“The Art of Persuasion”

 What is rhetoric?  What is its purpose?  Why is rhetoric important to us and why do we need it? Greek philosopher Aristotle

 The term rhetoric comes from the Greek word for “spoken” or “speech” (Britannica, 2010).  It refers to the act of persuading or converting words into action.  It is defined as the study of rules for using language effectively (Britannica, 2010).  It’s also referred to as a discipline, an art, a skill, or a “type” of language (Kjeldson, 2003).

 In 350 B.C.E., philosopher Aristotle sets the foundation for the basic system of rhetoric (Allen, 2007).  Aristotle promoted rhetoric language claiming that it was a human skill that could be beneficial if improved (Gross & Walzer, 2000).  He emphasized the three main audience components as well as the five canons of rhetoric, which was a part of the “standardization” (Gross & Walzer, 2000).

 Long ago, rhetoric was mostly used in political settings for political purposes, but has had many different purposes.  Rhetoric was a part of the first educated subjects from ancient times (Allen, 2007).  It has been modified many times throughout centuries and even today it is a central part of liberal arts education (Gross & Walzer, 2000).

 Rhetoric is used everyday and all over the world.  It is a type of language that can be useful and helpful at any given time in any given situation.  Today, rhetoric is still very much used by lawyers, politicians, salesman, and everyday people like you and me.

This diagram is a modified example of the three main components of rhetoric that were discussed often by philosophers of ancient Greece, but it can be applied to a number of different subjects today. www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/.../fall151/rhetriang.gif

 Using rhetoric language improves communication skills, and it heightens the ability to understand others as well as make others understand you.  When one person is “persuading” another, that other person is in turn “perceiving” who they believe you to be, and that perception is your reality (Gitomer, 2007).

 Rhetoric turns disagreement into a rational debate.  It turns conflict into discussion and reasoning.

 Rhetoric is an important part of communication and without it, language would be incomplete.  There are times where rhetoric is needed, “Even those who just try to establish what is just and true need the help of rhetoric when they are faced with a public audience” (Allen, 2007, 4.3).  The use of rhetoric does not correlate with knowledge, but only has to do with persuasiveness (Allen, 2007).

 I think that the use of rhetoric can bring a lot of good things to the world, but if misused, it could cause trouble.  A good example for using rhetoric properly would be how the president uses it to persuade the country into believing in him to do his job.

 An example of misused rhetoric would be when a good salesman sells you not so good products.  “Because persuasion-related tasks are so important in everyday life, the acquiring and sharing of persuasion expertise is an ongoing sociocultural process” (Friestad, 1999, p. 185).

 Allen, James. (2007). “Aristotle on the Disciplines of Argument: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Analytic” In Rhetorica 25: 87– 108.  Friestad, Marian. (1999, February). Everyday Persuasion Knowledge. Psychology and Marketing,  Gitomer, Jeffrey. (2007). Little Green Book of Getting Your Way. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.

 Gross, A., & Walzer, A. (2000). Rereading Aristotle’s Rhetoric. US: Board of Trustees.  Kjeldsen, Jens E. (2003, July). Word & Image  rhetoric. (2010). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online: opic/501179/rhetoric opic/501179/rhetoric

 Researching the history of rhetoric has made my interest in language grow because I see what vital part it has in the world of communication.  I hope that you enjoyed learning about The Art of Persuasion as much as I have, thank you.

 The End