Rhetoric: Another Tool in The Drawer

When I think of rhetoric, two main words come to mind: lawyers and manipulation. I also think of the term "rhetorical." When somebody asks a rhetorical question, they are trying to promote thought about their topic and trying to get their point across; the rhetorical question is a tool of rhetoric. Lawyers do this as part of their job; they manipulate the facts and evidence to try and either prove or disprove a client (of course this is not all they do, this is only a part of what some lawyers do). However, I believe there is more substance to rhetoric than this; this may be just one aspect of rhetoric.

Merriam Webster defines rhetoric as "the art of speaking or writing effectively: as either 'the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times' or 'the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion.'" And according to Dr. Gordon Burton and his article titled, "The Forest of Rhetoric," the definition of rhetoric is "Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing. And the art of persuasion. And many other things." As one can observe, the definition of rhetoric is very broad. An author/writer for an art magazine may not be writing to try and persuade his/her audience, she may simply be writing with intention to inform readers about a piece of modern art or maybe promote a certain artist (although on a very technical level this may be considered persuasion, but this is a topic to discuss another day). In this case, the definition of rhetoric that is effective speaking and writing is what would be used to describe the writing of this author. From this it is discernible that the definition of rhetoric might be based off of a case-by-case basis. 

After looking at these definitions and navigating through "The Forest of Rhetoric," I came across two important topics that help convey specific aspects of rhetoric: persuasive appeals and the canons of rhetoric. The three persuasive appeals date back to the time of Aristotle who believed that when using logos (the appeal to reason), pathos (the appeal to emotion), and ethos (the persuasive appeal of one's character) together, create one perfect brew of persuasion. On the other hand, the canons of rhetoric (an equally ancient part of the proverbial "forest of rhetoric") are (in order) invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. These two aspects of rhetoric are interconnected. When trying to be persuasive, one must use the persuasive appeals, and when giving a presentation, talk, speech, etc, if you are trying to be persuasive, these appeals must be engrained into how you invent your speech (which involves knowing your audience--and all that entails), arrange the speech, choose a style for the speech, the memorization of the speech, and especially the delivery of the speech. However, if the speech is not meant to be rhetorical in that sense, but rather in the sense of communicating effectively or clearly (with the purpose of presenting facts or something of the sort), then one must invent the speech, choose a style of the speech, etc, that suits the ultimate goal: to present facts to an audience. 

Now that various definitions and aspects of rhetoric have been examined, I will state my definition of rhetoric using what I believe is most important to include in the definition and because it addresses the use of a case-by-case basis. Rhetoric is writing or speaking that serves either to inform or persuade an audience. I agree with Dr. Burton that part of rhetoric is "the art of persuasion," but I do not believe it is the "study of effective speaking and writing." I believe that is just part of learning a language. When learning any language, one must learn how to speak and write in a way that is understandable to others, rhetoric is not some special synonym to learning language, but rather a tool of language that can be used by somebody. Just like a sculptor has many tools when creating works of art, a writer has many tools, and rhetoric is just another one of those tools in the tools drawer. 

Burton, Gideon. "The Forest of Rhetoric." silva rhetoricae. web. <http://rhetoric.byu.edu> 4 September, 2015.