Stylistics and

1st
semester
s.y. 25-26

Discourse
E-ELEC
313

Topics:
• Definition of Rhetoric
• Origin and History
• Examples
• Significant people
Rey Joemar C. Gebusion,
LPT.
Instructor
 RHETORICS and Its History
What is Rhetoric?
Rhetoric is the art of persuading someone through your speech and writing.

• To persuade
• To inform
• To motivate
Rhetoric in the
Ancient Time
Forefathers and Foremother:

• Aspasia of Miletus - Aspasia of Miletus was perhaps the foremother of

classical rhetoric as she is rumored to have taught rhetoric and
home economics to Socrates.
Her social position was that of a hetaera, or companion who was
“more educated than respectable women, and [was] expected to
accompany men on occasions where conversation with a woman was
appreciated, but wives were not welcome” (Carlson 30). Her specialty
was philosophy and politics and she became the only female member of the
elite Periclean circle that included the most prominent Sophists of the day.
In the circle she made both friends and enemies as a result of her
political savvy and public speaking ability.
• Socrates

As a student of Socrates (469-399 BCE), Plato

(429-347 BCE) wrote about rhetoric in the form of
dialogues wherein the main character is Socrates.
Through this form the dialectic was born. While this
term has been debated since its inception, Plato
conceptualized it as a process of questions and answers
that would lead to the ultimate truth and understanding.

Example:

Therapist takes by asking a series of questions to a

patient to bring greater clarity in understanding one’s
own thoughts, motives, and behavioral patterns?
• Plato
Ironic is the fact that while Plato contributed a great
deal to classical rhetorical theory he was also very critical of it.
In his dialogue Georgias, for example, Plato argued that
because rhetoric does not require a unique body of knowledge
it is a false rather than true art.
He argues that rhetoric lacks a specific and
substantive body of knowledge, unlike true arts such as
medicine or justice. Because of this, Plato considers rhetoric
not a legitimate art (techne), but rather a kind of flattery or
mere persuasion—a practice more concerned with
appearances than truth. He believed that rhetoric, as it was
commonly practiced, prioritized persuasion over reason and
justice, making it potentially dangerous in the hands of the
unscrupulous.
• Aristotle
Aristotle (384-322 BCE) believed in the possibility of rhetoric as a
means of creating community. The dialectical, or give and take
approach, allows people to share and test ideas with one another
with the goal of a more prosperous city-state.

Dialectical - A method of argument based on commonly

accepted opinions (called endoxa), rather than on certain or
scientific knowledge.

-Not from absolute truths, but from what most people or experts
generally believe.
-It's a way to test ideas, clarify concepts, and examine
arguments.
-It's a way to test ideas, clarify concepts, and examine
arguments.
-It's a tool for philosophy, helping us see which opinions are more
reasonable.
The former suggests that Aristotle recognized the importance of context and
audience; that a specific situation with a particular audience might direct the
speaker, or rhetor, to create a message in a form that might look different in
another context with another audience.

He recognized the importance of audience analysis: that different things appeal

to different people.

Rhetoric exists in contexts where a person or a group of people is engaged in the

process of communicating for the purpose of changing another in some way.
• Pan Chao (Ban Zhao) (c. 45 CE-115 CE)
provides historical insight into Eastern rhetoric
and the role of women in rhetoric.

A strong believer in the benefits of education, she

was one of the first people to argue for the education
of girls and women. Writing on the four qualifications of
womanhood (virtue, words, bearing, and work),
she said of womanly words, they “need be neither clever in
debate nor keen in conversation,” but women
should “…choose words with care; to avoid vulgar
language; to speak at appropriate times; and to not
weary others (with much conversation), [these] may
be called the characteristics of womanly words” (Pan
Chao 417).
Famous Lines
Socrat Aristot
es Plato le
1. Hope is the dream of
1. “The Only True a waking man.
1. “Be kind, for
Wisdom Is in
everyone you meet
Knowing You Know
is fighting a harder
Nothing” 2. We are what we
battle.”
repeatedly do.
2. “Prefer Knowledge Excellence, then, is
2. “Only the dead
to Wealth, for the not an act, but a
have seen the end
One Is Transitory, habit.
of war.”
the Other
Perpetual” 3. The roots of
education are bitter,
but the fruit is
sweet.
Classical
Rhetoric Two other key figures in classical rhetoric are
Cicero (106-43 BCE) and Quintillian (c. 35-
95).
In the classical system there were three
types of public speeches—legal, political,
and ceremonial.
Eventually the genre of rhetorical discourse
would include poetry, sermons, letters,
songs; and with the advent of the
Cicero (106-43 technology, mass mediated discourse such Quintillian (c.
BCE) as television, radio, and film. 35-95).
Another major contribution was the
formation of the five canons: invention,
arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.
All of these should be easily recognizable as
the stages of speech preparation.
Five Canons of
Rhetoric
Canon Meaning Function
1. Invention (Inventio) Discovering arguments and What to say — finding strong
ideas content or arguments
2. Arrangement (Dispositio) Organizing the arguments How to say it — structuring the
logically speech effectively
3. Style (Elocutio) Choosing the right words and How it sounds — making the
figures of speech message engaging and
appropriate
4. Memory (Memoria) Memorizing the speech How to remember it — storing
the content for smooth delivery
5. Delivery (Pronuntiatio) Presenting the speech with How to perform — using tone,
voice and gestures pace, and body language to
persuade
 Middle Ages (400-
1400)
As the Roman Empire fell, rhetoric fell from grace.

