PROCEDURAL RHETORICS Definitions Rhetorics Games Literacy Rhetoric with

PROCEDURAL RHETORICS

Definitions Rhetorics, Games, Literacy

Rhetoric (with an S) Rhetoric is the crafting or manipulating of a text to persuade or express Crafting or manipulating = “art. ” Art is a human creation. Text = game, movie, essay, proposal, memo, lab report, speech, sign, Power. Point, advertisement. Persuade = (attempt to) influence another person [audience]. Not necessarily to change a belief. Express = describe, show, tell another person [audience] about the speaker/writer experience. Rhetorics means that there are multiple frameworks for describing and achieving the goal of persuasion and expression.

Game, play, simulation “an activity which is essentially: Free [voluntary], separate [in time and space], uncertain, unproductive, governed by rules, make-believe. ” Caillois, Roger. Man, Play, and Games. Translated by M. Barash. New York: The Free Press, 1961. “the use of a model to conduct experiments which convey an understanding of the behavior of the system modeled. ” Gogg, T. J. , & Mott, J. R. A. (1993). Introduction to Simulation. Proceedings of the 1993 Simulation Conference, ed. G. W. Evans, M. Mollaghasemi, E. C. Russell, W. E. Biles.

Persuasive Games Videogames that align (or attempt to align the player) with specific patterns of cultural value. All videogames have persuasive qualities. However, persuasive games emphasize the procedural and visual representations of a specific cultural value � Super Mario Brothers vs. Congo Jones � Modern Warfare 2 vs. Left Behind: Eternal Forces

Literacy Ability to read and write socially relevant and accepted symbols and manipulate means of delivery of those symbols. � It’s not just reading words on a page, but its knowing how to use the book, webpage, screen. � The U. S. Department of Education defines it as prose, prose document, document and quantitative literacy when measuring literacy in schools (most governments still rely on reading prose as means of determining literacy).

Procedures Systems, rules, ways of thinking, epistemologies, processes. They are the constraints of a given situation. Governments and cultures (work, school, play, religion) formulate procedures to perpetuate a “way of being” a member of that social sphere.

Procedural Rhetoric: “the art of persuasion through rule-based representations and interactions, rather than the spoken word, writing, images, or moving pictures” (Bogost, 2007, p. ix) Playing a game means “learning” or mastering the rules of that game to succeed in that game world. To what extent does playing a game mean learning to produce objects in the “real world” or enact the activities that the game represents?

So What? Videogames are increasingly a part of cultures— being able to read them rhetorically can better help you understand how a game affects you and others Understanding how to write with procedural rhetorics can better help you understand how to make systems, rules, and procedures more effective (more persuasive). Although we are using games here, think broadly about how to effectively communicate/persuade/express using rules, processes, and procedures.

Procedural Rhetoric Literacy Understanding how to read and write the following: What are the rules? What is the significance of these rules (over other rules)? What claims about the world do these rules make? How do I respond to those claims?

The Mc. Donalds Game http: //www. mcvideogame. com/index-eng. html

Mc. Donalds Game Understanding how to read and write the following: What are the rules? What is the significance of these rules (over other rules)? What claims about the world do these rules make? How do I respond to those claims? Email richard. colby@du. edu (if collaboratively writing, make sure all the