The Art of Rhetoric Argumentation What is Rhetoric

The Art of Rhetoric Argumentation

What is Rhetoric? • Rhetoric is the art of communicating ideas. • It is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. • It is language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience.

Aristotle's Rhetoric is an ancient Greek treatise on the art of persuasion, dating from the 4 th century BCE. The English title varies: typically it is titled Rhetoric, the Art of Rhetoric, On Rhetoric, or a Treatise on Rhetoric. Plato: Aristotle: • [Rhetoric] is the "art of enchanting the soul. " (The art of winning the soul by discourse. ). . . • Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion. "

Douglas Ehninger: "[Rhetoric is] that discipline which studies all of the ways in which men may influence each other's thinking and behavior through the strategic use of symbols. "

Rhetorical Techniques The Art of Persuasion

Allusion An allusion is a reference to a well -known person, event, or place from history, music, art or another literary work.

Repetition is the use of any element of language—a sound, a word, a phrase, a line, or a stanza—more than once.

Rhetorical Question Rhetorical questions are questions that don’t require answers.

Parallel Structure (parallelism) Parallel structure refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence, so that elements of equal importance are equally developed and similarly phrased for emphasis.