Rhetoric is essentially the art of persuasion and today the art of rhetoric is seen all the time: in advertisements, television shows, movies, speeches, lectures, politics and more. Aristotle says there are three uses or forms of rhetoric: for the sake of attaining justice, for giving advice, and for encouragement. The first form could be used by lawyers, the second form could be used for students picking a university, and the third form could be used by politicians encouraging society to do more community service. Aristotle’s interpretation of rhetoric is the study of enthymemes, which are persuasive arguments. One needs arguments in order to persuade, enthymemes are the building block for rhetorical art. Enthymemes are interpretations of facts and enthymemes that are true and just will have the most persuasiveness. Many people today interpret the art of persuasion as manipulation but according Aristotle rhetoric is the showing of evidence.
The sequential art form of the power-point presentation, “Why students should be familiar with the news” is a form of rhetorical art. This power-point’s form of rhetoric is giving advice. Though the presentations purpose is to give advice, a small portion of it is used for encouragement. The presentation notes that the amount and types of news can be overwhelming so there is a point in the presentation in which suggestions are given on how to start following the news. These suggestions give encouragement because of how simplistic the methods are on how to become familiar with news. In this case the presentation has two forms of artful rhetoric. The presentation is built upon enthymemes on why students should follow the news. Here are examples of enthymemes used in the presentation, “…it can help decide what career path we should go into, we become more educated about those around us, we become familiar with different advancements, culture, politics and values, we develop new opinions, and we become more understanding of why our lifestyle is the way it is.”Enthymemes in this case are the advantages that following the news would give students. Enthymemes become very influential when they start pertaining to the individual and when enthymemes show that what is being argued for will result in the betterment of one’s lifestyle then they are most influential.
The power-point presentation is just one type of artful rhetoric. It is an example of a contemporary rhetorical composition; the way the art of rhetoric can be presented has changed immensely since Aristotle’s time. In ancient Greece
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