Retorikat

Retorikat, or rhetoric, is the art and study of persuasive communication, particularly through language. In Malay and Indonesian usage, retorikat denotes the craft of crafting messages to influence an audience, as well as the theory behind how arguments work.

Classical foundations: In ancient Greece, Aristotle identified ethos, logos, and pathos as the three modes of persuasion. The Romans, especially Cicero and Quintilian, expanded the theory of argument and eloquence. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, rhetoric was integrated into education and oratory. In modern times, rhetoric has been studied as a discipline within literary theory, communication studies, and critical discourse analysis.

Key concepts: The retorikat study considers the rhetorical situation (who speaks, to whom, for what purpose), audiences, constraints, and available evidence. Common devices include metaphor, parallelism, anaphora, and rhetorical questions, as well as logical structures such as inductive and deductive reasoning. Persuasive appeals are categorized as ethos (credibility), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion).

Applications and evaluation: Retorikat informs public speaking, political discourse, legal argumentation, journalism, advertising, and digital media. It is used to construct persuasive messages and to critique them, promoting critical media literacy. Ethical concerns focus on avoiding manipulation, misrepresentation, and deceptive tactics; many traditions emphasize honesty, transparency, and respect for audience autonomy.