Rhetorical Velocity and Genre

In “Rhetorical Velocity and Copyright: A Case Study on Strategies of Rhetorical Delivery,” Jim Ridolfo and Martine Courant Rife introduce several complicated, significant terms in their discussion of The Maggie Case. Rhetorical velocity, delivery, appropriation, and recomposition are all integral both to the understanding of the point of the text as a whole and to the understanding of the text as a genre.

Before delving into a discussion about the interconnectedness of these terms and their relation to genre, it’s important to have a solid foundation supporting what exactly they mean. As inferred from its inclusion in the title, “delivery” has to have a significant meaning to Ridolfo and Rife. Delivery may have to do with the way that a piece of rhetoric is presented. Maggie’s photo was delivered differently on the Michigan State University website than it would have been delivered by the media (Ridolfo and Rife, Figs. 1 & 2). This was a form of appropriation because Maggie’s image was delivered with an exigence that she did not consent to. Her image also experienced recomposition, or remix, in that the university “repurposed it by adding [a] caption” (Ridolfo and Rife, 228). Shockingly, the university also cropped Maggie’s image and placed it against a different backdrop. This is all especially ironic because Maggie was protesting about the university itself.

The most shocking term to me is rhetorical velocity. Packed with the imagery of movement and speed, at first look it made me think of the power of rhetoric. Unfortunately, rhetorical velocity depicts just the opposite. Rhetorical velocity describes “a strategic concept of delivery in which a rhetor theorizes the possibility for the recomposition of a text” (Ridolfo and Rife, 229). Upon considering rhetorical velocity, the rhetor may decide to restructure the delivery of his or her rhetoric. Let’s take a step back for a moment. In this chapter, Maggie was part of a group protesting the university for not joining the “Worker Rights Consortium, a fair labor monitoring body that investigates and certifies college apparel as sweatshop free” (Ridolfo and Rife, 224). The media was in attendance of a particular event in the snow, and the university ended up with a picture of Maggie. They used it on their website without her consent (and even appropriated and recomposed it, as previously discussed). Quotes from Maggie such as “there was a photographer during the snow fight who was really kind of sketchy scaling up the buildings to take pictures and it was really weird” (Ridolfo and Rife, 226) and “[the university] didn’t contact me. Nobody ever got my name. Nobody ever asked anything” (Ridolfo and Rife, 228) indicate Maggie’s discomfort with the unconsented use of her photograph. Perhaps if Maggie had known that the situation was going to spiral out of control and cause distress for her, she wouldn’t have participated, and her rhetorical message would not have been received.  

In sum, outside parties can alter how a piece of rhetoric is delivered with appropriation and recomposition, leading to the phenomenon of rhetorical velocity that forces the rhetor to consider if their text may be recomposed, especially in an unwanted way. If genre is based in social action as we discussed in class, then certainly rhetorical velocity applies to Carolyn Miller’s concept of genre in “Genre as Social Action.” Protest is the genre, and genre is social action, which can be under the power of rhetorical velocity. 

- Sarah Davis