What is expertise? • The ability to apply specialized knowledge to complex
problems in particular areas of study or work • Teachers • Mathematicians • Plumbers
• A means of marking the identity or status of an individual, typically in comparatively higher or superior relationships to others • Degrees (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, JD, MD) • Positions (faculty, professor, specialist)
Knowledge in School/College
Rhetorical Process
Splitting of Knowledge
T. Rousculp, 2011
Rhetorical Process
Innate Rhetorical Expertise
Rhetorical Process
Using Rhetoric
T. Rousculp, 2011
Alternate View of Expertise
Expertise can emerge through a collaborative process of rhetorical problem-solving. To do this, we need:
*Adapted from James Gee
• Knowledge that rhetoric is a part of expertise
• Conscious awareness of our own innate rhetorical abilities
• Access to a partial understanding of type of writing we are trying to do by using examples and by working with others.*
• Trust in each other’s, and our own, innate rhetorical abilities.
T. Rousculp, 2011
New Writing Task: What Do We Do?
1. Rhetorical Problem Solving 2. Talk to each other 3. Get examples 4. Trust in our rhetorical
abilities 5. Talk more to each other 6. Try things out 7. Mess Up 8. Keep on talking 9. Keep on Writing
