Every Wedding is a Story

To put it in general terms, it is only natural for humans to assess a situation based on their natural and physical surroundings, relationships between those in the situation, and the context of why they are together, what they are doing, and what happens in the event of the situation.  After all, we are a self aware and self centered species; how we see ourselves is greatly tied to how we perceive these situations and relationships. “The narrative perspective focuses on the innate nature of human beings to understand and interpret the world around us through storytelling.” (pg 37, RPPC) In our self-awareness, and attachment to this perspective, we are dependent on stories - setting, characters, order or events, time, etc - to connect us to each other in the only ways we as humans can understand: how things happen, why they do, and what does that have to do with us?

I am getting married in less than 2 months. The story goes: a girl and a boy met while they were in a band together. They fell in love, got engaged, moved in, got a dog, got a joint bank account, and have the honeymoon all planned out. The conflict is, as it usually is, the wedding. How big will it be? Who’s invited? What kind of food, music, decorations, color schemes, dress, tux, shoes, hair, will they have? They decided to get married in at a Court House, and have a small dinner with the immediate family - mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. No one else.  However, as family members got wind of the small ceremony, it grew in size, and now they are having a wedding (active event). So the questions still remain...how big, who, what, where? At least we already know why they are getting married. Yes, love. (stative event).

Although it is a short version of the real story, it is cohesive because it is believable, and ultimately probable. The main issue of the story is the wedding, and the wedding is dependent on the reasons for having one - here, it is for family members to participate in the celebration. Therefore, it is good moral to have a wedding because of the values in family.

While the wedding is centered around two people getting married, it also stands to bring two families together, adding to the historical importance of family. The marriage between two people create and add to the historical and moral significance of human interaction. It can even be argued that it is a part of our innate need for a life partner, and for human procreation.

What this implies, as we have seen by the result of the conflict in the narrative, is that it is an accepted and predictable to have a wedding. While there can be exceptions to the case (where we tried to be an exception), it serves to show that having a wedding is appropriate behavior, even necessary, to getting married. In an effort to tie two families together through marriage, the wedding enforces family ideals and makes the marriage real (although it still would have been, wedding or not).

Rhetorical Negotiations

In any given rhetorical situation, a good rhetor should be able to identify their surroundings - the event itself, timing (kairos), and what kind of rhetor to be depending on the audience.

I am in the process of becoming a professional writer, in whatever context really, and it’s one of the reasons I returned to school for a Certificate in Public and Professional Writing. I also had the goal of participating in, and taking full advantage of, all the opportunities going to school can offer.  

One of my main goals was to to write for the school paper; and I’ve added editor to my list. In returning to school, I found rhetoric. I also found myself in rhetorical situations I had not been in before, and am discovering how my decisions go through a process of negotiation, even at the smallest level.

Style and arrangement go through negotiation because  of timing, audience, and the rhetorical situation itself. First, different components of different situations govern the rhetorical decisions being made by a rhetor.  Writing news for a paper requires understanding of the Associated Press style. It also requires a writer to have a specific, unbiased (unless it’s an opinion piece), regulated style and arrangement. The object is to capture the audience with the first sentence, the lede, a rule of arrangement for the specific rhetorical situation. 

While there is not much negotiation allowed in the application of the rules when writing for the paper, the social dynamics in those who write, and produce the paper, require a strong need for negotiation. 

A rhetor must understand when to seize a moment - kairos - in order to adapt to changing dynamics in the rhetorical situation. Just like in any job, I have to be professional and eager to learn. Yet, since it’s a school news paper, the atmosphere seems more laid back than it would be at the Herald, for example.  When talking paper business, the style becomes professional, to the point. When having a general conversation between co-worker, speaking style changes, and there is no arrangement at all. A rhetor must understand when to seize a moment - kairos - in order to adapt to changing dynamics in the rhetorical situation.

Writing for class, writing for the paper, or writing a short story - for there to be a successful message relayed to an audience, style and arrangement must be intentional, and adaptable. What I find interesting is how the flexibility of stylistic decisions - tone, conversational vs professional voice, etc) in a situations can be of better use in a kairotic moment; arrangement can be of better use planned before hand, yet, depending on a given rhetorical moment in a situation, a rhetor should be ready for movement within an arrangement, without affecting style.

A rhetor must be prepared for change, and understand that style and arrangement go hand in hand, and this is a reason why style and arrangement must be negotiated.  When a moment presents itself to veer of an arranged path, that is both a style and arrangement choice. At the same time,  a rhetor can decide on a style that lacks arrangement completely, where it is still a negotiation between the two, and on how to use them together, and standing alone.

Although there is little room for negotiation in arrangement and style when writing for a news paper, I the news paper experience (situations, working for a paper, and audience) rhetorically intertwined, like a big working rhetorical machine.