Rhetoric is the study of effective writing and speaking, often used to persuade others to act or think in a certain way. It is commonly found in political speeches and advertisements, using techniques like metaphor, hyperbole, and anaphora. Rhetoric can be used to dress up questionable arguments or distract from the real reasoning behind them. It is also used in everyday life to convince friends and colleagues of certain thoughts or ideals. Different rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, hyperbole, and anaphora, can be used to evoke emotional responses in the listener or reader and make the overall message more effective.
There are many different uses of rhetoric; the device is perhaps most commonly used when a person or organization is trying to get others to act or think in a certain way, but it is also often used as a form of argumentation and general style of presentation. In other words, it can be used pretty much anytime someone wants to convince other people of something or convey a certain argument about a topic. Two of the most popular places rhetoric can be found are political speeches and advertisements. In these situations, the rhetoric aims to get the listening public to agree with the arguer’s arguments, without necessarily offering information of any intellectual value. For example, a politician may describe an opposing side as a “cancer” of society, which has negative connotations but no intrinsic meaning. Many writings also employ rhetoric to get the reader to agree with the viewpoint presented.
Understand rhetoric in general
Rhetoric is, in its simplest sense, the study of effective methods of writing and speaking. An argument presented in basic skeletal form may not be a particularly attractive prospect, but the use of rhetoric can make the same argument much more persuasive. There are a couple of ways to do this. Speakers and writers usually rely on various techniques like metaphor, hyperbole and anaphora to make the idea seem more attractive to listeners or readers. The different uses of rhetoric all stem from this ability to dress up otherwise questionable arguments or to distract the audience from the real reasoning behind the argument. For this reason, logic students spend a lot of time learning how to deconstruct rhetoric efficiently.
As a persuasive tactic
Rhetoric is normally employed to get people to think about something in particular, or to take a certain position in a debate or discussion. The main value of rhetoric for an advertiser, for example, is to convince potential buyers that a particular product is superior to those of its competitors. Politicians also use rhetoric to convince the public that they will be better at running the country or state than their competitors.
A person in normal life may also use rhetoric to do things like convince friends and colleagues of certain thoughts, alliances, or ideals. Newspaper column writers also use it to get readers to take their take on a particular issue or event. The tactic is particularly common in the editorial section, for example.
relationship with the metaphor
Specific uses of rhetoric can be partially determined by the rhetorical device itself. For example, metaphor is a commonly used form of rhetoric, where one compares two different things by referring to one as if it were the other. The metaphor can be used by a politician to insinuate that his opponent shares characteristics with anything of his choice. An example of this might be a politician who is not currently in power, referring to the White House as his opponent’s “playground,” to suggest that the operator in charge is infantile and therefore unfit for power. Similarly, an advertiser might use the metaphor to imply that his product is superior or an opponent’s product is inferior by associating it with something else, ideally something with a commonly negative association.
Overlap with other devices
Other techniques such as anaphora and hyperbole can show the different uses of rhetoric and how they are applied to different situations. Hyperbole is basically an exaggeration and can be used in everyday life to make a situation seem more extreme than it actually is. For example, a contender for a position in a job might say “there are hundreds of reasons why I’m a good fit for this position” to appear as the obvious choice, when in reality the reasons could be counted on one hand.
Anaphora, which is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive utterances, can often evoke an emotional response in the listener and can be an effective rhetorical device. For example, a politician might say “oppression is when people are afraid to speak out; oppression is perpetuated by totalitarian governments; oppression is something we have to fight”. Repetition works for the speaker by staying in the mind of the listener or reader and helps make the overall message more effective.
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