It was no longer a valued and honored skill but instead was

thought of as a pagan art. This view coincided with the
Christian domination of the period as, “Christians believed
that the rhetorical ideas formulated by the pagans of
classical Greece and Rome should not be studied and that
possession of Christian truth was accompanied by an
automatic ability to communicate the truth effectively” (Foss,
Foss, and Trapp 8).
Ironically, it was a Christian, Augustine, who recognized
and articulated the role for rhetoric in the church. Prior to
his conversion to Christianity, Augustine was a teacher of
rhetoric, thus, he knew skills in oratory and that the
ability to move an audience was consistent with the
duties of a preacher. As the world grew bigger, people
needed a form of communication that would travel across
distance—thus letter writing became popular and was
now considered within the scope of rhetoric.
Renaissance
1400-1600.
During this period two intellectual trends—humanism and rationalism—shaped
the study of rhetoric.

Humanism is the study of history, moral philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric of

classical antiquity. These thinkers believed that the word was to be known and
understood through language, rather that the natural or physical.

Rationalism, however, privileged scientific and objective answers to life’s

questions and as such had little use for rhetoric. In the modern period that
followed three trends in rhetoric emerged—the epistemological, belletristic,
and elocutionist.
Challenges To The
Canon
While much of the classical rhetorical theories arose from the closely
related context of public speaking, much of the theorizing that
contributes to contemporary rhetoric comes from outside this
context and, to some extent, outside the Communication discipline.

While Aristotle and Augustine were chiefly concerned with questions

of persuasive ability, contemporary theorists are concerned with
relationships between power, knowledge, and discourse. Hopefully,
you can see that this is a much broader set of questions and in turn
the scope of rhetoric has also expanded.
Rhetoric In
Contemporary Times
The contemporary rhetoric faces acute challenges rooted in shifting
communicative landscapes, evolving audiences, and technological
disruptions.

Key areas of concern:

1. Ambiguity in its definition and domain (racism, knowing, fake
news, framework)
2. Rise of hate rhetoric (communicative aggression, weaponized
rhetoric)
3. Overemphasis on Buzzwords (trendy ideas and superficial
application)
4. Audience Fragmentation
5. Ethical and Political Divisiveness
Rhetorical Criticism
-is an epistemology or way of knowing many scholars find effective in
coming to an understanding about the communication process and the
artifact under study.

-(An artifact or text is simply the thing that the critic wants to learn
about. Artifacts can be, for example, speeches, songs, sermons, films or
works of art.)

-rhetorical criticism enables scholars to learn more about their own

communication strategies, the study of rhetoric, and the specific
artifacts that interest us.

-rhetorical criticism can inform us as to how and why that text is so

effective.
It looks into:
-speaker’s personality, speaker’s public character, audience,
speaker’s leading ideas, motives, topics, proofs, judgment of
human nature, questions considered, textual authenticity,
arrangement, mode of expression preparation, delivery,
style, effect on audience, influence on the time.

-it looks and examines on the audience expressions,

reactions, and acceptance of the argument or speech.
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King
Jr. addresses the crowd at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C., where
he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech
on Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the March
on Washington.

Monday marks Martin Luther King, Jr.

