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Rhetoric
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Rhetoric is the study of how language is used to persuade, inform, and influence audiences, and it sits at the center of communications, English, political science, and philosophy curricula. Its academic interest lies in the tension between language and reality, form and meaning, power and reason. Students engage with foundational questions about what makes an argument effective and how speech shapes public life. Core thinkers and frameworks that appear across coursework include Aristotle's definition of rhetoric, Plato's critique of false rhetoric as it relates to democracy, Foucault's contributions to rhetoric and ideology, and the competing positions of Bitzer and Vatz on how rhetorical situations are constructed.

Papers on this topic take several distinct approaches. Some are historically oriented, tracing classical and modern rhetorical theory to compare how ideas about persuasion have evolved. Others focus on close analysis of specific texts or speeches, such as Carmichael's Black Power speech or George Orwell's political writing, using rhetorical frameworks to examine how language and power operate together. Additional papers explore rhetoric within specific domains — religion, education, and political ideology — while others work through theoretical debates about the relationship between knowledge and rhetoric or the role of rhetorical education in shaping civic life.

A strong essay on rhetoric grounds its thesis in a clear claim about how a specific use of language achieves — or fails to achieve — a persuasive effect. Evidence drawn from the text, speech, or theoretical framework under analysis carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating rhetoric as merely a list of devices; effective essays instead connect those devices to broader questions of audience, power, and meaning.

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Paper High School

Analyzing Obama\'s Speech Through Aristotle

Obama's speech is a good example of Aristotle's rhetoric in practice.

Research Paper Doctorate

Virgil\'s Epic Poem the Aeneid Is Often

Virgil's epic poem "The Aeneid" is often described as the poet's response to Homer's epics "The Iliad," and "The Odyssey" in that it details the Trojan War and its aftermath from the Roman perspective.

Equiano, The Prince, and Douglass: Slave Narratives Compared

Equiano / Prince – Slave Stories Introduction The story of Olaudah Equiano began in Nigeria in 1745, when he was born; by the age of 11 Equiano was a victim of kidnapping and was sold to slave traders. His fate was not to be nearly as harsh as millions of other African natives that were seized and put into bondage, as his own writing reveals. But he was a slave and suffered the indignities that accompany slavery. The remarkable part of this story is the way that he tells his own story, written descriptively and in professional narrative, and what happens to him along the way. This paper references his tale, and also the paper reviews the life of a Muslim Prince who became a slave – Abdul Rahman Ibrahima (referred to in this paper as The Prince). In summary, the paper will conclude with the writing of Frederick Douglass, which offers perspective on slavery and is in contrast to the lives of Equiano and The Prince.

Paper Doctorate

Measurement of Crime

Evidenced-Based Practice in Canadian Policing and Crime Prevention

Paper High School

Symposium Is One of the Most Critically

This paper is about Plato's the Symposium. The paper analyzes the various concepts of Eros, or love, as seen through the different ideologies of Greek mythology. At the end, Socrates' own opinion is analyzed, and his superior rhetorical strength is capped off by the conclusion of the Symposium with the success of Socrates' argument having gone unchallenged.

Paper High School

Final examination assessment and concepts

Starting in the colonial period and continuing up through the Manifest Destiny phase of the American Empire in the 19th Century, the main goal of imperialism was to obtain land for white farmers and slaveholders. This type of expansionism existed long before modern capitalism or the urban, industrial economy, which did not require colonies and territory so much as markets, cheap labor and raw materials. It was also a highly racist type of policy that led to the destruction of Native Americans and the enslavement of blacks, as well as brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in overseas colonies like the Philippines and Haiti. Northeastern capitalists in the United States, dating back to the nascent period in the late-18th Century, were not particularly enthusiastic for this type of territorial expansion to the West or the growth of the agrarian sector of the economy. The party of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk, which represented the South planters and white small farmers, was always the main driving force behind manifest destiny, including the Mexican War and the early filibustering expeditions to Latin America

Paper Doctorate

Rhetoric and the Public Sphere

As the iconic co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc., and the innovator responsible for revolutionizing the way humanity communicates in the modern world, Steve Jobs was uniquely positioned to understand the immense persuasive power of rhetorical ability. Throughout his storied career Jobs' reputation for effectively communicating visionary ideas was exceeded only by his preternatural ability to persuade, shaping public perception and convincing consumers time and time again that the latest Apple product was an essential addition to their lifestyle. When Jobs took the stage to deliver his now legendary commencement address to the 2005 graduating class at Stanford University, the late multimedia mogul responsible for the Macintosh personal computer, iPod, iPhone, iPad, along with a wide array of similarly groundbreaking advances in computing technology, was poised to present his own life as an allegory for the dogged pursuit of one's personal passion. In doing so, Jobs epitomized the concept of the epideictic oratory, or "ceremonial speech which assigns praise or blame and is concerned with the present" (Dawkins, 2013), as conceived by Aristotle in his Rhetoric, the original discourse dedicated to forming theoretical foundations for rhetorical speech.

MLK Dr. Martin Luther King,

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a catalyst for change during the Civil Rights movement. His leadership style, skills of negotiation and rhetoric, and organizational strategies helped King to become a cultural, social,…

Paper Undergraduate

Toyota Process Improvements Toyota Summary

Toyota has largely had great success over the years but they have definitely stumbled in recent years. Some wild stock swings in 2001 and 2008 have been concerning, although the stock price is on an upward swing now. This paper analyzes three processes within Toyota....how they're doing now and how it could be better.

Paper Doctorate

Martin Luther King, Jr. The Mid-Twentieth Century

The mid-twentieth century was a time of much reform for many Americans, and even more push for equality amongst African-Americans. Amongst the leaders of the well-known African-American movements toward desegregation…

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