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Rhetoric Theories And Their Impact On The Pre Modern Discourse

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The History of Rhetoric Theories and Their Impact on the Pre-modern Discourse Rhetoric is the art of discourse that is aimed at improving the speakers or writers’ ability to motivate, persuade and inform audience in specific situations. Rhetoric has played a central role in European tradition as a subject of productive civil practice and formal study. Rhetoric provides heuristics for developing, discovering and understanding arguments for particular situations. The five canons of rhetoric which were first coded in classical Rome help a speaker to design a persuasive speech. The five canons of rhetoric are delivery, memory, style, arrangement and invention (Blake, 2009). Alongside dialectic and grammar, rhetoric is one of the ancient arts …show more content…

The Greek rhetoric was extended by certain Romanian rhetoricians such as Quintilian and Cicero. Although the ancient classical rhetoric theory was basically concerned with oratory and to improve public speech, it was also meant to influence writing instructions. During the roman time for example, a process of composing a speech had evolved. The stages that were involved included discovering or inventing, organizing or arranging the ideas and putting them into words that enticed the public or audience. Of the ancient rhetoric, Aristotle is recognized for making a great contribution to the rhetorical theories which have formed the basis of today’s communication. Aristotle due to his contribution became known as the Father of Speech Communication (Sloane, 2001). In his rhetoric, Aristotle addressed the role of audience, speaker and the speech itself within the three pillars; logos, pathos and ethos. In ethos, Aristotle shows that before delivering the message, the audience must first accept the speaker’s credibility and worthiness of delivering that message. In pathos, the message must have the quality of persuasion that attracts the audience’s emotions. This means that the speaker’s message should evoke the feelings of love, compassion, sympathy or fear. In logos, Aristotle shows that the message should make sense and should be based on facts, evidence or statistics. Classical rhetoric divides oratories

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