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Rhetoric In American History Essay

900 Words4 Pages

Rhetoric and American History Rhetoric used to be the foundation of conversation, but now its definition has completely changed. Rhetoric is currently known as “empty words”, something so far from the original meaning of the word, it is almost disgraceful. This essay explores rhetoric as the art form it was formerly known for, diving through history to see its effects on government and everyday life. Because of the nature of rhetoric, almost every interaction has some rhetorical underpinning, whether people realize it or not; rhetoric is essentially inescapable (Heinrichs).
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion through written or spoken language. Man is persuaded every day, rather it be by commercials, political speeches, or everyday conversation. …show more content…

The curriculum included analyzing poetry, defining parts of speech, and instruction on styles of arguing; the students were taught how to win a debate on any subject, even if they had no prior knowledge of said topic. They relied purely on emotional responses to win arguments and were despised by much of the population of Greece, despite this, they still played a key role in the development of rhetoric. In The Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle developed a method that improved upon the Sophist’s method of teaching rhetoric; he defined rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” He relied on logos more than any other means of persuasion, but he knew how important all three ingredients of persuasion are to arguing. He believed that it was better to teach men the correct form of rhetoric so they could argue with those who used the art of persuasion for evil. The Art of Rhetoric influenced the study of rhetoric up until the recent years in which very few people devote their time to the art of persuasion (B. and K.

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