Between writer and reader : the relationship of the concept of audience to the teaching of composition

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Janet Fyne Cochran (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Dale L. Brubaker

Abstract: Traditionally the term rhetoric has been applied to the education of speakers on public occasions. Modem rhetoric has been characterized by a shift from spoken to written discourse and another shift from emphasis on the rhetor to emphasis on the audience. The purpose of this study is two-fold: to synthesize the major contributions to the study of audience, assessing their usefulness in the teaching of composition, and to analyze rhetorical action by presenting a model which will illuminate the relationship between writer and reader. The heritage of the rhetorical concept of audience can be traced back to the Rhetoric of Aristotle. The analysis of audience found in the Rhetoric can be of great value to students and teachers of written discourse. Aristotle treats rhetoric as an art which can be systematized, and is therefore teachable. Although Aristotelian rhetoric can be useful, it also has limitations for twentieth-century studies.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1979
Subjects
Rhetoric
Audiences
Written communication

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