charles, who later became Habsburg Emperor Charles V. Erasmus wrote the book in 1516, the same year that Thomas More finished his Utopia and three years after Machiavelli had written his advice book for rulers Il Principe. The Principe, however, was not published until 1532, 16 years later.

The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's Rhetoric, to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies.


Robert L. Scott was an American scholar influential in the study of rhetorical theory, criticism of public address, debate, and communication research and practice. He was professor emeritus in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of five books, numerous articles in speech, communications, philosophy, and rhetoric journals, and contributed many book chapters. His article "On Viewing Rhetoric As Epistemic", is considered one of the most important academic articles written in rhetorical studies in the past century.

Jim A. Kuypers is an American scholar and consultant specializing in communication studies. A professor at Virginia Tech, he has written on the news media, rhetorical criticism and presidential rhetoric, and is particularly known for his work in political communication which explores the qualitative aspects of framing analysis and its relationship to presidential communication and news media bias.

Fred Newton Scott

Fred Newton Scott (1860–1931) was an American writer, educator and rhetorician. Scott received his A.B., A.M, and Ph.D from the University of Michigan. In the preface to The New Composition Rhetoric, Newton Scott states “that composition is…a social act, and the student [should] therefore constantly [be] led to think of himself as writing or speaking for a specified audience. Thus not mere expression but communication as well is made the business of composition.” Fred Newton Scott saw rhetoric as an intellectually challenging subject. He looked to English departments to balance work in rhetoric and linguistics in addition to literary study.

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References

  1. ↑ https://www20.csueastbay.edu/oaa/files/docs/DirectoryEmeriti.pdf [ dead link ]
  2. ↑ Speech and Drama. Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama. 1980. p. 33.
  3. 1 2 Steven A. Beebe; Susan J. Beebe (March 2002). Public Speaking: An Audience-Centered Approach . Allyn and Bacon. p.  53. ISBN   978-0-205-35863-2.
  4. ↑ Steven A. Beebe; Susan J. Beebe (27 January 2014). A Concise Public Speaking Handbook (4th ed.). pp. 41–.
  5. ↑ Clella Iles Jaffe (1995). Public speaking: a cultural perspective . Wadsworth. ISBN   978-0-534-23064-7.
  6. ↑ Tom Shachtman (11 September 2007). Inarticulate Society: Eloquence and Culture in America. Simon and Schuster. pp. 161–. ISBN   978-1-4165-7679-2.
  7. ↑ Gregory Spencer (2 July 2010). Awakening the Quieter Virtues. InterVarsity Press. pp. 91–. ISBN   978-0-8308-6748-6.
  8. ↑ Winifred Bryan Horner (1990). The Present state of scholarship in historical and contemporary rhetoric. University of Missouri Press. p. 209. ISBN   978-0-8262-0763-0.
  9. ↑ Omar Swartz (1998). The Rise of Rhetoric and Its Intersections with Contemporary Critical Thought. Westview Press. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-8133-9089-5.
  10. ↑ Bernard L. Brock; Robert Lee Scott (1980). Methods of rhetorical criticism: a twentieth-century perspective . Wayne State University Press. p.  379. ISBN   978-0-8143-1648-1.
  11. ↑ Duane H. Roen; Stuart C. Brown; Theresa Jarnagin Enos (5 September 2013). Living Rhetoric and Composition: Stories of the Discipline. Routledge. pp. 71–. ISBN   978-1-136-77365-5.
  12. ↑ Richard L. Johannesen; Kathleen S. Valde; Karen E. Whedbee (9 January 2008). Ethics in Human Communication: Sixth Edition. Waveland Press. pp. 241–. ISBN   978-1-4786-0912-4.
  13. ↑ Susan C. Jarratt (1998). Rereading the Sophists: Classical Rhetoric Refigured. SIU Press. pp. 99, 103. ISBN   978-0-8093-2224-4.
  14. ↑ James A. Herrick (2001). The History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. Allyn and Bacon. p. 50. ISBN   978-0-205-31455-3.
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