• ^ B January 2008 i

Peroration on""A Disciplinefor All

Seasons"Michael J. Sproule. 2007 NCAPresident continued the traditionof delivering a presidential addressat the NCA Annua! Convention inChicago. Illinois.The following isthe text from his address.

Vice President Bochner,distinguished NCA awardwinners, fellow officers and otherassociation leaders, NCA members,guests—and in a phrase thatapplies to all of you—friends ofNCA. It is my pleasure as presidentof our scholarly community todeliver remarks on the occasionof our annual awards event. I amespecially pleased that my wife,Betty, and my sons, John and Kevin,are able to be present.

I take as my title for theseremarks, my presidential messagespreviously given in Spectra—workfocused on the theme of "ADiscipline for All Seasons." BecauseI have laid out my thesis in somedetail—in several thousands ofwords—what is required of menow is merely to deliver remarksthat focus these lines of thoughtearlier developed. In olherwords, what yet remains is myperoration.

In the days before a speech wasseen as an essay standing on legs—

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or as an effort to give oral captionsto things visual—speakers wereexpected—and were taught—to beorators. And given my own naturalgravitation to figures and tropes,Ive always considered myself, asa communicator, to have beenborn 100 years too late. But nowI have my moment. Yet thankfullyfor listeners of the year 2007, mymoment comes in the form ofrelatively brief "remarks" ratherthan a full oration in the characterof 1907.

Before the triumph of the short,business-oriented talk in tbe1920s—witb its tripartite, essay-like organization into introduction,body and conclusion—before tbis,orators practiced a seven-partfunctional pattern of arrangementdating back to Cicero.

Cicero, both in bis own works andas refined in Quintilian, would haveus organize a speech beginningwith an exordium. Here the

See "Peroration " on page 4

Windy City Memories- page 17

andapplication of the principles of communication

Record BreakingAttendance atConventionTlie 2007 NCA annual convention setrecord breaking numbers attracting over6,200 attendees to Chicago for the themedOmtmiinicating Worldvieivs: Faith—Intellect—Ethics conference.This is tbehighest attendance in NCA s 93 year history.

Tbe five day event attracted students,scholars, and teachers from across tbenation and around the world. Participantsattended sessions, participated in panels,joined in short courses, and explored tbegraduate school and job fair as well as theexhibit ball.

Several bighlighted events attracted manyscholars. Bio-etbicist and communicationscbolar Michael J. Hyde, Wake ForestUniversity, delivered tbe 2007 Carroll C.Arnold Distinguished Lecture entitled

Bio-eihiti.si and communication scholar Michael J. liyde, *akc Korcsi

L'niversily, delivered the 2(M)7 Carroll C. .\ni«ld Distinguished l.L'clurf

See "Attendance " on page 5

New Registration Policypage 7

Perorationfrom page 1

orator directly would greet listeners ina simple and brief manner—as I alreadyhave done.

Next, the orator would put the speechin narrative form with a story—aswith my meditations on the nature oforatory and Ciceronian organization. Sowe're 2/7ths complete already.

Although the seven elements of theCiceronian pattern could be combinedin various ways, typically third on thebill was a partition wherein the oratorindicated what was to follow—as Ialready have accomplished witb mynote that these remarks would beperorational on a previously presentedtheme. Now we bave three Ciceronianparts down, four to go.

Tbe answer to the question "where'sthe beef?" in a Ciceronian address camemost directly in tbe functional sectionknown as tbe eoniirmation. And bereI refer you to my Spectra messages,notably, the first six, wbere I have laidout a thesis about our discipline'sbeing uniquely positioned to straddlemeaningfully tbe humanities, socialsciences, performance studies, and theprofessions—with a genuine Interestin both teaching and research—andwitb a concern for all education, fromkindergarten to post-doc.

