Rhetoric (pronounced ) is the art of
discourse, an art that aims to improve the capability of writers or speakers to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the European tradition. Its best known definition comes from
Aristotle, who considers it a counterpart of both logic and politics, and calls it "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion." Rhetorics typically provide
heuristics for understanding, discovering, and developing arguments for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals,
logos,
pathos, and
ethos. The five canons of rhetoric, which trace the traditional tasks in designing a persuasive speech, were first codified in classical Rome:
invention,
arrangement,
style,
memory, and
delivery. Along with
grammar and
logic (or
dialectic—see
Martianus Capella), rhetoric is one of the
three ancient arts of discourse.
