I agree with the suggestion that rhetoric defines the topes and poetry provides the examples. I don’t agree that rhetoric and poetry are distinctly different from each other. I think rhetoric uses poetic techniques in writing in what rhetoric calls arrangement. There is a certain type of presentation that is appealing to audiences and a part of poetry is focused on the way it flows. The way words are framed are an important part of both rhetoric and poetry. The way writing is framed affects the strength of the writing as a whole, and this partly includes diction which is a significant part of rhetoric. Rhetoric and poetry are both written to an audience that is not present and both are presenting an idea in hopes of making other people see certain things through their view. And another essential thing they share is the need for narration, I didn’t think automatically that narration was an important factor but when it was pointed out in this week’s reading then it made a lot of sense.

Something I question though is the sentence “to speak or write is to perform a positive ethical action” (1194). The reason I think this might no longer be true is because so much writing can be seen as unethical, the exact thing I’m thinking of is cyberbullying. Before social media made it so easy to publish our immediate thoughts without thinking, many people write things that may not be ethical and may be something that really shouldn’t have been said.