Calinda Blair Assignment

(Ironically, I have decided that some of my students are preparing to enter the church.) My students will primarily focus on Blair's "The Eloquence of the Pulpit" for the written critique of Truth's speech.

Critics could argue that Truth's speech imitates the form of a sermon. Does the speech follow this form? Determine whether she demonstrates
• Just cause
• Popular eloquence
• that her Object is always and ultimately persuasion
• Gravity and warmth
• Proper choice of subjects.

Additionally, if the above analysis leads you to conclude that the speech could feasibly be termed a sermon, though it didn't take place in a religious context, does it demonstrate the following qualities that constitute an effective sermon according to Blair?
• Unity
• Precise and particular subject
• Not saying all that can be said upon the subject
• Rendering the subject interesting to the hearers
• Not preaching from a popular style in vogue

What effect does this possible sermon quality have on Truth's speech and overall message?

As for the second part of my assignment, I am going to rely on Lecture X, "Style." In this instance I am again trying to critique what I see as a flaw in Blair's theory, which I also want my students to see. Actually, this chapter kind of enraged me. So, I want my students to see the faulty, rather snobbish princilpes at work in the New Rhetoric.

Blair asserts that purity and perspicuity (114, 116) are crucial to a rhetor's style. He defines them as follows:

Purity is the use of such words and constructions as belong to the idiom of the language in which we speak; in opposition to words and phrases that are imported from other languages, or that are obsolete, new-coined, or used without proper authority (114). (He later amends this assertion to say that these derivations from the idiom can be used VERY sparingly, and only when absolutely necessary.)

Propriety is the selection of such words in the language as the best and most established usage has appropriated to those ideas which we intend to express by them (116).

The students must construct a (very) short letter to a family member requesting a favor. They must, however, utilize perspicuity (no derivations from the idion of our language) and purity (i.e. look up all descriptive words and verbs in order to ensure their use in this situation is appropriate.)

What I'm hoping the students will learn is that's it's essentially impossible to follow Blair's prescription of style, and that they as rhetors will have to use Taste (!) in order to determine whether the word is appropriate for the situation.

I think this is a super-hard assignment and that my students (even if they are fictional) will hate me a whole lot. :)