1. Sep. 23, 2009 Rhetoric: Finding Your Voice Rhetoric is the art of speaking and writing effectively for interpersonal communication, either orally, or in written form. (Ref. WR - P. 142) Voice 文字的聲音: a writer’s or speaker’s ability to communicate his or her personality and vision of the world in writing or speaking. (WR – P. 6) Turning to P. 3. The CHI (Qi) 「氣」 o oo of spoken and written language: 由“氣”而“韻”;氣韻結合。文以“氣”為主。 Examples in English and Chinese:

2. Sep. 23, 2008 Why Should We Study Rhetoric? Many people feel that new information technology (IT, the Internet) will decrease or even eliminate the need to study writing and speaking. As a matter fact, new technology and new ways of communicating through e-mail, the Internet, and the discussion board (MSN, Twitter, Facebook, Plurk), etc., make the ability to write and speak well even more important in the 21st century then ever.… It is through proper writing and speaking that people form opinions of us and of our ability to communicate clearly. (WR: P. 3)

3. “Long Story” (Excerpt) by Paul Krugman, New York Times (Cover Story), Sep. 8, 2008 The economic news has been fairly dire (serious) this week. The credit crunch is getting worse, and a widely watched indicator of trends in the service sector ( 服務業 ) — which is most of the economy — has fallen off a cliff. It ’ s still not a certainty yet that we ’ re headed into recession, but the odds are growing greater. And if past experience is any guide, the troubles will persist for a long time — say, into the middle of 2010. The problems now facing the U.S. economy look a lot like the problems that caused the last two recessions — but this time in combination. On one side, the bursting of the housing bubble is playing the role that the bursting of the dot-com bubble played in 2001. On the other, the subprime crisis is creating a credit crunch reminiscent of the crunch after the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s, which led to recession in 1990.

4. The Gettysburg Address Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln - November 19, 1863

5. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (A. Lincoln, 1863) 1. Eighty-seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation. 2. The new nation was conceived in liberty. 3. The new nation was dedicated to a proposition. 4. The proposition was “that all man are created equal.” Deep (Underlying) Structure  Surface Structure

6. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared (burned) in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. (Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963)

7. "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will try to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Presidential Swearing-in 總統就職宣誓 Learning to write and speak well is important because it gives you power. You will then appreciate the CHI (Qi) of language through learning RHETORIC.