Rhetoric. In the most basic sense, rhetoric is the art of persuasion. During the long history of the practice of this art,
certain kinds of sentences, phrases, clauses,paragraphs, and other grammatical elements were identi ed as more e ective persuaders or conveyers of information than other forms, at least in certain circumstances. Rhetoric, then, is the art of making choices among words, sentences,
structures, and soon in order to communicate or express oneself most effectively.
While
grammar has rather hard-and-fast
rules to follow, rhetoric has accumulated experience to suggest devices, methods, and patterns of writing or speaking to good e ect.
Put another way, grammar tells us how to write or speak correctly and clearly, while rhetoric helps us do so forcefully, persuasively, and e ectively. There is not space or reason to recite the points
of rhetorical practice here, except to say that rhetoric—the strength and e cacy of communicating—merits careful thought and attention, along with the accuracy and correctness of speech or writing
(grammar). Seethe entries on
style, variety, parallelism, repetition, and the like.
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