Wow

Is Ramaage absolutely desparate to look smart or what?

There is a Ramage in every class in every school in the country. He is the kid who has a thesaurus sitting right by his computer, and if he is writing an essay and thinks of a word that has less than four syllables, he'll go straight to Roget's to find a much longer word. This kid always turned in the most flowery, ridiculous compositions and got high marks from teachers who were impressed by his use of the word "colloquialism." John D. Ramage is that kid in grown up form.

Seriously, what is he trying to say? What is his point? I really don't see the connection between rhetoric and identity, even after reading the chapter for a second time. Yes, he quoted Shakespeare, and that's pretty cool. However, I don't see that allusion placed within the context of the point he's trying to make, and that paragraph ending up completely confusing me. It was all downhill from there.

As many an English teacher has said: keep it simple, stupid.