What is Rhetoric?

Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric is as follows: “Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion…rhetoric we look upon as the power of observing the means of persuasion on almost any subject presented to us; and that is why…it is not concerned with any special or definitive class of subjects” (Bizzell 181).  This is why rhetoric is such an open topic. As a rhetoric student for a number of years I’ve studied technical writing, law, digital writing, journalism, advertising, global English, the language of academia, the language of science, communications, debate, and business writing. Rhetoric essentially encompasses science, law, education and basically all correspondence. In some ways, this makes the subject of rhetoric seem immense and difficult to wrap one’s head around. Conversely, it gives the Rhetoric student freedom to concentrate on many different topics while still remaining under the umbrella of an English/humanities department. I don’t necessarily have to go to medical school to write a paper about the rhetoric of science. The rhetoric student questions all written communication and how it was presented and why it was presented that way. Even if one is unfamiliar with the traditional western concepts of rhetoric, this does not exempt them from having a purpose and an agenda when they write. Rhetoric often forces one to look at the structures of power that often dictate this presentation. Thus, in some ways, all knowledge is suspect based on the presenter of that knowledge and what their agenda is. This is an incredibly important skill, especially in today’s world of “fake news.” I hope to impart this ability, at least in a small way, to my future college freshmen I will be teaching. I want them to understand advertising and propaganda and how they are almost always been sold something, and to at least be aware of that in their daily lives.