Introduction The fields of rhetoric and technical communication are both preoccupied with knowing who ones audience

and writing or speaking in such a way to persuade their audience. Educators, to me, seem to be a subset of rhetoricians and would do well to incorporate sound rhetorical practices into their classes and curriculum. The Myers-Briggs Typology Index (MBTI) may be just the tool that educators can use to better know who their audience is and create a message for each individual student they encounter. Questions In my final paper, I am looking for answers to the following two questions: 1. Are successful educators/rhetoricians born or can they develop teaching/speaking skills? I will be looking at studies that look at the MBTI personality types of successful educators. 2. Can educators be more successful if they know students MBTI personality types and create their curriculum with these personality types in mind? References Burton, Richard T. "An Engineer's Rhetorical Journey: Personal Reflections." Readings for Technical Communication. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford UP, 2008. 105-13. Print. Burton shares how teaching a communication class based on classical rhetoric to undergraduate engineering students transformed the way he communicated himself. As he taught his students to how to position a message appropriately for a variety of audiences-to teach them to size up a situation and respond with an appropriate message tailor-made for that audience in that circumstance, he learned how to do this very thing in his classroom. Every educator needs to do this very same thing and knowing the MBTI make-up of ones students can help tailor his/her message. Carskadon, T. G. (1994). Student personality factors: Psychological type and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. In Handbook of college teaching: theory and applications (pp. 69-84). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. In this piece, Carskadon explains the MBTI, its importance, and its use in education. He outlines ways educators can tailor their classes to best meet their students needs as determined by the MBTI. Jensen, G. H. (1987). Learning styles. In Applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in higher education (pp. 181-206). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Like Carskadon, Jensen explains how MBTI can be used in higher education. He also provides ways for educators to target their students personality types. Nieman, L. Z., Murasko, D. M., & Gracely, E. J. (1994). Grouping medical students according to Myers-Briggs principles. Teaching and Learning in Medicine,6(4), 232-236. doi: 10.1080/1040133940953968 Nieman, Marasko, and Gracely conducted a study of medical students. Some medical students were grouped randomly while others were grouped according to their MBTI type. The MBTI groups seemed to interact much more with others in their group and perform better. If these

findings translated to other disciplines, educators may want to being grouping students together using their MBTI types. Provost, J. A., Carson, B. H., & Beidler, P. G. (1987). Effective teaching and type: The words of outstanding professor. In Applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in higher education (pp. 221-246). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Provost, Carson, and Beidler studied the MBTI personality types of professors who were deemed outstanding by the Council for the Advancement and support of education. Of the 18 professors, 7 were ENTJs and four were ENFPs. 8 of the personality types were not represented. This study may demonstrate that successful educators are preprogrammed to teach. However, perhaps by understanding ones own personality type, educators who are not naturally talented rhetoricians can develop their skills.