The rhetorical tradition

TO DEFINE THE rhetorical tradition, I shall follow Aristotle's advice; I shall begin my inquiry with assertions so commonplace that they have found their way into a book meant for students, a popular collection of excerpts on rhetorical theory, Bizzell and Herzberg's The Rhetorical Tradition. Let us look at the first paragraph of its general introduction: Rhetoric has a number of overlapping meanings: the practice of oratory; the study of the strategies of effective oratory; the use of language, written and spoken, to inform or persuade; the study of the persuasive effects of language; the study of the relation between language and knowledge; the classification and use of tropes and figures; and, of course, the use of empty promises and half-truths as a form of propaganda. Nor does this list exhaust the definitions that might be given. Rhetoric is a complex discipline with a long history: It is less helpful to try to define it once and for all than to look at the many definitions it has accumulated over the years and to attempt to understand how each arose and how each still inhabits and shapes the field. (1).