Definition of Rhetoric, Silva Rhetoricae

Out of all the times I’ve heard the word ‘rhetoric,’ I never actually knew what it meant. I knew what rhetorical meant, which in my mind before this assignment, carried the same meaning as rhetoric. I always thought rhetoric was just the noun version of rhetorical. As you probably know, these two words do not mean the same thing. Rhetorical is when you speak to someone with a question and don’t expect an answer. In Silva Rhetoricae, rhetoric is defined as “the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion. And many other things.” So as you can see, rhetorical and rhetoric are quite opposite. With that being said, after learning what rhetoric actually means, I am able to create my own definition of the word. I would best define rhetoric as the learning of proper writing and speaking techniques that can help someone fully explain themselves in perfect harmony and clarity. With that being said, I also believe rhetoric is a tool that every student must possess in order to have any conversation, whether in the work place or on twitter. In addition, I believe that rhetoric helps you propose proper communication with others no matter what the topic. I also believe that with proper study of rhetoric, a student may use this skill to better their view points. By studying rhetoric you could make your arguments full of persuasive thoughts and substance, instead of the constant rambling most arguments get in to now and days.

               Now that I have my own definition of rhetoric, I must apply it to our regular English class discussions. At this point in time, we are discussing how to clearly explain our own arguments to our readers. We are discussing how to agree or disagree with arguments. We’ve learned how to put ourselves in others’ shoes. We have discussed the proper ways to quote and summarize other people’s works and mold them into our own. These lessons help us recognize what we are trying to do, improve our rhetoric. As I said in my definition of rhetoric, we must learn to properly write and speak with clarity of what side we are on in an argument. In class, we have been trying to cram in the back of minds how to pick a side in an argument. Class recently has been trying to teach us how to understand both sides of the argument before we jump in to our argument. I believe knowing both sides allows you to better your argument. Knowing both arguments, in a way, makes you smarter and better prepared. By my definition of rhetoric, preparing and planning can help you succeed in the world of rhetoric.

               What I found helpful about this website is that has a vast amount of information that I can come back and use in the future. The huge list of vocab words gives me an idea of strong words I could use in an essay or assignment. Also, on the left side of the website there are explanation of certain categories of rhetoric. Having spent a whole summer not doing English, reading this side helps give me a summary of what I forgot. What I dislike about this website is that it isn’t very clean. When I mean clean, I mean the website seems scattered and poorly put together. With the vocab, you have to scroll a solid minute or so to get to the letter Z. Instead of vertically lining up the words, they should try going horizontal or have a separate page for the words.

Burton, Gideon O. "The Forest of Rhetoric." Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young University, n.d. Web. 3 Sept. 2015. <http://rhetoric.byu.edu/>