THE MODERN PERIOD OF RHETORICAL THEORY: 1500-1900

Identifies six features of the shift from script to print:

1. Dissemination:Print stimulated greater cross cultural exchange. Both scholarly and pious activity increased.

2. Standardization:Uniform images and typography influenced awareness of differences, including regional customs, styles, and languages.

3. Reorganization:Reorganization of texts and reference guides--rationalizing, codifying, and cataloging data--led to repeated recourse to alphabetic ordering.

4. Data collection:The new technology made errors and inconsistencies more visible leading to higher standards of scholarship.

5. Preservation:

6. Amplification and reinforcement of existing trends: Printing accelerated the decrease in Latin and the increase in the use of vernacular languages. Whereas they underlay and encouraged the spread of literacy and aided the creation of mass and class cultures, such developments also contributed to political fragmentation. As they facilitated national unity and social cohesion, they also contributed to internal differentiation.<

Five major changes occurred in the system of communication from the Medieval period to the end of the modern period.

1. Logic dissolved its alliance with communication and became part of the theory of scientific investigation. It answered DesCartes' call for a logic of inquiry to replace the logic of demonstration.

2. Rhetoric attempted to expand its interests to become the theory of learned discourse while remaining the theory of popular discourse.

3. Rhetorical invention went from "topics" to "facts."

4. Rhetorical arrangement went from complicated structures to simple ones.

5. Rhetorical style went from a highly self-conscious use of elaborate language to simple, ordinary expression.