What are rhetorical skills?

Have you ever heard of the person that was able to sell sand in the Sahara desert? Or the one who could sell ice in the North Pole? Norway has access to some of the world's cleanest tap water, and still Norwegians buy millions of liters of bottled water every year. Why are Norwegians convinced that this is a good idea?

Accessibility icon What are rhetorical skills?

The art of persuasion

People try to convince each other of different things all the time. We do that by using language. Not just what we say is important but also how we say it. This is called rhetoric.
Everyone can be good at rhetoric; you just need to follow a few steps.

What is rhetoric?

The word rhetoric means “speech art” in the Greek language where the term started. Now we think of rhetoric as a way of convincing others. The philosopher Aristotle wrote about rhetoric. He meant that you need to define the case before deciding your opinion. Aristotle divided rhetoric into five different parts.

Shape and format

There are five points you should follow to give a good speech:

1. Identify all of your arguments.
Find several relevant and good pieces of information from your standpoint, not just one or two, but many.

2. Organize.
The next step is to sort the sources and save those you want to include in your presentation. Keep the best ones and sort them, so those that belong together are next to each other.

3. Find your style.
How do you want to send your message? Give a speech, perform a rap, or write a text? Find out what is best for your goal.

4. Memorize everything.
To be believable, you need to learn your arguments very well. A person who knows what they are talking about is more believable than someone who doesn’t. So, you need to practice a lot.

5. Decide on your style of delivery.
How you give your speech is important. You need to practice a lot to sound convincing. It is important to think of clarity, volume, and tone. Body Language and movements are also important for your speech.

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Styles of persuasion

There are three methods when using rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos. They are different tools to convince the audience in different ways. Perhaps you have learned about them in Norwegian class?

Ethos – being believable

Experts often seem very believable because they talk about what they know. Another way to seem believable is by using strong sources. Ethos is important to everyone who tries to convince people.

This ad is a good example of the use of ethos.

Pathos – speaking to the heart

Pathos brings out an emotional response from your audience and makes them feel as you want to. This is important for army generals who have to send soldiers to war, organizations collecting money, and politicians campaigning for more votes.

This ad is a good example of pathos at work.

Logos – aha, that’s logical!

In logos, you speak/write to people’s logic. Your arguments must be logical and believable. Statistics and research results will be helpful here. Logos is important to researchers wanting to present new findings, organizations needing to raise money, and politicians campaigning for more votes.

We can all find time for an organic breakfast in a bottle, right?

Why is rhetoric important today?

As we have seen, rhetoric includes different techniques to convince others.
Is this skill relevant today? The answer is yes. It was relevant before, and still is today.

Why? So that you will not be fooled! You need to be able to decide if a person is telling you the truth or not. Some people are very good at public speaking but have weak ideas. Others have good ideas but lack good presentation skills.

It can be both harmless and harmful. For example, ending up with a new toothpaste is harmless, while being fooled in a political election is more harmful.

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Be critical

Today we have elements they didn’t have before: information in the form of text, sound and images. A long time ago, they had to trust everyone’s words since they had no other elements to rely on. More elements mean that it is more difficult to decide what is true and what is not.

Thinking critically means that you carefully look at the sources and decide what is true, so that you are not fooled by fake news. If you are able to recognize these tools in marketing or politics, you can make good decisions.

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Where do you meet rhetoric today?

You definitely meet rhetoric in political speeches. Politicians must use ethos, pathos and logos to make you vote for them, so that they win the election.

Sources:

  • Svendsen, Lars Fredrik Händler; Grue, Jan: retorikk i Store norske leksikon på snl.no.
    Hentet 7. oktober 2020 fra https://snl.no/retorikk

 

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