What is Rhetoric?

What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric is a discipline built on the notion that language matters. It’s been around for over 2,500 years, and people who have studied it have been interested in different things at different times. While their interests have led them to focus on different aspects of rhetoric, there are several common characteristics of rhetoric that modern readers and writers value.

Rhetoric is Communicative

It’s about conveying ideas effectively to promote understanding among people.

I.A. Richards, an early 20th-century philosopher, defined rhetoric as “the study of misunderstandings and their remedies.” Language is messy. It is complex, contextual, and based on individual experience. We use language and privilege particular languages based on who we are, where we come from, and who we interact with. Communicating with others is complicated and fraught with potential misunderstandings based on our experiences. Rhetoric gives you a way to work within the messiness of language. It helps writers think through the varied contexts in which language occurs, giving them a way to—ideally—effectively reach audiences with very different experiences.

Rhetoric is About the Discovery

It’s about inquiring into and investigating the communication situations in which we participate.

Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering in any given case the available means of persuasion.” “Persuasion” is often emphasized in this definition; however, “discovery” is also key here. To have ideas to communicate, we have to learn about the case or situation we’re commenting on. Kenneth Burke likened this process to a gathering in a parlor, where you arrive with a conversation already in progress. You have to listen to the conversation actively, carefully observe the situation you will participate in and the subject(s) you will comment on, and find out the different participants’ positions and justifications for those positions before you can craft an informed opinion. Rhetoric is a tool that helps you think through and research the situation as you prepare to communicate with others.

Rhetoric is about Doing Things

A contemporary writing teacher, Jeff Grabill, asks, “What are people doing when they are said to be doing rhetoric?” In response, he argues that rhetoric is a kind of work that creates things of value in the world. In other words, rhetoric draws attention to the world around us and particular people, places, and ideas. Paying attention to others around us helps us identify and connect with others and their ideas, needs, and interests, which can ultimately deepen our relationships with others. Importantly, connecting with others leads to action that alters the physical world around us, producing art and music, protests and performances, and even new buildings and spaces for people to conduct their lives, understanding that rhetoric makes things can provide a reason to care about it and motivation to practice it.

Rhetoric is Systematic

One characteristic that influences each of the previous three is that rhetoric is systematic. It gives readers and writers a purposeful and methodical approach to communicating, discovering, and generating with language. It offers a set of skills and concepts that you can consistently use to think critically, read, research, and write in ways that allow you to achieve your communication goals. It’s important to realize that rhetoric is not a one-size-fits-all formula. It’s not a series of steps you follow the same way every time. Every communication situation is different, with different goals, contexts, and audiences, and thinking rhetorically is a flexible process that allows you to adapt to, as Aristotle put it, “any given situation.” You can think of rhetoric as a tool belt. You don’t always use a tape measure, hammer, or screwdriver when using your tools. You don’t always carry the same tools to different jobs. Depending on the job, you use different tools in different ways and in different orders to accomplish your task. Rhetoric is the same way.

Rhetoric is Transferable

Perhaps the most important part of rhetoric is that it’s transferable. Rhetoric isn’t just a tool you use in English or Public Speaking classes; thinking rhetorically is a way to methodically approach any situation you may encounter in your academic, professional, or personal life. You use rhetorical analysis in the chemistry classroom to dissect complex equations and then to communicate that knowledge to others, just like you use it to decipher what a TV commercial is attempting to make you believe about a given service or product. You use persuasion to pitch business ideas just as you use it when constructing a resume. Considerations of the audience are vital for Facebook posts and job interviews. Understanding genre helps you create effective lab reports and office e-mails. Learning to think and write rhetorically can impact every area of your life. Rhetoric is everywhere that language is. And language is everywhere.