What are the interactive options for practicing rhetorical figures?
December 26, 2013 3:23 AM   Subscribe

Reading it, learning it, still crap at it. How might I meet others, to master rhetoric?

I know that there are language exchange sites - like conversation exchange - which link people who wish to practice speaking their respective new language. Are there any similar sites which would allow two people to sit in a pub and deliberately practice?

Assuming there are none, what would be a good way to initiate this type of interaction? I don't necessarily want to ask my friends, unless of course someone here persuades me to.

What other mutual ways strike people as useful, aside from writing down examples alone and attempting to play with words during normal conversation? By mutual, I mean without a coach or teacher being present. I have read the fantastic answers about practice methods, and don't believe this question is answered there.
posted by King_Wang to Education (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Is there a Toastmasters group near you? It's more about practicing extemporaneous public speaking than about polishing your use of tropes and figures, but it's in the right ballpark.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 4:34 AM on December 26, 2013


Are you interested in literary rhetoric or the practical sort?

If the latter, get involved in local politics. You'll soon encounter people who'll you'll want to persuade of something as well as those who will probably want to persuade you. There will be both informal situations -- talking on the street corner or plotting in a small citizens group -- and formal ones -- like testifying before a municipal board or committee. The letter to the editor is also a handy rhetorical genre. You will be experiencing the modern descendant of the very type of social decision making where rhetoric, as a discipline, was born: that of the deliberative ancient Greek polis.

It will be practice by doing.
posted by bertran at 2:59 PM on December 26, 2013


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