/Rhetoric, writing as persuasion/



Rhetoric is a term that is widely used in many forms, and by itself can mean a great many things. Some use the term in association with political rhetoric, to name the voice and stance, as well as the language that becomes the nature of politics. Rhetoric can be thought of as the way in which you phrase what you are saying, and the forces that impact what you are saying. If you think about the different groups of people that you communicate with, you will see that you use different forms of rhetoric with each of them. You talk to your friends differently than you talk to your parents, or your teachers, or your employers. Each group you associate with calls for a different form of language, of voice, of rhetoric to be used.

For the purposes of writing, when we refer to rhetoric, we often talk about it as the art of persuasion. Here, rhetoric fits into three distinct categories:
 * Pathos (Emotion based persuasion)
 * Ethos (Credibility behind the persuasion)
 * Logos (Logic based persuasion)