Thursday, September 17, 2015

Making Your Words Go Further

When writing rhetoric, your choice of words and style may seem like the most critical component of your piece. This is especially true due to the way that we learn our writing and our speaking skills in school. At least for me, in past years, English classes have been pretty much entirely dedicated to textual components, things like ethos pathos and logos. After reading chapter 4 on kairos however, this view of mine has changed considerably. Now it seems that a speech or a magazine piece that is timed well, even if may not be written amazingly, has a much larger impact than a well crafted piece that has missed the kairotic moment. Timing and taking advantage of the pressing issues of the day has such a profound impact on how your piece will be received. 

Being able to harness kairos rather than letting it slip away is the difference between a successful piece and a piece that gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the world. News sites try to hold onto this kairos by linking (hopefully) relevant articles at the bottom of headline news stories. They realize they need to take advantage of the situational opportunity in order to make their smaller stories get the views they need to stay in business.

In fact, when you think about it, many businesses, especially those whose success depends on page views, rely on kairos. Take YouTube for example. They have employees who are entirely dedicated to tweaking the 'related videos' algorithm in order to supply the most rhetorically relevant videos to the viewers in order to 'strike while the iron is hot,' to get them to watch just one more video, to get one more ad shown.

Kairos is such a universally relevant element that is used everywhere, even if we may not consciously think about it. We have to know when to talk to get the largest impact, companies must know when to present their products to customers to get the most viewership. Kairos amplifies your message, letting it reach a larger more receptive audience.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 18, 2015 at 6:42 AM

    I think you nailed the concept of kairos. I also like how the title of your blog has pretty good practical meaning. In a world where everyone is trying to be heard, whether in face-to-face communication or via the internet, it's important that we make our words go further. Rather than exhausting yourself in the wrong situations, I think your blog showed how investing your energy just at the right moment will be most effective.

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2015 at 6:43 AM

    I also did not know much about kairos but now, like you, I recognize that it is a very useful tool that can be very beneficial in an argument. Your post shows that you have a clear understanding of kairos and how it used.

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  3. Brooke Cichocki - Technology-Assisted Music Learning ReflectionsSeptember 18, 2015 at 6:50 AM

    I am definitely guilty of clicking on links to articles or videos "recommended for me." Kairos is certainly very effective on me. I liked how you pointed out that all an article needs is proper timing to be considered effective and to gain publicity and media attention. I think that Kairos is the most interesting topic that we have visited thus far and you did a great job expanding upon it.

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