One assumption implicit in the art of rhetoric is that people--even intelligent people--can disagree with each other. Sometimes they disagree with each other about deeply held beliefs. When such disagreements become pronounced, there are two typical results--either they begin to fight, or they engage in debate. The choice is up to every country and every citizen--do we solve our problems by using a bullet or by engaging in rational discourse? Mild ethos or a military invasion? Pathos or plastique? Rhetoric removes disagreement from the arena of violence and turns it into debate--a healthy and necessary step in any democracy. For any headway to occur in a debate, wise participants should begin through figuring out what assumptions drive each group. Usually, when two groups disagree, it is because they do not share certain assumptions. The rhetor must assess her audience and then figure out what assumptions operate in her own argument and then what assumptions operate in the arguments made by others.

Common Rhetorical Mistakes:

The best arguments make use of shared assumptions--beliefs that both the writer and the reader can agree about even if they don't yet agree about the entire argument. It's often hard to find this common ground, but once a rhetor does find it, that clever writer can tailor her argument in an essay around that shared belief. Many amateur rhetors think of debate as an "us-versus-them" sort of affair, and that the readers who disagree are the enemy whose inferior arguments must be ground into the dirt. Accordingly, they mistakenly believe that ridiculing or attacking these mistaken beliefs is the most effective way to "win" the argument. These approaches are not usually the best means of persuasion. Such approaches do not constitute good rhetoric (or good manners, for that matter).

Master rhetors find it useful to think of debate as a cooperative, honest venture. This belief works for both a practical and an idealistic reason. On a practical level, people who feel insulted become unnecessarily defensive. Defensive people do not tend to be open-minded about new ideas coming from the mouth that just spewed venom upon the listeners. As a writer or speaker, it is far better to treat those who disagree with you respectfully. If the writer acknowledges disagreement, and acknowledges that her opponents have legitimate points, and carefully considers their concerns, it is far more likely these dissenting souls will consider her worth listening to. A pinch of politeness will work far better than a pound of verbal abuse. That's the practical reason for considering debate as a cooperative rather than confrontational practice.

In terms of idealism, there is a second reason to think of debate as cooperative rather than confrontational. Suppose each debater doesn't simply seek to "win" the argument for the sake of winning, but each one honestly wants to arrive at the truth, or the best solution, or the most logical conclusion. One participant presents the very best argument he can think up, offering the best evidence to support his case. Likewise, his "opponent" (who believes differently than he does) presents the very best case she can think up, offering the best evidence to support her case. If both approach the issue with an open mind, and are both prepared to change their minds after weighing the evidence carefully, the odds are pretty good that the best case will prevail. They have unleashed their best arguments, without seeking to trick or mislead each other, and the one with the most evidence or the most persuasive reasoning wins the day. That means every idea gets a fair shot, and the not-so-great ideas tend to fall before the better-than-average ideas, and in turn the better-than-average ideas tend to give way before the best-we've-seen-thus-far arguments. If people are trying to create a personal policy, determine a course of action for their community, or even just plan something simple like a bedroom's layout, such a debate is a healthy way to "test-drive" many possible courses of action. It lets people locate potential problems or shortcomings in each solution before going to the work of implementing any one option. It helps people spot logical fallacies in their own arguments that they didn't notice before. That's a useful endeavor, one we should encourage in the public arena generally.

For such a system to work, each participant has to honestly want to find the answer by an efficient and thorough discussion. The point isn't merely to win the debate. As a result, certain techniques that might help one win the debate are ultimately self-destructive. For instance, falsifying information, misrepresenting data, and bolstering one's case through deception, lies, logical fallacies, or exaggeration--such techniques are not good rhetoric. They do not lead to the best possible answer, but instead make a weak answer appear better than it really is. The rhetor may think he's won his argument by engaging in this sort of trickery, but in actual point of fact, the entire community involved in that decision has lost by accepting an inferior substitute. That's the idealistic reason we should consider debate as a cooperative, honest venture.

How Does Rhetoric Work?

With that caveat in mind, how does one make an argument persuasive enough to change the beliefs of another person? In classical Greek rhetoric, there are three basic approaches--three "rhetorical appeals"--one can use to make a convincing argument. They include these three items:

You can click on any one of the terms above for a slightly longer discussion and some links. In addition to balancing logic, emotion, and charisma, the rhetor also has to adapt the argument, tone, and approach for the specific audience. This audience adaptation takes into account the assumptions of that audience, and analyzes the spoken and unspoken assumptions behind a specific line of argument.

Rhetoric also involves language as an art. We have all heard, at some point in our lives, a particularly eloquent speaker. That speaker had good rhetoric. Rhetoric also involves what are often called "The Flowers of Rhetoric." These include inventio (the techniques for thinking up the points to discuss), schemes (rhetorical devices that involve artful patterns in sentence structure) and tropes (rhetorical devices involving shifts in the meaning or use of words).

Audience Adaptation:

• Audience Assessment (a pdf handout)
• Unstated Assumptions (a pdf handout)
• Why Shouldn't I Put This Puppy in the Microwave?
• Why Shouldn't Little Jimmy Play with Power Tools?
  

The Flowers of Rhetoric

• Inventio (or click here for pdf handout)
• Schemes (or click here for pdf handout)
• Tropes (or click here for pdf handout)
• A (Very) Selective Bibliography of Rhetoric
• Literary Terms (some of which are associated with rhetoric)
  

External Websites

For excellent external websites about rhetoric, see The Forest of Rhetoric. It's more fun than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and a lot faster than looking up each rhetorical term in the dictionary. Also see the list at Rhetorical Figures and Rhetorical Figures in Sound.

• The Forest of Rhetoric
• Rhetorical Figures
• Rhetorical Figures in Sound