INTRODUCTION TO

RHETORIC
Rhetoric | rhet•o•ric |,
[noun] : language that is intended to influence
people and that may not be honest or reasonable.
: the art or skill of speaking or writing formally and
effectively especially as a way to persuade or
influence people.
: the faculty of observing in any given case the
available means of persuasion.
 The English word "rhetoric" is derived from Greek
rhetorike, which literally means, art of oratory.
 "rhetoric" can be traced back to the natural
impulse to survive and to control our environment
and influence the actions of others in what seems
the best interest of ourselves, our families, our
social and political groups, and our descendants.
 Practical need/new democracy was formed
 To have harmony again
DISCUSSION

Rhetoric is the equivalence of Dialectic, which is a

method of examining and discussing opposing ideas
in order to find the truth.
Dialectic is for the (private or academic) practice of
attacking and maintaining an argument, rhetoric is
for the (public) practice of defending oneself or
accusing an opponent.
Aristotle defines the rhetorician as someone who is
always able to see what is persuasive.
Rhetoric is defined as the ability to see what is
possibly persuasive in every given case
physician: the latter has a complete grasp of his art
only if he neglects nothing that might heal his
patient, though he is not able to heal every patient.
rhetorician has a complete grasp of his method, if he
discovers the available means of persuasion, though
he is not able to convince everybody.
Rhetoric is useful base on the following premises:

(1) Things that are true and things that are righteous have a
natural tendency to win over the false and unjust, but if
the decisions of critics are not what the truth is and just,
the fault must be due to the speakers themselves, and
they must be blamed accordingly.
(2) To some audiences not even the possession of the most
exact knowledge will provide a complete certainty,
because argument based on knowledge needs instruction,
and there are people who cannot be instructed. Hence,
we must use our modes of persuasion and argument,
ideas possessed by everybody, as we observed in the
Topics when dealing with the way to handle an audience.
(3) We must make use of persuasion, in order to see
clearly what the facts are, and that, if another man
argues wrongly, we on our part may be able to
disprove him/her.
(4) The use of rational speech is more typical for a
human being, and the power of speech can either
grant a great harm to oneself, if not used righteously
or a huge benefit to oneself if practiced correctly
 Three Kinds of Modes of Persuasion:

 Depends on the personal character of the speaker

(Ethos)
 Putting the audience into a certain frame of mind
(Pathos)
 The proof or apparent proof, provided by the words
of the speech itself
(Logos)
 Three Means of Effecting Persuasion:

a) to reason logically,
b) to understand human character and goodness in
their various forms, and
c) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them
and describe them, to know their causes and the
way in which they are excited.3
Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means
convincing by the character of the author. We tend to
believe people whom we respect. One of the central
problems of argumentation is to project an
impression to the reader that you are someone worth
listening to, in other words making yourself as
author into an authority on the subject of the paper,
as well as someone who is likable and worthy of
respect.
Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to
the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging
from classic essays to contemporary advertisements
to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to
persuade. Language choice affects the audience's
emotional response, and emotional appeal can
effectively be used to enhance an argument.
Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of
reasoning. This will be the most important technique
we will study, and Aristotle's favorite. We'll look at
deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what
makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your
claims. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation,
and cannot be emphasized enough. We'll study the
types of support you can use to substantiate your
thesis, and look at some of the common logical
fallacies, in order to avoid them in your writing.
 Proof or Apparent Proof

There is induction (the act of providing something as

an evidence or proof to support an argument) and in
rhetoric, there is enthymeme (a syllogism in which
one of the premise is implicit ).
 Induction is defined as the proceeding from
particulars up to a universal 
An enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism, and the
example is a rhetorical induction. Everyone who
effects persuasion through proof does in fact use
either enthymemes or examples only.
The Enthymeme

 An enthymeme is a particular means of expressing a syllogistic

argument which has one proposition suppressed—i.e., one proposition
(either a premise or a conclusion) is not stated.
 Syllogism- an instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is
drawn 

Example of syllogism:
Major Premise
It is hard for people to pay attention when they are bored. (irrefutable)
Minor premise
Young people are bored when classroom activities do
not seem relevant to real life. (particular example of
major premise)
Conclusion
All school work should relate to real life, in order to
keep kids/students focused and learning.
Example of an enthymeme

minor premise: School is important.

conclusion: Students should work hard in school.

(unstated major premise: School teaches valuable

skills.)
Strengthen your enthymeme
 The Common Core Standards have been adopted by
many states in order to better prepare students for
college and workplace.
 Teachers are required to teach according to the
Common Core Standards.
 Therefore, school teach valuable standards.
 “You'll do fine, just follow your heart.”
The missing premise necessary for validity in the
argument would be “All persons who follow their
heart are persons who do fine.”

You are a person who follows your heart.

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You are a person who does fine.
In other cases, if the missing proposition were present
explicitly, the argument might lose rhetorical force.
“Mary does well because she pays attention.”
Here, the suppressed premise necessary for validity
would be “All people paying attention are people who
do well.” (Note that it seems reasonable that some
persons who pay attention might not do well.) And
so, the argument when stated explicitly becomes:
(All persons paying attention are people who do well.)
Mary is a person paying attention.
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Mary is a person who does well.