RHETORIC

Rhetoric, according to Aristotle, is persuasion. Rhetoric is a piece of formal writing-- however, not all formal writing is rhetoric. Novels, for example, are not considered rhetoric. Because novels are not written to persuade. Rhetoric is created with the intent to have an effect on it's audience. If there is no effect, than it is not rhetoric. Rhetoric ensures effect by observing all available means of persuasion, and then utilizing the most effective means, or combination of means, to illicit a response. Aristotle defined three methods, or persuasive appeals, he found most utilized in regards to rhetoric:

1. Logos; The appeal to reason
2. Pathos; The appeal to emotion
3. Ethos; The persuasive appeal of someone's character

Also according to Aristotle, there are three categories of Rhetoric:
1. Political
2. Forensic
3. Ceremonial Oratory of Display

Cicero further explained the ways in which rhetorical persuasion could be analyzed, and they are:

1. Invention
2. Arrangement
3. Elocution
4. Memory
5. Delivery

Lloyd F. Bitzer goes on to describe rhetorical situtions, which he believes is a characteristic of rhetoric that has gone undefined before his essay ____. A rhetorical situation is brought about by rhetorical discourse, which in turn is set on by a situation. If discourse is created, and a situation's reality is altered by this discourse, a rhetorical situation has taken place.

Prior to the discourse of a rhetorical situation, three factors are present:
1. Exigence
2. Audience
3. Constraints

Rhetorical Situations are meaningless without the second of these factors, which is audience. If rhetorical discourse is created, but never produces an effect, it is meaningless. Audience makes meaningful discourse "rhetorical". This audience is defined as anyone who is capable of being persuaded by the rhetorical discourse at hand.

Further explanations on Rhetorical Discourse can be found in Bitzer's article,The Rhetorical Situation, which can be found here!

The instance of rhetorical situation's has created a demand for professional analysis of rhetorical discourse. This professional analysis is conducted by Rhetorical Critics. Rhetorical Critics analyze rhetorical situations and the persuasion these situations sought, and the persuasions they inspired. This profession is fairly new, not yet a hundred years old, and fathered by a Rhetorical Critic know as Herbert Wilchelns, with the publication of his essay "The Literary Citicism of Oratory".