Rhetorical Listening Through Sketchnoting: From Dysfunctional Silence to Functional Rhetoric

Abstract

When you look at an image, what do you see? What does the image say to you? What do you think about? What meaning do you infer? These questions may blur together, but they can be expanded individually and uniquely into a multitude of responses. Your initial thoughts are yours. You are silently debating meaning within yourself. If I interject a new interpretation, how does it change your perspective? How do you compare my meaning with yours? Now add that the image has been drawn to relate to a particular text, such as a poem or short story. Your thoughts and perspective on a particular image are now compounded with the text you are reading. Add the author’s intent in writing the text. Now, meaning of a drawing may be compounded with your perceived meaning of a text and compared to the intentions of an author. Add the artist of the drawing. What were their intentions in interpreting the text? What did they mean when they drew this? Next, bring the artist across from you and have a dialog. Exchange your meaning with theirs. How do your meanings relate? The resulting discourse makes our initial silence functional, our listening deeper, and our rhetoric more engaging. It develops our senses of creativity, interpretation, and analysis, as well as our relationship to each other.

In this dissertation, I examine silence as an opportunity in the English classroom, a contemplative space of potential for nondiscursive rhetoric. Silences can be positive and negative. When silence is used to generate meaning through creative invention, ideation, and arrangement of thought, it becomes rhetorical. Negative silences, such as Ratcliffe’s (2005) dysfunctional silence, hinder functional discourse within the classroom. When students feel unable, unwilling, threatened, or lack focus to express themselves, they may remain silent and stall their ability to develop thoughts and elevate both nondiscursive and discursive composition. Ratcliffe (2005) advocates for the use of rhetorical listening to cut through dysfunctional silence. This involves student intent and focus on what is being communicated, such as through a text or interlocutor in order to evolve meaning. Ratcliffe’s definition for rhetorical listening is similar to the concepts of listening by philosophers such as Confucius (Brown, 2018) and Socrates, and theorists like Carl Rogers (1957) and Wayne Booth (2004). Without an engaged listener, discourse amounts to dysfunctional rhetoric. In order to listen, we must first learn to harness the rhetoric of silence.

I studied the effects of drawing, or sketchnoting (Rohde, 2013), during literary discussions in the English classroom in order to unravel its effectiveness as a means for nondiscursive expression. I used a grounded theory approach within a qualitative study to determine whether students drawing could help them overcome dysfunctional silence and offer them an outlet even when they chose to remain silent during class discussions. Results showed that sketchnoting helped students meet course learning outcomes, both in composition and literature courses, developed student ideation, both creatively and critically, and developed a cognitive practice for rhetorical listening to prevent dysfunctional silence. Even students who remained unable, unwilling, or felt threatened to express themselves discursively, demonstrated deliberate focus and engagement in course concepts by manifesting their thoughts visually. This led to more-productive discourse within the classroom and gave students practice in modes of expression in addition to speaking and writing.

I wrote this dissertation for any teacher who has experienced the silent eyes in a classroom staring back at them. The act of asking students to draw their thoughts relating to course lectures, class discussions, exercises, and activities can enrich dialog, promote meaning-making, and affirm teacher intentions for creative, academic, and professional pursuits. Keywords: Dysfunctional Silence, Rhetorical Listening, Sketchnoting