Rhetoric To influence people through speech or writing

Rhetoric is often construed as insincere or meaningless language that sounds clever. This is an unduly negative perspective. Rhetoric is a critical cognitive and communication skill.

Introduction

Simply put, the purpose of rhetoric is to influence people through speech or writing. Yet, it is often construed negatively as insincere or meaningless language that sounds clever. Rhetoric, however, has a long history and is a deep and rich concept.

What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is historically considered spoken language, carefully constructed and used to persuade, motivate, or influence people, especially by utilizing figures of speech and other compositional devices.

More broadly, today, however, it is how we communicate effectively in our daily lives and, in addition to speech, can take the form of text, images, videos, or any other media type.

Rhetoric is about far more than influencing people through speech. It is how we communicate effectively in our daily lives and, in addition to speech, can take the form of text, images, videos, or any other form of media.

Credit: David Gurteen

The negative side of rhetoric

Retoric has taken on a negative meaning in recent years, especially in politics. Rhetoric is used and seen as clever wordplay to persuade others that a particular point of view is correct when that may or may not be accurate.

Why is rhetoric important?

The obvious answer is that by knowing how to use rhetoric, we can improve our communication skills and motivate or help people to see and agree with our perspective on an issue.

But being skilled at rhetoric is far more valuable than being a better persuader or motivator.

Rhetoric provides the motivation and a framework to research and think more critically about complex issues. It helps us think logically and gain insight into wrong or weak arguments.

A brief history of rhetoric

Rhetoric and Oracy

You should not confuse rhetoric with oracy. Although they have much in common, they are significantly different.

Resources

• Blog Post: What Is Rhetoric, and Why Is It Important? by Lindsay Kramer

Posts that link to this post

•  Oracy The ability to express oneself in and understand spoken language
•  The Long History of Argument A series of talks by Rory Stewart
•  What Is the Difference Between Rhetoric and Oracy? Rhetoric is monologue, oracy is dialogue
•  Comparing Oracy and Rhetoric What's the difference?
•  Oracy Is a Core Conversational Leadership Skill Communicating effectively in spoken language

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