Blog 2: The Five Canons of Rhetoric

 Video link: What would happen if you lost you sense of touch?

Invention: the thing being invented, in order to persuade the viewer, is the idea on how to inform the viewer about the effects of losing your sense of touch 

Arrangement: the thing being arranged, in order to persuade the viewer, are the types of content being presented. First the anecdote is displayed, followed by statistics that lead into how they could be exemplified. 

Style: the thing being styled, in order to persuade the viewer, is the video that gives viewers a visual idea of both a historical anecdote and factual information on the human body system. 

Memory: the thing being remembered, in order to persuade the viewer, is the heavy amount of factual information being presented. The credibility of the authors can be identified through the utilization of the credits. 

Delivery: the thing being delivered, in order to persuade the viewer, is the video in its entirety. A simple, straight to the point piece of contextual information that educates the viewer. 

I feel that the arrangement, memory, and delivery influenced the persuasiveness of the speech. I think that the arrangement canon adds to the video’s level of persuasiveness because, although the content was a bit heavy for me, it was arranged in a way that made it seem more digestible and understandable. For instance, using a personal anecdote, then going into statistical reasoning, and lastly the ideas being exemplified. I think that the memory canon adds to the video’s level of persuasiveness because, even though the author and the narrator are not synonymous (so we can’t make the conclusion that the narrator is a credible source of knowledge), the author’s information is still available to the viewer, who can then fact check their reliability through research. Lastly, I think that the delivery canon adds to the video’s level of persuasiveness because it’s relatively straightforward and lacks complexity. The delivery is simple, yet engaging. Now, I feel that the invention and style impeded the persuasiveness of the speech. I think that the invention canon weakens the video’s persuasiveness because I personally wouldn’t think to myself, “I wonder what would happen if I lost my sense of touch?” It just seems like a bit of a random, almost irrelevant topic of conversation, or rather contemplation, simply because a sense of touch has only been “lost” by this one individual mentioned in the video. Because the style ultimately comes down to what is being communicated, I think that it weakens the video’s persuasiveness because I felt almost a little lost with the information that was delivered in the video. I feel like it was a bit too statistically heavy which kind of made the content intimidating to take in.