Philosophy of Rhetoric

source: Google

When asked what my major is, people don’t usually know how to respond when I say, “Rhetoric and Writing.” They ask what rhetoric is, what kind of jobs I can acquire with it, and typically comment about how interesting it all sounds. I am sure that most assume it is just another nonsense liberal arts degree, but rhetoric is a whole other world within itself; rhetoric is an art, rhetoric is power, and rhetoric is everything.

Historically, “rhetoric comes from the Greek meaning ‘speaker’ and is used for the art of persuasive speaking or writing,” (“Rhetoric”). However, as time has progressed, visual rhetoric has become a topic of study as well due to the increase in marketing and advertisements in pop culture. Rhetoric can be visual, oral, or textual; rhetoric is everything. It’s about analyzing all of the different components that you have to put together in order to make the piece effective and persuasive; rhetoric is the existence and the absence of a component from a piece. Rhetoric is the choice to include or exclude something from a work. Constructing effective rhetoric is fun, challenging, and in the end you’ve created a piece of art.

I had no idea what rhetoric was until my sophomore year of my undergrad. Since declaring my major to Rhetoric and Writing, I have become increasingly aware of my surroundings and of my own discourses. I notice things that I had never paid attention to before like signage, commercials, speeches, various documents, and I even analyze my mail and why they chose the certain font, color, or graphics. Through my rhetoric courses at the University of Arkansas- Fort Smith I have become all together more aware, and I believe that is the power of rhetoric: to be able to recognize the influence that persuasion has on us. As Plato said, “Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.”

Rhetoric is truly an artform, in my eyes, and I believe if everyone could see the world around us through a rhetoric lense then we could understand each other, our society, and life on a higher, more enlightening level. Studying, producing, and examining rhetoric allows for a deeper understanding of everything because rhetoric is everything; it’s the way we talk, the way we write, the way we create, the way we see, the way we hear… Everything. Without it, there would be no culture, no language, no comprehension of why a tree is a tree, and that is why rhetoric is so utterly important to know and to learn.

Nothing would be without language and language would not be without rhetoric.

Works Cited

“Plato.” Iz Quotes, izquotes.com/quote/plato/rhetoric-is-the-art-of-ruling-the-minds-of-men-146456.

“Rhetoric - Dictionary Definition.” Vocabulary.com, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/rhetoric.