The study of persuasion, or argumentation, has been formalized by Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Cicero. Rhetorical skills include invention (ethos, pathos, and logical proof), arrangement (introduction, narrative, proposition, division, proof, rebuttal, and conclusion), memory, delivery, and style. Good rhetorical skills require linguistic correctness, clarity, decorum, ornamentation, metaphors, linguistic rhythm, idioms, and various types of questions.
Since time immemorial, people have done their best to persuade others to believe as they believe, to trust what they trust, and to do what they do. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Cicero collectively helped formalize the study of how language is used in persuasion, also called argumentation. The approaches they focused on are called rhetorical skills. Rhetorical skills fall into a number of categories, including invention, arrangement, memory, delivery, and style.
As a rhetorical skill, the invention is the origin. Includes ethos, pathos and logical proofs. Ethos refers to the speaker’s apparent ethical standards, as well as credibility. Pathos deals with the degree to which the speaker elicits an emotional response in those who are listening. Logical proof is found in the use of inductive and deductive reasoning.
The arrangement category examines the rhetorical structure of the speaker’s argument and includes seven elements: introduction, narrative, proposition, division, proof, rebuttal, and conclusion. The introduction is the speaker’s invitation to the audience to listen to the topic and the narration briefly lists the facts relating to the topic. In the proposal, the speaker explores these facts. Division is the speaker’s way of organizing all points into categories; rehearsal refers to the logical and step-by-step presentation of the speaker’s supporting ideas; and rebuttal is where the speaker points out the fallacies in the opposing argument. During the conclusion, the speaker summarizes the topic and prompts the audience to respond emotionally.
The role of memory in rhetorical skills is simple but important. The speaker must internalize the structure of the argument to the point where he can present it as if it were spontaneous and heartfelt. Delivery involves controlling the speaker’s tone of voice and gestures.
Rhetorical skills work hand in hand with each other. Without style, the ultimate formal category, the speaker’s points are bound to fall flat. The language in which the argument is delivered must demonstrate purity, or linguistic correctness; clarity, which means that the points are transparent; and decorum, or how appropriate the points are to the subject as a whole. The speaker simultaneously impresses and subtly seduces the audience through the use of ornamentation, metaphors, linguistic rhythm and idioms. Good rhetorical skills also require questions, including interrogative or rhetorical questions that do not require an answer: rogatio, in which the speaker asks and answers the question; quaesitio, which rapidly presents a series of questions in an attempt to emotionally influence the audience; and percontatio, unanswered questions that leave the audience unsatisfied.
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