Rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. It involves the strategic use of language to inform, persuade, or motivate an audience, and it has been studied since ancient Greece and Rome.

Aristotle identified three modes of persuasion: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic). Rhetorical devices include metaphor, repetition, anaphora, antithesis, and rhetorical questions. Rhetoric is used in politics, law, advertising, and everyday argument, and it can be analysed for its persuasive techniques and ethical implications.

Key points

• Art of persuasion
• Ethos, pathos, logos
• Uses rhetorical devices
• Studied since ancient Greece