If this is a lecture on Rhetoric, do I have to come up with answers? (A short lesson on the power of the written and spoken word, and images)

What is Rhetoric? Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing to analyze the components that effective authors and readers use. It is the ART of Persuasion. It means to analyze the components that make writing and speaking effective. Rhetoric is a fundamental discipline for training (students) 1.To become aware of how language is at work orally and in writing, and 2.To become proficient in applying the resources of language in your own speaking and writing.

To become a rhetor (or rhetorician), you must… Divide form (how) and content (what) – what is being said and how this is said. Because rhetoric examines the how of language (the methods and means of communication), it has sometimes been bashed as something only concerned with style or appearances. Think political pundits.

"I am competent and trustworthy; from me, you'll get more good and less bad." His speech was mere rhetoric; all style, but empty. Sometimes rhetoric is characterized as a speakers lack of sincerity or deliberate falseness in order to coerce an audience to follow a wrongheaded or evil course of action. (again think politicians or…Hitler) We must stick together because they are out to get us.

Okay, lets not dwell on the negative connotation of Rhetoric, but move on to positive definitions. Scholarly Definitions of Rhetoric Plato: [Rhetoric] is the "art of enchanting the soul." (The art of winning the soul by discourse.)." Cicero: "Rhetoric is one great art comprised of five lesser arts: inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and pronunciatio." Rhetoric is "speech designed to persuade." Quintilian: "Rhetoric is the art of speaking well" or "...good man speaking well." Francis Bacon: The duty and office of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagination for the better moving of the will. George Campbell: [Rhetoric] is that art or talent by which discourse is adapted to its end. The four ends of discourse are to enlighten the understanding, please the imagination, move the passion, and influence the will. A. Richards: Rhetoric is the study of misunderstandings and their remedies. Aristotle: Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion

Aristotles Rhetorical Triangle Aristotle taught that a speaker's ability to persuade is based on how well the speaker appeals to his or her audience in three different areas: ethos (ethical appeals), pathos (emotional appeals), and logos (logical appeals). These areas form something that later rhetoricians have called the Rhetorical Triangle.

To sum up the lesson… BEING SKILLED AT RHETORIC Means being able to make memorable speeches and write knowledgeable papers, but it also means having the ability to read other peoples compositions and listen to their spoken words with a discerning eye and critical ear. …reading not only to understand the main and supporting points of what someone writes, but also to analyze the decisions the rhetor makes as he/she works to accomplish a purpose for a specific audience. …being able to plan and write compositions by determining what has already been said on the subject and deciding what remains unresolved so you can continue the conversation or persuade readers to take action.