EMPATHY!!!!!!!!
This
week’s assigned reading for my grad class really struck a chord with me. We
read “Changing the Subject: A Theory of Rhetorical Empathy” by Lisa
Blankenship. And seriously, don’t we need more empathy right now? As a world,
as a country, couldn’t empathy take us far?
But
that’s not the focus of this blog post. This blog post is focusing on where empathy
can take our students and our teaching. What does empathy in the composition
classroom look like?
Blankenship
describes this as a form of Feminist rhetoric, and explains that “Feminist
theory holds that the personal, the body, and difference are vital factors in
decision-making and deliberation.”
Most
of writing composition classes, especially for persuasive writing, are
influenced by theories of Aristotle. Logos, or logic, becomes the main basis of
argumentative writing. But logic and facts don’t actually persuade anyone, a
reality that is expanded on in this excellent article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-convince-someone-when-facts-fail/
The solutions offered at the end of this
article are interesting, but they don’t use today’s magic word: empathy. But
isn’t listening and showing understanding a form of empathy?
Logos
is a great, fancy Greek term made famous by Aristotle. But there are other
great fancy Greek terms. Like pathos. Pathos is an appeal to the emotions. Using
empathy to appeal to emotions can be a more effective form of persuasion, or at
least a most effective dialogue. And while Blankenship treats the idea of
putting logos and pathos together like it’s a new concept, it’s actually
something journalists have been doing for decades. How many times have you read
a news article that starts with a human interest element, like “Due to pandemic,
single mom Kelsey has been out of work, and now is facing eviction” then that’s
followed by some nice hard logos with facts and figures on how many Americans
are now facing eviction? By providing readers with this human element, we are
creating empathy in our readers. People being evicted are no longer impersonal
numbers, they are Kelsey the single mom. This is an impactful way to write, so
why is it foreign to our composition classrooms?
Empathy
also looks like forming connections with those one is trying to persuade. If
you know your audience, then you should understand them enough to relate to
them on some level. For example, as many of you know I’m a far left liberal,
and I am vocally pro-choice. One of my dearest friends is firmly pro-life. I
will never, ever persuade her to switch camps. But we have found common ground
through sensitive and empathetic dialogue: we are both for better sex education
in school and more easily available contraceptives. And if that isn’t a form of
being pro-choice, I don’t know what is.
So
what kind of assignments can we give students that incorporate both the
personal and the logical in a way that creates persuasive empathy? The book
offers the example of assigning a literacy narrative or a narrative about
education, and then assigning students to write a persuasive piece about
education that incorporates parts of the narrative essay. This meshing of two writing
assignments does sound like a helpful assignment. As Blankenship describes, “The
use of the personal in the form of stories disarms an audience through identification
(“You’re like me on some level”) and so can help bridge gaps in understanding
across marked social differences.”
I’ve
actually been teaching writing that combines ethos and logos for several years
now in one of my classes that I teach. An argumentative composition course, I
teach several essays in this course that I love. On the first day of class, I
have students list different identities that they hold. These can be anything
from racial/ethnic identities to identities we take on ourselves, like pet
owner and book lover. I make a list of identities that I hold on the board as
an example. Then we brainstorm a list of cares/concerns that we hold based on
these identities. Then I have students pick the one they are most interested in
to focus on their writing for the semester. We talk about pathos and logos. We
also discuss ethos, or authority, and Kairos, or timing. For the first paper
they write an analysis of an argument or cultural item related to their chosen
topic. How does it work? How does it fail? This paper relies on logos and
ethos. For the second paper they write an op-ed style paper combining their
personal experience with research. This is using logos, pathos, and ethos. By
appealing to their reader’s emotions they are creating empathy. For this paper
I also encourage students to consider the position of those they are trying to
persuade. The audience for this paper should be those who disagree with their
position, and they should consider how to best persuade or find middle ground
with this audience. The third paper I assign in this class is a satire essay,
which at this point students are expert enough in their topic to really pull
off some amazing stuff in the satire essay. This paper focuses on reframing an
argument in a way that forces the reader to consider the author’s position in a
new light or from a new angle.
I
would argue that teaching rhetorical empathy has positive implications for
students beyond the classroom as it helps students to become more aware and engaged in dialogues that
concern them personally and as it helps them to become more empathetic and to
actively seek common ground with those who view the world differently. To close
with another quote from Blankenship, “Rhetorical empathy resists the echo chamber
of contemporary, digital, and political culture and forces us to engage with
the Other in the form of real people with real stories that, chances are, do
not align with our own understanding of the world.”
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