Dialectical Notebook -Heilker and Yerbeau

1. “We contend that autism itself is a rhetoric, a way of being in the world through language, a rhetoric we may not have encountered or recognized frequently in the past nor value highly in academic contexts, but rhetoric nonetheless.”

2. “Though the definitions of rhetoric are legion, what most have in common is their focus on language use in the social realm. Most definitions of rhetoric focus on the role of communication in social interaction.”

3. “Every utterance belongs to, exists in, issues from, and reveals a rhetorical universe. Every utterance comes from somewhere (its inventive origin), emerges as a structure, and manifests itself as a style”

4. “When we choose to listen rhetorically, though, when we purposefully adopt a stance of cross-cultural openness toward autistic discourse, we can begin to see that we engage in similar, though not identical, echolalia in academic settings, when doing research and citing sources.”

5. “Empathy- a loaded worded in autism discourse, a characteristic that autistics are said to lack- presumes that one can be so in tune with another person as to actually understand that person’s emotional state, to even perhaps vicariously experience it.”

1. When we discuss something such as rhetoric many people forget to recognize autism as rhetoric itself. However when you think of rhetoric, autism can fit into it. It’s misunderstanding for autism and dismissal that shows how it can affect how people think about what a definition can be.

2. This quote basically states the defection of rhetoric and how it’s main focus is on social communication and interaction. This really shows that many people are so easily to dismiss autism and the part it takes in rhetoric because of so much misunderstanding and ignorance. History seems to repeat itself that when society doesn’t understand something, it’s quickly labeled as “different” or “weird” not something that can be studied or understood in a different light.

3. This quote speaks about communication from people that have autism. It sheds a light for when people communicate, every single utterance stands for something. Nothing is done by accident or meant to be written off as unimportant. Everything has meaning and can be understood.

4. Through this quote it urges people to have open minds when we’re trying to understand the autism community itself. There is a lot of information out there that could be misunderstood and quickly judged by people that refuse to be open minded. But that is said for every topic, it’s impossible to learn and really experience life with ignorance and a closed mind.

5. This shows that empathy, something we constantly use to define what is human is put into the spotlight when it comes to autism. When people try to define ‘human’ they say it’s someone who has empathy. Since many assume that people who are autistic have no empathy, it’s easy to write off their existence. However, this quote tells us that autistic people are empathic but in a different way that we cannot simply understand. It shows us that we cannot just assume because of a misunderstanding, it’s important to realize that there are different ways of thinking and understanding.