Now some may object that all Iaccomplished in tbe confirmationwas to lay out pleasant pluralistpabulum. Oh, no, no, no, my friends.Communication's pluralisms, to theextent that we accept them, baveemerged only after deep and abidingdebate. And here let us not forgetsome more contestable points tbat Ihave made. A case in point being myassertion that tbose wbo earn tbeirbread professing communication have aduty to remain affiliated witb NCA—orother kindred national society—andthat membership sbouid not be seen asmere option.

So as an orator, I would need torespond to tbe objection of falsepluralism, and to other criticisms, witha section tbat Cicero would call therefutation. But because our focus,tonigbt, is peroration, we will haveto make due witb McLuban's ironieobservation that a message not only

represents a massage—hnx that it alsoreflects a Mess-Age.

Witb confirmation and refutationtbus finessed for the moment, wehave remaining only two Ciceronianfunctions—those of digression andperoration.

In tbe digression, the orator pausesto reflect upon something significantin the moment. Tbis sometbing couldrelate to tbe immediate pbysicalcontext of the speech—for instance,a loud noise emanating from thehallway—or something believed toreside in tbe minds of listeners—asin tbe question, "bow long will tbisspeecb last?" Or "could this guy reallybe serious that we're interested in howCicero would do it?"

So having thus digressed for a moment,we come finally to tbe promisedperoration—where, as Quintiiianexplains, the orator pulls out all thestops in an effort to impress upon theaudience tbe significance of tbe thesisand theme.

"A discipline for all seasons?" What,indeed, does this mean for us now andin the future?

So bere I say, colleagues and friends,tbat our discipline is a discipline—and not a collection of discarded,miscellaneous, or marginal ideas.

No, no, my friends. We profess adiscipline tbat refiects both tbe eternalneed for buman expression and tbeever present imperative of usingdiscourse to build a just and bonorablepolity.

Nor is our discipline some kind ofparty crasher at a table set up by tbeAmerican Council of Learned Societies.

No, no, my friends. Our mission—long conducted under the banner of"rhetoric"—far antedates most of ourACLS sister societies—and our growtboutstrips all of tbem.

But what best reflects wbat we bavebeen, wbat we are, and wbat weaspire to be—what best reflects ourwork—are the NCA awards and theirrecipients, tonigbt.

So as we turn to these recipients—totbese colleagues wbo bave madegood—to these friends whose work

reflects the eloquence of our calling—let us remember tbe tie tbat bindsus—tbe idea of communication.

Communication as idea is our sharedcommitment to making a better worldthrough symbolism. Here we manifestbow symbols respond to human needsand to tbose even larger purposes tbat,as Jefferson put it, reflect "nature andnature's God."

In this way, botb our recipients and weembody what, in last year's presidentialaddress, Dan O'Hair described as "ThePromise of Communication."

Dan is right, I think, tbat communi-cation now is far more than mereidea—it is promise. And that promisedirects us to apply our insights tocommunities virtual and pbysical—andto promote access and transference aswe key our work to family, society andtbe human condition.

Here our intellect will combine witbour faitb as we offer the transformativepower of communication as resourcefor developing a bigher humanconsciousness.

As our work goes forward, we willbave much to say about what thephilosopher and paleontologist Fr.Pierre Tielhard de Chardin described ashumanity's forthcoming "Omega Point."

Chardin's vision takes us beyond thephilosophical audience of Plato orthe universal audience of Perelman.Fr. de Chardin bids us to expect thatthe buman race will indeed becomeone race—one people—unified by acollective consciousness of tbe mostelevated and ethical kind.

But that is then—and we live in now.

We of the twenty-first eentury seemcloser to multivalent malaise tban toany Omega Point. But in our momentsof despair, we may return to ourroots in communieation and remindourselves tbat meaning always is anelusive goal.

Our goal represents a quest. And so,as our award wirmers step forward,tonight, they symbolize our ownsteps in the quest—in the journeyto transform buman kind. They havealready—and we will in the future—make manifest what we offer throughour "discipline for all seasons."