Thoughts on Abundant Style

I found the section on abundance style interesting, but somewhat paradoxical of times. Abundant style seems to be the methodology behind what words to use and which ones to avoid when communicating. Some of them makes sense, but others seem to contradict one another. Erasmus breaks copia (abundant style) into two areas: one, richness of expression; two, richness of subject matter. The use of synonyms seems logical to me. It is important to not duplicate or to sound monotonous as Erasmus explains. And the avoidance of vulgar words also makes sense. However, when he gets into our kick, obsolete, and harsh words there seems to be some redundancy. This is where the emphasis on audience comes into play to a larger extent. Archaic words "add charm" if they are used with the right audience in the right place. It seems that this is also a rule for harsh, obsolete, and foreign words.

While this does make sense to me, I don't know why exactly they needed to be articulated. However, I suppose the idea of audience as important to rhetoric was new at this point in time. However, at this point it seems somewhat unnecessary to state. The more interesting juxtaposition for me is between unusual words and new words. They almost seem as if they are the same thing. New words seem to be a new pairing of other words, where unusual words also seem to be a pairing that, although new, doesn't seem to work for the audience. I'm not sure how one would tell the difference until after the audience had responded to one.

As for my example, I am not sure if I am supposed to write one or simply mention an application. I'm going to opt for the application. Although the prompt mentions an application and our workplace, the elections are more on my mind. Reviewing the section made me think more of an elected official's first statement in office. Perhaps more specifically, a presidential speech. That is not the time to be vulgar, use unusual words, or sound monotonous. I can see how all of these things would apply and that it would greatly depend on audience. Although a president would be speaking to a variety of different people, it would be important for him or her to address a middle ground. S/he would need to use common language, sound interesting, and do as much as possible to be clear and unoffensive.