Wayne Booth Rhetoric Summary

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Wayne C. Booth’s book The Rhetoric of Rhetoric: The Quest for Effective Communication was chosen for review as an adjunct to our textbook, and what we have discussed throughout the semester about persuasive communication and rhetoric. Booth spent thirty years as a Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Chicago, and associated with its school of literacy criticism. He spent his time as a student at Birgham Young University and the University of Chicago. He began his teaching career at Haverford College, and then moved on to Earlham College before finally becoming an instructor at the University of Chicago. In addition to critical writings, Booth cofounded and coedited the quarterly Critical Inquiry. Some of Wayne C. Booth’s other works include The Rhetoric of Fiction, A Rhetoric of Irony, Critical Understanding, The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, The Craft of Research, and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals. Wayne C. Booth’s purpose of this book is to explore the importance of rhetorical studies. Throughout the book, Booth gives multiple examples of how rhetorical communication is used in almost every walk of life, and can only be improved if we study it …show more content…
Booth did accomplish what he set out to do in this book, and that was to advocate for the decreasing art of rhetoric. He came in with a clear vision of what points he wanted to get across when it came to the history, the consequences, and listening-rhetoric. Booth provides numerous amounts of examples in each chapter, and section that go along with the topic he is discussing that way you understand why. He gives examples of what people know, and what people can relate to, so that they can put themselves into the situation. The only bias I can see the author having is political; he has a lot of comments towards the Bush administration, which can deter some audiences from reading. Other than that, I believe the thesis Booth set for the book was