rhetorics
Rhetorics is the study and practice of persuasive communication, focusing on how language, images, and structure influence beliefs and actions. The term traces to ancient Greece, where rhetoric was central to education. Foundational works include Aristotle's Rhetoric, Cicero's de Oratore, and Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria. Classical rhetoric identifies five canons: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.
Rhetoric traditionally divides discourse into forensic (past judgments), deliberative (future policy), and epideictic (present praise or
In modern usage, rhetoric covers political discourse, advertising, journalism, law, and digital media. It overlaps with