Rhetoric Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rhetoric - Essay Example Having learned the history of rhetoric, I realized that this 'art of persuasion' deserts delight and respect. According to the historical chronicles, our understanding of rhetoric rises from the fifth century B.C. in Athens, Greece.The word implied a use of words, even a manipulation of words. The main stress was on public speaking, as at that time people didn't need to write down their thoughts, so they expressed themselves in oral mode. Aristotle was the philosopher who first gave detailed explanation of rhetoric. He suggested that logic was one of many available means of persuasion. "People could also be persuaded by an appeal to emotions or to the character of the speaker, for example"4. During the Renaissance, after the printing had been invented, rhetorical concepts were applied on a large scale to written discourse. But as books were quite rare, teaching had a form of "lecture," which implied reading aloud from a book so that the students could note the most significant things. In the twentieth century, rhetoric is still popular, but it was a little modified during its 26-century history.