My Definition of Rhetoric

Rhetoric is a word that can be defined in various definitions. However, my definition of rhetoric is a type of persuasive speaking that includes multiple writing techniques. The website defines the word rhetoric as "Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion. And many other things". As you can see, even the author of the website knew that there are many definitions for one simple word. Both of these two similar yet different definitions do not fully explain the word.

This website goes hand in hand with They Say, I Say. In one way, it was helpful that the website broke down rhetoric into five different categories. This helped me get a better understanding of the definition. By this approach, I felt I was reading a template for a paper. This can be compared to the templates in They Say, I Say.

These five categories (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery) are the basis for creating an argument and are educational to the writer as he or she can use these time and time again. Going along with categories, Aristotle came up with three kinds of persuasive appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. These different appeals can work separately from each other but when used together, harmony is created. Aristotle called these persuasive appeals "artistic" or "intrinsic proofs". What he meant by that was these appeals can be found through the art of rhetoric versus techniques just used by the author.

This website provided many examples of rhetoric writing and various categories to further explain rhetoric. However, this website lacked examples. It only had a few examples; if it had more I imagine it would have painted an even clearer picture in my head of what exactly rhetoric is. One thing I applaud about the site is that it used Aristotle. That shows how long rhetoric has been around in the world: all the way before the birth of Christ. For a concept to still exist over tens of centuries just shows how important it actually is. If rhetoric wasn't as important as it is, rhetoric would have been forgotten a long time ago. One other problem I found with the website was that its own definition of rhetoric was too short. It even said in its own definition "many other things." To me that sounds like the author didn't exactly know what else to say about what rhetoric is or that he or she ran out of definitions. A longer definition would have helped me personally understand rhetoric better. There are many correct things the site does, such as breaking down rhetoric into categories and using Aristotle, but their are also faults within the site too. 

For my conclusion, rhetoric writing includes many different aspects of English art and its definition does not do it justice. I am excited to learn more about rhetoric writing in the future in class. Learning more about rhetoric writing will hopefully improve my English skills. I can't wait!

Burton, Gideon. "The Forest of Rhetoric." Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young University, n.d.Web. 03 Sept. 2015. <http://rhetoric.byu.edu>