It's rare for students to learn rhetoric these days, unless they go out of their way to take elective classes or compete in high school and college debate.
Yet the skills involved in rhetoric are invaluable for public figures and public relations.
Journalists are trained to inform people. They know how to communicate facts and events quickly and concisely.
Rhetoric is about persuading people to act. It's a different skill set, and the techniques used by reporters and editors to communicate to inform don't work when it comes to writing speeches or op-eds on the opinion page.
For the basics of rhetoric, it's smart to study what the ancient Greek masters of rhetoric studied and refined 2,000 years ago.
Rhetoric 101: Three Parts Of Rhetoric And Three Types Of Debates
Ethos, pathos and logos are concepts developed by Greek masters of rhetoric more than 2,000 years ago, yet those ideas are just as important today. The Greek masters also analyzed arguments into three types of debates.
Rhetoric 102: The Right Kind Of Persuasion
If you're trying to persuade people to act -- and most of the time, you are trying to persuade, rather than inform -- how should you go about it? There is a right way and a wrong way.
Rhetoric 103: Avoiding Fallacies
Arguments have two sides, and sometimes more. And not everybody fights fair. In public relations, your ideas are competing with a sea of other ideas. Here's how to avoid, and counter, common rhetorical fallacies.
Rhetoric 104: Know Your Audience
While there is a lot of art involved in rhetoric and persuasion, modern science shows us that audiences don't simply listen to a speech. What they see is just as important as the words what they hear.
Rhetoric 105: Speeches Are Seen, Not Heard
Theory is important. Yet there is no substitute for practicing your speaking skills by going out and speaking. Here are two posts on why you should do different types of speeches and how you can prepare for the various types of speeches.
Rhetoric 106: Why You Must Cross-Train Public Speaking Muscles
In public relations, you're constantly speaking. Maybe it's to an auditorium full of 200 people or a single reporter on the phone. This post explains why -- and how -- everybody should cross-train in public speaking to fully develop skills as a speaker.
Rhetoric 107: How To Prepare For Different Speeches
There are radically different types of speeches and speaking situations. A keynote speech is just you alone up on a podium with your text, which you should know well, while a panel may be you up there alone with some notes while you think on your feet, answering a question you haven't prepared for at all.
Ethos is all about how an audience views a speaker. Are they credible? Do they have authority or expertise on this topic? Are they impartial -- or do they have a stake in the outcome?
In public relations, reputation is everthing. This post is about strengthening your ethos and reputation.
Pathos is the use of emotion and passion in rhetoric and writing. Your arguments can't be made entirely up of emotional appeals -- but they can't be cold recitations of statistics, either.
Logos is how arrange and structure your arguments to build a case. This is a difficult and interesting subject, and it can make all the difference in whether you persuade an audience or not.
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