I often think rhetoric criticism as a pejorative term used in political, and most of the people wouldn’t using this technique. In the class of communication, rhetorical criticism is define as the process by which we discover how the things we see, hear, read, or otherwise experience affect us or those around us. It is, in essence, the practice of evaluating how symbols constructions in language, and other rhetorical devices make meaning in our lives.
There is some example that makes me better define rhetoric criticism. Consider an advertisement about some TV show featured poverty-stricken children in Africa, in which illustrated the water they drink was cloudy, or they smell because they rarely shower due to lack of water resource or lack of food. In company with the ad urging you to donate to a cause. Or, when you viewing a billboard on the freeway that makes you laugh and, as a result, gives you positive vibes about the company that produced the billboard. These two example illustrated that When you engage in rhetorical criticism, you will asking yourself of what is it about the communication that affected me and those around me? Why, exactly, did it make me laugh? Or feel sad? Or make me like or dislike a cause? What does it say about me, my environment, my culture, and so forth that made me and others react the way we did? In order to effectively answer those questions, you begin to evaluate the symbols, signs, rhetorical devices, language, and other communicative devices that affect the audience of a communication’s understanding and emotional reaction to a communication piece.
Rhetoric criticism is important because in a nutshell, you are communicating and you are being communicated to all of the time. Communication is at every corner of the world in which we live. It’s in political speeches, on TV, in cell phone app, in novels and plays–just about anywhere. The more you understand about the nuances of communication, the better you’ll understand how you are affected by advertising, by speeches, by the media, and by other communications around you. Perhaps even more important, you’ll also better understand how to be more persuasive, ethical, strategic, and effective as a communicator.