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New RhetCanada (CSSR/SCER) Website and Media

RhetCanada (the Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric/La Société Canadienne pour l’Étude de la Rhétorique), has a shiny new website and new media. Our old website has been retired.

Come visit our new site and see the preliminary information on the 2019 RhetCanada conference at Congress in Vancouver. Our Twitter feed is now named @RhetCan, and our Facebook names will soon be updated as well.

The CFP for our 2019 meeting will be posted shortly, and will be publicized through our mailing list and social media.

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In memory of Michael Purves-Smith

Dear CSSR / RhetCanada members and associates, it is with sadness that I share news that one of our long-term and most cherished members, Michael Purves-Smith, passed away this week.

[Photo uploaded to the obituary website by the family] 

See his online obituary at http://dreisingerfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/1071/Michael-Purves-Smith/obituary.html#content-start

Michael and his wife Shannon Purves-Smith have contributed to the society for decades both separately and in partnership, playing many roles in the executive and committees and faithfully attending yearly CSSR conferences.

Michael’s gentlemanly kindness, organizational wisdom and deep intellect will be missed. He has left a strong legacy on our scholarly organization, and more importantly, he will be kindly remembered and respected in the hearts and minds of those who have worked together with him on committees, heard his presentations, shared meals or adventures with him, or discussed ideas with him. Michael has also left behind his writings for us to enjoy and ponder. He was not only a strong rhetorician and rhetorical critic, but he also used his eloquence as an active participant in Canadian and global society and culture, doing his best to leave an ethical, creative, and powerful impact on his audiences.

We thank you, Michael, for a life lived so well.

Dear Shannon, we send out our thoughts to you at this time and sincerely wish you and your family and friends comfort in your time of mourning.

Tania S. Smith
Current President, CSSR

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2016 TED-Ed video gives overview of rhetoric

You might be interested in sharing this short instructional TED-Ed video to give students or friends an overview of Aristotle’s 3 genres and 3 appeals and how they can be used.

“How to use rhetoric to get what you want” (04:30), posted Sept. 20, 2016 by the TED-Ed YouTube channel https://youtu.be/3klMM9BkW5o

The title sounds like it teaches how to use rhetoric for selfish ends, but the content focuses on public rhetoric and encourages ethical use of rhetoric through ethos, argument, and cautions about pathos.

Full video information is on the TED-Ed website at http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-use-rhetoric-to-get-what-you-want-camille-a-langston

  • Educator: Camille A. Langston
  • Script Editor: Alex Gendler
  • Director: Hector Herrera
  • Producer: Pazit Cahlon
  • Sound Designer: Nick Sewell
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CSSR Social Media update, August 2016

I’d like to introduce our CSSR-SCÉR Website & Social Media team and explain what’s going on in the world of our CSSR Social Media forums.

First, join me in giving sincere thanks to our current Website & Social Media team!

  • Tania Smith, CSSR Webmaster and Social Media admin since 2012
  • Ryan McGuckin, CSSR webmaster assistant, and CSSR-SCÉR Google+ co-admin since 2015
  • Brandon Katzir, CSSR social media assistant, and Twitter co-admin since 2015
  • Bruce Dadey, CSSR Webmaster co-assistant, and Twitter co-admin since 2016
  • M. Shivaun Corry, CSSR Facebook, since 2016
  • David Beard, our current CSSR-SCÉR Secretary, also holds the webmaster’s backup & password files just in case the webmaster becomes unavailable to do her work.

With the help of this team, our association has a greater ability to publicly engage those who choose to “follow” us on social media.

CSSR-SCÉR Social media is intended to complement, not replace, our website. Although our website is restricted to more “official” executive announcements and “academic” information (such as Job Ads and Calls for Papers for rhetorical studies), our social media posts can cast a wider net by also sharing articles and media that are broadly relevant to discussion of “rhetoric” or “eloquence” in the public forum and rhetorical studies in general.

Our pages on Google+ and Twitter are also publicly accessible to people without login, thus increasing our association’s reach and relevance.  This is one way our association stays engaged with our people and the public.

Currently, our social media is integrated in a “chain” of forwarding and accumulating posts from one forum to the next:

  1. All our CSSR blog posts (news) get automatically posted to CSSR Google+ and CSSR Facebook.
  2. On our CSSR Google+ page, we share additional material that may be relevant to our followers on G+.  We also post on two interactive “community” pages that we host, where members can also post material:
  3. All our official Google+ posts made by our Google+ assistants (including posts forwarded to G+ from our website blog) get automatically fed to our CSSR Twitter page.
  4. Our CSSR Twitter assistants add more material to our feed and keep it active and relevant to our Twitter followers
  5. Our CSSR Facebook assistants add material to the Facebook page. (Due to technical difficulty and settings, Facebook cannot easily accept an automatic feed from our Twitter page, but it does mirror our CSSR website posts.)
  6. Our CSSR Twitter feed is publicly accessible online and in a “widget” in the left-hand sidebar of our CSSR website.

Therefore, even if you are not a user of any of these social media outlets, you can view our Social Media activity on our website. Just scroll down on any CSSR website page and look in the left sidebar under the menu.  There, you’ll see our public Twitter feed, which includes all the posts that have s accumulated on Google+ as well as Twitter.

If you use Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, we encourage you to join or follow us there!

Sincerely,

Tania Smith,
CSSR-SCÉR Webmaster, and President 2015-2017

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New CSSR Posters for 2015

A new 8×10 CSSR/SCÉR poster and 2×6 bookmark are now available.

See them on the Posters page of our website.

I have also created a “campaign” series of four 4×6 postcards with messages and quotations about rhetoric, eloquence or oratory.  Each card comes in a French version & an English version. They are great for sharing on social media.

I will bring some postcards, bookmarks, and “Rhetoric is majestic” and “Rhetoric is useful & good” cards for distribution at our conference next week.

Submit a postcard idea

I also welcome submissions of content for additional postcards with a similar design. Not every postcard can be printed due to cost, but they would be shared on our website and social media.

I’d need a complete postcard concept, which includes the following:

1) a brief 2-3 word persuasive or informative message about what rhetoric is, or does, or can do, ideally using the word “rhetoric” or “eloquence” or similar terms that identify rhetoric.

2) a very short, pithy quotation with a citation that develops the idea of the poster’s message. This has to be very short to prevent it from being too small print.

3) AND, for PR materials for our bilingual society, we need the content of the message and quotation in eloquent French and English. Please do not send content in only one language because it can take a lot of time to find or make a good translation.

Send your complete, bilingual content ideas to webmaster@cssr-scer.ca.  I will select and edit the content as necessary for postcard design, and all PR materials will be reviewed by the Executive committee.

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CSSR Social Media update, May 2015

ethos, logos, pathos
Image by Brett Jordan, used for our Google+ community on Rhetorical Criticism, History, Theory. Click to view source.

As part of refreshing our CSSR-SCER website this month, I enriched our society’s Social Media presence by adding links to our existing Facebook and Google+ pages on our website sidebar.

In order to generate more discussion, I’ve also created 2 new Google+ communities:

1) Rhetoric in Canada

2) Rhetorical Criticism, History Theory

Posts to these communities (and the 2 additional pre-existing rhetoric communities we joined) will appear on our public Google+ page at https://plus.google.com/+CssrscerCanada/ and add to the activity there.

If you are a Facebook or Google user, consider following our social media pages and sharing your thoughts, images, or links. It’s a way of linking your own profile to rhetorical studies as well. Our Facebook and Google+ pages have seen little to no activity for years, but I hope they’ll see more activity in future as part of their increased presence on our website and on Google.