The Three Branches

Rhetoric: The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. (Oxford Dictionary) Rhetoric is use of vocabulary and creative wording meant to have a persuasive or impressive effect on the audience, but is often considered as missing sincerity or purposeful content. This makes rhetoric one of the most widely utilized literary style. Both classic and modern rhetoric have their differences even though it still falls under the base category of rhetoric. Classical rhetoric has been identified as far back as when Homo Sapiens were first emerging. Rhetorical studies began in Greece around the fifth century, it became especially popular when Greece was progressing from an oral civilization to a literate one. Classical rhetoric was practiced and studied as a method of communication, persuasion, and manipulation. Classical rhetoric was traditionally divided into five parts; Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery. Rhetoric also served the purpose of studying the effects of texts and other documents on audience, thus expanding literary knowledge and understanding. There are three branches of classical rhetoric; deliberative, judicial, and epideictic. The deliberative branch of rhetoric is legislative, an attempt to coax the audience to take (or not take) some sort of action. The Judicial branch of rhetoric is forensic, to accuse or defend, writing or speech that considers the justice or injustice of a specific complaint or argument. Epideictic rhetoric is ceremonial, used to bestow praise or blame, epideictic rhetoric also covers funeral obituaries, graduation and other announcements, letters of recommendation and nomination speeches. Classical rhetoric was studied and used mainly by philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. The principles and branches of classical