Rhetoric : Rhetoric And Its Power

Rhetoric is an act of persuasion. Aristotle believes that the most persuasive technique is the truth. He taught others that rhetoric is to be used for persuasion and not manipulation and that it is to be done ethically. When using rhetoric for persuasion, it is important to recognize the rhetorical triangle. The rhetorical triangle includes the speaker, the subject, and the person being addressed. This triangle also demonstrates the three modes of persuasion, logos, ethos, and pathos. The author must embody all parts of the triangle. The speaker must exhibit ethos through their credibility. The subject must encompass logos by making logical sense. The appeal to the audience must use pathos to be persuasive. When these three parts come together, a persuasive speech can be delivered. Of the three sections of the rhetorical triangle, the audience is the most important. I will demonstrate my argument of the role of audience in the rhetorical triangle throughout the essay.

The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.

Rhetoric is found virtually everywhere, from billboards to commercial ads on television, it is a part of the 21st century’s daily routine. Communication thrives on rhetoric because it is the foundation of opinion. Without discussion or opinions, life will become dull and uninteresting. Political debates towards the end of presidential elections are predominately a few of the greatest examples of this. By the end of elections, a majority of people have lost interest in the repetition of each candidate, with rhetoric, people become more inclined to tune into their television to listen to two candidates debate.

Rhetoric is a persuasive tool, consisting of logos which is logic and reasoning, pathos which is emotional language and ethos which is character and fundamental values. Rhetoric is a fundamental thing used by pigs and importantly Squealer, whom persuade other animals to follow the pig’s decisions and needs.

Rhetoric seems like a big word but the meaning is simple- persuasion. In the book Julius Caesar, Antony and Brutus, two major characters, are fantastic at persuading the Roman citizens. When one is reading the story, they might think that both have equal amounts but when you look closer, Antony has the better rhetoric strategies. In just a few short sentences, Antony convinced the people to believe that Caesar needed revenge even though he never came out and told them that. Just a couple of minutes ago, the citizens were on Brutus’s side and thought that Caesar needed to go.

Rhetoric is used to convince an audience to perform any action the speaker wishes to be done; because of this students need to be able to use rhetoric so that their thoughts or ideas may not just be washed away in the future. Students can use need this useful tool later in life to be able to change their environment and control their audience. For example, when a student is in an interview and the interview

Rhetoric is a significant part of our everyday lives. Whether it's convincing our friends to go to a concert on the weekend, to go to a certain place for lunch, or even convincing yourself to do something that you should but don't want to do. Rhetoric is all around us today. Billboard ads, television commercials, newspaper ads, political speeches, even news stories all try, to some degree, to sway our opinion or convince us to take some sort of action. If you take a step back to look and think about it, rhetoric, in all actuality, shapes our lives. Every day we have an array of options of things to do or things to buy. So every day, our opinion or actions are being influenced, however minutely, by rhetoric.

“…rhetoric offers a grander, metaphysical payoff: it jolts you into a fresh new perspective on the human condition. After it awakens you to the argument all around, the world will never seem the same.” (6)

Rhetoric gives you an avenue to tell a story from your perspective in a way that connects with the intended audience without having to be one hundred percent substantiated. This writing style is evident in almost everything we read from billboards to Internet ads and even political speeches.

Many successful people politicians, salesmen, even lawyers have mastered this tool. Rhetoric has assisted in the development of laws, complex societies, and codes. “Everyone of America’s founders studied rhetoric, and they used its principles in writing the Constitution”(Heinrichs Pg 4). An example of rhetoric being used correctly is a presidential candidate trying to persuade voters to vote for him. The goal the candidate is to “seduce” the voters into thinking that voting for him is the best option for the country.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade an audience. Writers and speakers often use rhetoric appeals. Aristotelian Rhetoric appeals are used in arguments to support claims and counter opposing arguments. Rhetoric used four different approaches to capture its audience’s attention: pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos bases its appeal on provoking strong emotion from an audience. Ethos builds its appeal based on good moral character of the writer or speaker and relies on good sense and good will to influence its audience. Logos persuades its audience through the use of deductive and inductive reasoning. The kiaros approach requires a combination of creating and recognizing the right time and right place for making the argument in the first place. All of these appeals are important tools, and can be used together or apart to persuade an audience.

Rhetoric is an art of communication that aims at enhancing the capability of writers or speakers who endeavor to persuade, inform or inspire distinct audiences in exceptional scenarios. As a discipline of recognized teaching and a prolific civic application, rhetoric has played a fundamental role in the Western convention. Rhetoric is acknowledged best from the description of Aristotle who regards it as a compliment of both politics and logic, and terms it as the ability to make an observation in any given instance from the accessible means of influence. Unlike other Aristotle works that have been around for ages,

Every day, students are surrounded by arguments, in the commercials they see that manipulate them into buying products to the arguments with their parents over who has to take out the trash. Rhetoric is present in all of conversations, for it's what gives words their power. To put it in the words of Jay

Glancing at the heading you may be wondering ‘what is rhetoric?’ Is it Ethos? Is it a question that is not answered or a type of persuasion? For the most part, rhetoric is a word that we may not use in our everyday language, but we utilize it religiously; we have practiced this skill in our everyday life since we were young. Rhetoric is actually communication. Every time you write a paper, every time you create a text, and every time you have a verbal conversation, rhetoric is being applied. The formal definition of rhetoric is, "the study of how humans use language and other symbols to influence attitudes, beliefs, and actions for other"(Ramage, et al. 16). It is used in many forms: texting, symbols, and word choice; rhetoric can also be divided

“The most effective rhetoric disguises its art” (Heinrichs 6). In section two, “Offense” begins with the basics for rhetoric, establishing that argument is an essential skill of leadership, used everywhere through advertisements and jargon, and evident in persuasion. He reveals that the issues of persuasion boil down to three main issues: