The Art of Rhetoric

In high school I can remember one of my English teachers explaining how her son was taking a course in rhetoric in a college down in Georgia. At the time, I had no idea what the meant so she explained that it was basically a class that focused on giving speeches. She said all colleges have these courses and at that moment, I dreaded the thought of having to enter into a class for rhetoric - public speaking being one of my least favorite experiences. So the first year in college, I had Freshman Symposium. This was my ‘rhetoric and composition’ class that focused on reading texts, writing papers, and then giving a twenty minute speech about a research paper I had developed over the semester. I hated having to talk to the class all by myself for an extended period of time, but I got over it and blew a sigh of relief when the ordeal was over, thinking that I’d gotten rhetoric out of the way.

Reading Williams, however, shows that you can’t really get away from rhetoric. For me rhetoric is somewhat of a hard concept to grasp, especially now that I’ve seen how many different elements have contributed to the modern idea of rhetoric. Apparently, it’s not just about giving speeches. True, Williams points out, the ancient sophists used it to “make ridiculous claims seem reasonable” and to persuade people to believe in their stance (I’m pretty sure this tradition has lasted as a principle weapon in the arsenals of lawyers and politicians) (8). Still there are many different facets on the topic of rhetoric. For instance, I never realized that rhetoric played such an important part in keeping aristocracies alive in Ancient Greece or that Socrates and Plato used it to hold back the “common people” who they saw as ignorant or stupid (17). Another thing I hadn’t considered fully is that rhetoric is also based in writing. Presidents and leaders from across the globe give plenty of speeches, but there’s always someone doing the writing first.

I found the way that Williams describes how, historically, rhetoric entered Western educational systems and faded into the background tedious, yet fascinating. Being able to look at an issue from different perspectives and garner ‘truth’ about that issue took talent, instruction, and practice are key aspects of rhetoric and the last three elements are still considered crucial today in all fields of learning (15). What’s interesting to see then is how rhetoric has disappeared from the foreground of education because it’s considered to fall within the arts instead of the sciences. As Williams notes, rhetoric deals not only with speaking and writing, but with emotion, psychology, grammar, logic and reasoning skills, etc. Modern curriculums seem to be failing students (as evidenced by the poor reading and writing skills on tests and in everyday occurrences, such as sending text messages). Without giving the necessary attention to the art of rhetoric, students will not be able to keep up with standards of their peers around the globe who are bypassing them in achievement levels in both the arts and sciences.