Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a working mother who
decided that she was tired of her job. Becoming a writer had always
been appealing to her, so she decided to go back to college. When
she told her children... 2
Slide 4
That is dumb. You wont get a job. Great. She wont have time to
bug me about playing video games. Why do you want to go to school?
Homework all the time. Welcome to my life. You go girl! They all
had something to say 3
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Why did she want to go to school? 4
Slide 6
Red Rick. What is that? I want to go to school because I want
to learn how to be a better writer and to use rhetoric to present
my ideas better. 5
Slide 7
Good question. Men have been trying to figure out what
rhet-or-ic is for thousands of years. Our understanding of rhetoric
today comes from the things these men taught. 6
Slide 8
People started talking about rhetoric a long time ago in a
place called Greece. 7
Slide 9
Rhetoric has to do with expressing your thoughts well.
Sometimes Greek citizens had to go to court without lawyers and
they didnt know how to say the right things to get what they
wanted. A man named Corax wrote a book to teach the people how to
share their thoughts more clearly. He taught the people that
speeches had three parts: an introduction, an argument, and a
conclusion. If a person wrote a speech with these three parts, then
he would be expressing his thoughts well. 8
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This rhetoric idea caught on. Other Greeks started talking
about it. There were not any video games back then, so people liked
to talk about ideas in their spare time. 9
Slide 11
Another Greek who taught about rhetoric was Potagoras of
Abdera, who said there is no such thing as absolute truth. Every
different situation determines what is true. He thought that a good
argument, or rhetoric, changed according to the situation. Rhetoric
could be used to prove something right or wrong. 10
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What did he mean by that? 11
Slide 13
I understand. There is a right and a wrong time to cross the
street. It is right when you are following the safety rules. He
meant that sometimes the right answer to a question depends on the
situation. For example, if you are crossing a street, the right
time to cross is after you have looked both ways to see that no
cars are coming. The wrong time to cross the street is when you see
a car coming. 12
Slide 14
You are starting to understand this rhetoric idea. 13
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There were other Greek teachers who talked about rhetoric. Men
like Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Aristotle Plato Isocrates
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Slide 16
Isocrates believed that politics and rhetoric could not be
separated. He thought people who gave good speeches should help run
the country or should at least talk about good ideas for the
country. Rhetoric was giving good speeches to influence people.
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Slide 17
Plato was a student of a famous Greek teacher named Socrates.
He had a school that he called The Academy. At his school, he
taught philosophy, which is the study of why we think and do
things. He also taught that we should use facts in our speeches and
when we write. He did not think like Isocrates that right and wrong
depended on the circumstances. He thought the best rhetoric was
based on knowing truth and how people act, which he called human
nature. Rhetoric was making a good argument using facts and things
we know about how people behave. 16
Slide 18
Aristotle was a student of Plato and wrote an important book
called Rhetoric. He identified the major canons of rhetoric:
invention, organization, elocution, delivery, and memory. 17
Slide 19
He made cannons. Cool! 18
Slide 20
No, he did not make cannons, though that would have been really
cool. He gave us tools to use so we would know how to say things
that would get people to do or to think a certain way or even
understand us better. Aristotles canons, or tools, help us to give
good speeches. 19
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Aristotles tools included: InventionThat means having a really
good idea. OrganizationPutting that idea down on paper so other
people can understand what you are talking about. ElocutionThat
means giving some pizzazz to your speech or being excited about
your message. DeliveryDoing a good job talking in front of people.
MemoryRemembering to use all the great ideas you thought of.
Rhetoric is using tools to help you express your ideas well.
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This is all complicated stuff. Rhetoric is hard to learn
without studying. This is one of the reasons that I am going to
school. 21
Slide 23
The Romans taught us about rhetoric, too. 22
Slide 24
The Romans were great conquerors who fought many battles and
controlled a lot of countries. They were in power for hundreds of
years. They also liked to dress up really fancy and give speeches.
Who were the Romans? 23
Slide 25
Cicero was one of those fancy dressing Romans who liked to give
speeches. He thought speeches should be fancy like Roman clothes.
Speeches were either: Plain which meant they used simple words and
were about simple things, Moderate which meant they used a little
bit bigger words and talked about more things, or Grand and used
really big words and talked about all kinds of great ideas.
Rhetoric was thought to be the use of fancy words to win an
argument. 24
Slide 26
The Romans didnt stay in power forever, though. During the
Middle Ages, people in the church had a lot of power. St. Augustine
was a preacher who taught about rhetoric. He thought that preachers
needed to teach in an interesting way that made people feel good.
Rhetoric was used in letter writing and they even taught it in
schools during this time. Rhetoric was teaching in an interesting
way that made people feel good. 25
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People didnt think rhetoric was important during the
Renaissance period. They were more interested in logic which means
using facts to win an argument. Rhetoric was thought to be the use
of fancy words to win an argument when you didnt have good
information. 26
Slide 28
Rhetoric was thought of as something used to trick people into
thinking something instead of letting them figure it out for
themselves. This is Sir Francis Bacon. Doesnt he look elegant? He
liked to dress fancy, but he didnt like all the fancy talk he found
in rhetoric. He thought that you should study things to determine
what is right and wrong. 27
Slide 29
Nowadays, people realize how important rhetoric is and how it
can be used as a tool to help make ideas better understood and to
share information. People use what was taught by the Greeks, the
Romans, and other great teachers to help them better express their
ideas. There are still some people, however, who think that
rhetoric is just a bunch of fancy words used to win an argument.
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Slide 30
What is rhetoric? Rhetoric is talking and writing smart. It is
using tools to help us write and speak better so people understand
what we are trying to say. It also helps us get what we want. Like
a treat before dinner. Maybe I will go to school and learn about
rhetoric, too. 29