Defining Composition

My first definition of composition was a little too stupid for me to feel comfortable sharing with other people without fear of being thought a complete idiot. Hopefully my second attempt won’t be so sad, although I feel I can hardly do the term justice in 600 words as we’ve spent an entire semester trying to accomplish the task. Nevertheless, here I go.

On the last day of class I wrote: “composition is a way to create, define, and argue one’s opinions and ideas of and to the world.” However, I’ve decided now, after taking 3360, after discussing and perusing the idea of composition from all sorts of angles, that this definition also falls short. Composition means something more personal to me, something that I struggle for words to explain. To compose is to attempt to sway another individual, or perhaps the rest of the world, to your point of view. It is to define yourself, to stake a claim, to question, agree, refute, describe, and craft. Essentially, I suppose I feel that composition, any composition, is rhetoric, an attempt by an individual to make his or her mark and change something about the world, whether that thing be something as grand as moving a country to fight a war, or as small as reaching out and sharing emotions with a friend.

I arrive at this conclusion by combining the thoughts of many higher authorities on the subject than myself. I will collect a few of these ideas here in this blog so that perhaps my meaning may be better understood.

My absolute favorite scholarly definition of rhetoric is that given by Plato: Rhetoric is the “art of enchanting the soul.” Many ancient Greek philosophers pondered discourse. Aristotle described rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion,” and went on to identify three types of rhetorical proofs: logos, (the use of reasoning) ethos, (character and credibility of the speaker) and pathos (emotional appeals). All rhetoric, and therefore all composition, utilizes one or more of these proofs to gain credibility or power.

Toulmin’s argument structure shows us exactly how to break down an argument, and basically how persuasive language works. In sophisticated arguments, we make claims and provide data which implies some sort of warrant based in logos, ethos, or pathos. Using his structure, we can break down the language of Swift’s A Modest Proposal. We should eat babies, proposes Swift, because they taste good. He gives his audience data: one of his friends ate a baby and confirmed that it did indeed taste good. This implies that people will always eat things that taste good, regardless of any other moral beliefs they might hold in regards to the substance of their lunch.

In Seeing Voices Sacks presents us with the case of Joseph, a boy born deaf with no language. The article seemed to highlight the power of language and its importance in how we as human beings separate ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom. From language comes developed abstract thought and empathy.

In Mile’s Born Cannibal it is suggested that human beings, in spite of our “unexamined consensus in popular biology that our species managed to out-evolve the four billion-year pattern of the rest of nature,” are still cannibalistic beings. The only reason, proposed by Garrison, that we do not eat one another under normal circumstances is because through language, and ultimately through composition, we gain morality. Abstract language is what makes us “human.” It becomes unsettling for us to eat another thinking, feeling creature like ourselves.

The value of teaching composition, then, would seem obvious, for only through composition may an individual be so empowered and civilized. Without knowing how to effectively express him or herself, a person is at an incredible disadvantage. Without understanding the power of words, a student may frequently say things which they did not truly intend to say, or seem to promote ideas that he or she had not though deeply about. This was made most evident to me through the article presented to the class by Kelly, “I Thought Composition was about Commas and Quotes, Not Queers.” It illustrated perfectly the necessity of encouraging students to analyze more critically their choice of words. It is crucial that educators in the field of composition pass on what they know so that future generations can continue to grow and develop as human beings.