Blackwell Reference Online

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Rhetoric as the study of forms of self-expression has many meanings depending on the context in which it is used. For theorists and practitioners of public speech, it is concerned primarily with the study of persuasion (→  Rhetoric, Argument, and Persuasion ). For those interested in cultivation of effective expression, rhetoric concerns the use of style and development of polished writing and speaking (→  Style and Rhetoric ). Rhetoric has been the subject of scholarly theory and analysis in education since at least the fourth century bce , when Aristotle developed his theories of artistic proof and stylistic expression in On rhetoric ( Aristotle 1991 ; →  Rhetoric, Greek ; Rhetorical Studies ). Aristotle's On rhetoric exemplifies the ways in which technology has influenced rhetoric. The advent of writing in Greek culture meant that public oratory would be influenced by technical developments in inscribed expression. The adoption of writing in a previously oral culture precipitated interest in sequential logic and prescribed forms of organization. As Walter J. Ong (1982 , 9) noted, “writing from the beginning did not reduce orality but enhanced it, making it possible to organize the ‘principles’ or constituents of oratory into a scientific ‘art,’ a sequentially ordered body of explanation that showed how and why oratory achieved and could be made to achieve its various specific ... log in or subscribe to read full text