Rhetoric Definition

       To be completely honest, I was not really sure what rhetoric meant before today.  I had heard the word before, and had probably used it, but it is one of those words where I just pretended I had some idea of how to use it.  Now, I can define rhetoric as the way in which you deliver your subject matter and how effectively you do so.  The writers of Silva Rhetoricae inspired my definition because I liked how they talked about the form being more important with the content.  I agree with that because a person can be delivering the smartest speech in the world, but if their voice is monotone, most people will get bored with what the person is saying and retain nothing.  On the contrary, if the person’s tone is encouraging, and their body language is inviting, the audience will be more engaged with what the person is saying.  The form, or the way in which a person delivers their point, comes in various forms.  The medium in which a person chooses can say a lot about the content, because going to someone and speaking with them face to face is different then sending a text.  A person’s choice of words can affect how what they are saying is perceived.  Again, their tone and body language are other important factors.  What makes these four items so important when describing rhetoric is because they are what make the emotional impact of words differ.  The way in which a person chooses to speak says a lot about how they want the person they are speaking to feel.  A person speaks differently, in different settings, because there are different environments where one way of speaking is acceptable and another may not be accepted. 

       This will be especially relevant in our class.  Since we are the Flight Club, we will be engaging in many conversations with each other.  To make our arguments more compelling, we will need to use strong language and tone to get other people to want to side with our opinions, and disregard what the other person is arguing.  Knowing what rhetoric means, and how to use it, will be of great value in this class, where the point is to make strong arguments.

        What I did not like about the website was their clarity in how they stated their definition of rhetoric.  It took me a few times and some help to clearly understand what they were saying, and to break it down into parts that I understood.  There could probably be an easier way to state what they were trying to get across, and it is ironic that a definition of the word rhetoric was not written in the most straightforward way possible.  Though at times it was difficult to understand, I did like how the website went in depth into almost everything that they were introducing.  If there was a word or topic that is not commonly known, there was an entire section dedicated to explaining what the term meant. 

Burton, Gideon O. "The Forest of Rhetoric." Silva Rhetoricae. Brigham Young 
     University, n.d. Web. 4 Sept. 2015. <http://rhetoric.byu.edu/>.