The authors of Understanding Rhetoric walk us through the history of the word and its deeper meanings. What is rhetoric exactly? Rhetoric comes from the greek word Eiro which means to say. But it is far more than just speaking. It is a culmination of logic, memories, and feelings. It is as they say “ a way of THINKING about how we talk that takes into consideration the entire situation in which that talk takes place”. They walk us through the understanding of rhetoric through two lenses one which posits it as a negative state of thinking who Plato so famously believed that teaching rhetoric was to instruct a student in ways of deception rather than betterment of their state of conversation. Luckily Aristotle came along and flipped the script. Aristotle believed that rhetoric was a vital tool in putting across a broad range of ideas. I agree with Aristotle and believe that rhetoric is a integral tool of thinking and speaking so as to persuade and enlighten an audience to your thoughts and claims. Rhetoric is split into three categories. Ethos, logos, and pathos which respectively represent ethics, logic, and empathy. These three concepts need to be considered to be an effective communicator because they target the most sensitive parts of our psyche when listening to a claim somebody is making. I like to think of rhetoric as a structurally sound plan. You must target all important aspects of the idea from different perspectives so that you cover all grounds for which somebody may try to challenge your claim. If an idea of yours is of value and you strive to convince somebody of it then you should make sure it comes across logically sound while also ethically intact. The last aspect of your claim that needs to be clear but a bit more difficult to quantify is the empathetic chord it strikes within the person receiving this claim. If you cover all three concepts then you can rest easy knowing that you presented a complete argument.