Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer 2025 writing seminar crafted blog posts exploring Rhetoric & Composition. Over the next several weeks, we will share their work in this space to bring visibility to their posts and offer a variety of perspectives on pertinent topics within Rhetoric & Composition. These posts are written by graduate students currently in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.
The Social Turn of Rhetoric
By: Georgia Emert
According to the A Theory of Contemporary Rhetoric (2013) book, Andrews sees
rhetoric as an artform that is embedded with communication and language skills and works to persuade and argue. Andrews believes that rhetoric is not simply about persuasion. He sees rhetoric as the expressions and interactions that happen. It is the meaning-making for those that are not understanding. Andrews wants to see a more modern approach to rhetoric: multimodal and digital. Similar to ancient rhetoric, Andrews sees it as an art form that shapes thought and culture, but in a modern society (with a digital modern twist) (Andrews, 2014).
Like ancient rhetoric views, modern rhetoric uses strategies that are not solely for conveying information, but about vibing with the audience (Pandey, 2025). Rhetoric of today’s era must identify with the audience if it is going to be effective.
Today’s society includes multimodal rhetoric- meaning, multiple forms of communication (text, email, phone calls, videos, etc.), digital, and visual platforms (OpenAI, personal communication, June 14, 2025). The Pandey (2025) article shows how digital images gain traction as they circulate online. This is highlighting how visual rhetoric spreads like wildfire and multimodal rhetoric is constantly seen (Pandey, 2025). Pandey (2025) briefly discusses how Aristotle provided the framework for understanding persuasion, but today’s rhetoric is of the visual era and multimodal rhetoric is particularly effective at
persuasion. Multimodal rhetoric is not just a supportive element, it can actively shape discourse (Pandey, 2025).
Overstreet (2024) states that rhetoric took a social turn in the 1980s: it went from being a more individual discipline to political and institutional. Multimodal rhetoric can make actors out of politicians (Dragan, 2022). Politicans can use multimodal forms of communication to build their political brand and awareness (Dragan, 2022). Then, politicians can make connections with the audience and be on an emotional level (Dragan, 2022).
Essentially, digital rhetoric is the use of digital and multimodal tools to create meaning, connect with audiences, and shape discourse in online and visual spaces. In the modern era, digital rhetoric is the practice of putting writing into online platforms to gain better circulation (more circulation means more views and more views means more money- in some cases).
Citations
Andrews, R. (2013). A theory of contemporary rhetoric. Taylor & Francis Group.
Drăgan, N.-S., & Fârte, G.-I. (2022). The multimodal construction of political personae through the strategic management of semiotic resources of emotion expression. Social Semiotics, 34(3), 464–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2022.2128740
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (GPT-4o) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
Overstreet, M. (2024). Liberalism in rhetoric and composition: An ideological history and
(re)definition. Composition Studies.
Pandey, S. (2025, March 20). Rhetoric in action: A multimodal and rhetorical analysis of PETA and Animal Justice Online Advocacy. Computers and Composition.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461525000118