Day. Below is a transcript of his
celebrated "I Have a Dream" speech,
delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
I Have a Dream But 100 years later, the Negro still is not
free. One hundred years later, the life of
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Negro is still sadly crippled by the

Five score years ago, a great manacles of segregation and the chains
of discrimination. One hundred years
American, in whose symbolic shadow
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of
we stand today, signed the
poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of
Emancipation Proclamation. This
material prosperity. One hundred years
momentous decree came as a great later the Negro is still languished in the
beacon light of hope to millions of corners of American society and finds
Negro slaves who had been seared in himself in exile in his own land. And so

the flames of withering injustice. It we've come here today to dramatize a

shameful condition. In a sense we've
came as a joyous daybreak to end the
come to our nation's capital to cash a
long night of their captivity.
check.
When the architects of our It is obvious today that America
republic wrote the magnificent has defaulted on this
words of the Constitution and the promissory note insofar as her
Declaration of Independence, they citizens of color are concerned.
were signing a promissory note to Instead of honoring this sacred
which every American was to fall obligation, America has given
heir. This note was a promise that the Negro people a bad check,
all men — yes, Black men as well a check which has come back
as white men — would be marked insufficient funds.
guaranteed the unalienable rights
of life, liberty and the pursuit of
But we refuse to believe that
happiness.
the bank of justice is bankrupt.
We refuse to believe that there We have also come to this
are insufficient funds in the hallowed spot to remind
great vaults of opportunity of America of the fierce
this nation. And so we've come urgency of now. This is no
to cash this check, a check that time to engage in the
will give us upon demand the luxury of cooling off or to
riches of freedom and the take the tranquilizing drug
security of justice. of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the It would be fatal for the nation to
promises of democracy. Now is the overlook the urgency of the
time to rise from the dark and moment. This sweltering summer of
desolate valley of segregation to the the Negro's legitimate discontent
sunlit path of racial justice. Now is will not pass until there is an
the time to lift our nation from the invigorating autumn of freedom and
quick sands of racial injustice to the equality. 1963 is not an end, but a
solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the beginning. Those who hope that the
time to make justice a reality for all Negro needed to blow off steam and
of God's children. will now be content will have a rude
awakening if the nation returns to
business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor But there is something that I must
tranquility in America until the say to my people who stand on the
Negro is granted his citizenship warm threshold which leads into
rights. The whirlwinds of revolt the palace of justice. In the process
will continue to shake the of gaining our rightful place, we
foundations of our nation until the must not be guilty of wrongful
bright day of justice emerges. deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy
our thirst for freedom by drinking
from the cup of bitterness and
hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high
plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our
creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.
Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights
of meeting physical force with soul force. The
marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
community must not lead us to a distrust of all white
people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced
by their presence here today, have come to realize that
their destiny is tied up with our destiny.
And they have come to There are those who are asking the
realize that their freedom is devotees of civil rights, when will
inextricably bound to our you be satisfied? We can never be
freedom. We cannot walk satisfied as long as the Negro is the
alone. And as we walk, we victim of the unspeakable horrors of
must make the pledge that police brutality. We can never be
we shall always march ahead. satisfied as long as our bodies,
We cannot turn back. heavy with the fatigue of travel,
cannot gain lodging in the motels of
the highways and the hotels of the
cities.
We cannot be satisfied as We cannot be satisfied as long as a
long as the Negro's basic Negro in Mississippi cannot vote
mobility is from a smaller and a Negro in New York believes
ghetto to a larger one. We he has nothing for which to vote.
can never be satisfied as
long as our children are No, no, we are not satisfied, and
stripped of their selfhood we will not be satisfied until justice
and robbed of their dignity rolls down like waters, and
by signs stating: for whites righteousness like a mighty
only. stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials
and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.
Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left
you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds
of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina,
go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and
ghettos of our Northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation
can and will be changed.
 I have a dream that one day this
Let us not wallow in the valley of
nation will rise up and live out the
despair, I say to you today, my
true meaning of its creed: We hold
friends.
these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal.
So even though we face the
difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. It
is a dream deeply rooted in the
American dream.
People clap and sing along to a freedom song
between speeches at the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together
at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be
transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with
its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls
will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters
and brothers. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and
mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this
faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our
nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be
able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail
together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one
day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new
meaning: My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land
where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside,
let freedom ring.
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let
freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let
freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring
from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from
the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the
curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of
Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when
we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every
state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when
all of God's children, Black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and
sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at
last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.
Essay:
1. What is the main goal of this speech?
2. Who is the intended audience? How does Dr. King address
them?
3. How does the historical context affect the speech’s message?
4. How does Dr. King build ethos (credibility)?
5. What emotions (pathos) does he appeal to?
6. What logical arguments (logos) does he present?
7. What figurative language is used? Cite the line.
8. How is the speech organized?
9. What makes this speech powerful or memorable?
[Link] connections can you make between Dr. King’s dream
and today’s society?