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Jennifer Miller
Wolcott
ENC 3331
June 16, 2015
Rhetorics Symbiotic Relationship with Citizenship
Rhetorical citizenship baffles, and for good reason. A database search would leave you
with a multitude of answers, wide-ranging in their handling of the term. The word itself is
unwieldy and full of ambiguity. This ambiguity takes forefront as the main contributor to the
variety of definitions because rhetoric and citizenship contain vagueness. To obtain an
understanding of rhetorical citizenship, its uncertain nature must first mitigate. By breaking
rhetorical citizenship down into the separate phrases it is composed of, a better understanding of
it may be obtained.
The dictionary definition for rhetoric from Merriam-Webster reads as follows: the art or
skill of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence
people. While a dictionary definition provides a foundation to work from, it should not be
regarded as the gate-keeper of all knowledge. If it were so, an individual would have to refer to
Merriam-Websters definition of formal, effectiveness, persuasion, or influence, also. That in
mind, the definition is deceptively broad, as are most. Speaking and writing live as everyday
actions, performed by most individuals. When a person speaks, writes, or communicates in any
fashion, they are doing so with the intention of conveying something. Whatever they choose to
convey, they believe it important or relevant to whomever is receiving the message. This applies
to both professional and personal interactions. As Palczewski goes on to explain in Rhetoric in
Civic Life:

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When Aristotle defined rhetoric as an ability in each [particular] case, to see the
available means of persuasion, he made clear that the options open to rhetors and the
demands placed on them differ from situation to situation. The challenge to a rhetor is to
determine what options exist to communicate a message in a particular situation.
Communication does not occur in a vacuum, but in a particular place, at a particular time,
as part of a particular socioeconomic and cultural context, about a particular topic and to
a particular audience. (201)
The aforementioned phenomena is not exclusive to formal situations. People constantly
evaluate others stances, likes, dislikes, habits and build their relationship through this
knowledge by tailoring their interactions with separate individuals. Rhetoric works highly in
subtlety; realizing this, nearly any kind of interaction could then be classified as rhetorical.
Rhetoric, at first glance, does not appear to be so intertwined with our everyday life due to the
fact that it has been severed across multiple subjects. Leith, author of Words Like Loaded Pistols,
states that The rhetoric handbooks of our age are now to be found in the business sections of
bookshopsbooks that promise to teach the would-be tycoon how to manage up and manage
down with the appropriate people skills, how to shape a companys ethos, how to get your
message across (17). The belief that rhetoric is just formal writing is inherently harmful
because it devalues the impact of everyday actions which shape our society. Topically, there
have been debates in gender and racial issues and societys view on these issues. These topical
issues revolve around rhetoric in every sense, in the past and presently. As an individual
expresses an opinion, or lack thereof, through any medium they contribute to the masses which
serve to build society. Similarly, during our effort on campus safety this past semester, we
interacted, or communicated, with people and the environment. As a member of the map plotting

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committee, I had to traverse the campus to survey the surroundings and plot out the locations of
all emergency lights. By communicating with my environment for a purpose, I performed a
rhetorical act. For these reasons, rhetoric stands as the act of communication in any form to
convey intention or influence an environment and its inhabitants.
In the same way that rhetoric is an all-encompassing term, citizenship is also a
multifaceted thing. As Wan notes in her paper, In the Name of Citizenship, the capacious
nature of the term citizenship contributes to the lack of attention to concrete civic goals and
allows for its too-infinite flexibility, (3). The term is dependent upon an individuals definition,
and what they consider vital to the ideal. Citizenship often brings up a plethora of synonyms,
rather than a single action or defining statement; helpfulness, respectfulness, responsibility,
engagement and many others are among this list. Arguably then, citizenship encompasses many
things rather than a singular. Though confusing, the flexibility of this term is as equally
important as the flexibility of rhetoric. That said, rhetoric and citizenship are certainly different.
Citizenship is best defined as any action which serves to improve an environment or its
inhabitants. Though similar sounding to rhetoric, its difference is clear. Rather than attempting
influence a surrounding, citizenship requires an action with a more tangible outcome. By this
definition, citizenship embodies action and performance, rather than the more subtle nature of
rhetoric. I would consider, for instance, the campus safety project to largely embody citizenship.
By surveying and creating content, we are performing actions which aim to affect and change the
environment for the betterment of its inhabitants. Our actions for campus safety, in which we
walked the campus asking for surveys or recording data, classified as citizenship and also as
rhetoric.

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Armed with this knowledge of seeming contradictions, rhetorical citizenship makes itself
apparent. Rhetorical citizenship is engaging in citizenship by means of rhetoric. Despite its
redundancy, it can be made sense of through use of the previously defined terms. In longer
words, rhetorical citizenship is taking action by engaging with an environment or its inhabitants
in order to convince and better said environment or its inhabitants. By combing the use of action
with influence, it is possible to improve a society visibly and invisibly. Rhetorical citizenship
possesses a nature of duality, in which blatant and subtle components work together to create a
stronger movement. These components appear contradictory, but instead have something akin to
a symbiotic relationship. Recognizing its duality only serves to strengthen its impact and use.
When an individual understands the complicated essence of rhetorical citizenship, they are less
likely to fall prey to potentially crippling misunderstandings and are able to fully utilize.
Rhetorical citizenship and its duality has been displayed in our campus safety project by both
committees, separately even. The survey committee performed citizenship by taking the action to
create a survey, question individuals, and log those results. The committee performs their
rhetoric as they question individuals, the mere presence of the survey causing students to
reevaluate as they answer. The large, clear action of surveying mixed with the effect of
influencing students to consider the issue work together to create rhetorical citizenship. The map
committee performed its citizenship by traversing the campus and creating the maps. In this case,
this same action is defined as rhetoric also, though its subtlety is hard to see. Because rhetoric
can be achieved by communication with the environment or its inhabitants, some of the effects
are more difficult to see, for instance, it is harder to observe an under-handed effect on the
environment. Although the committees have operated separately thus far, their combination of
work has been an insightful lesson for myself on understanding and appreciating the relationship

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between citizenship and rhetoric. By becoming a participant of rhetorical citizenship, I allowed
myself to grasp its necessity, enabling the ability to use it in any of its multiple ways.

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Works Cited
Leith, Sam, and Sam Leith. Words like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama. New
York: Basic, 2012. Print.
Palczewski, Catherine Helen, and Richard Ice. "Rhetorical Situations." Rhetoric in Civic Life.
State College, Pa.: Strata Pub., 2012. 201-229. Print.
rhetoric. Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2015. Web. 17 June 2015.
Wan, Amy J. "In the Name of Citizenship: The Writing Classroom and the Promise of
Citizenship." College English 74.1 (2011): 28-47. Print.