JIME PrePrint Under Review

Published
14 Nov 2000

The Rhetoric of a Rhetoric Website:
Inquiry, Pedagogy, and Scholarship

Gideon O. Burton

Dept. of English
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84663
(801) 378-3525
GideonBurton@byu.edu

Presented at "Emerging Rhetorics": A Symposium in Rhetoric
Federation of North Texas Area Universities / Texas Woman's University
April 30 - May 7, 1999

Abstract: The world wide web provides a unique environment for discovering, organizing, teaching, and publishing academic information. These conventionally separated activities can be pursued simultaneously on a website due to the flexibility of this nascent medium, creating both opportunities and pitfalls. This paper relates the account of one scholar/teacher/webmaster's experience in developing an academic website devoted to the history and terminology of rhetoric, Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. In order to serve the multiple purposes of inquiry, pedagogy, and scholarship, certain basic rhetorical concepts must be closely observed within the web environment, including arrangement and delivery (organization and presentation of information), and audience (addressing both specialized and general audiences simultaneously). This requires a familiarity with those features of web design, access, and promotion that can enhance or can detract from each of these purposes. Attending to those rhetorical principles and features can lead to the most productive exposure of web information, can improve the usefulness of web information for teaching purposes, and can promote the professional validation of scholarly web publication. Research, teaching, and scholarship should have a productive and dynamic inter-relationship, and the creation of an academic website can significantly aid that relationship if the properties of this medium are understood and respected

Demos Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

Next Section