Chapter 3: Rhetoric: How is Meaning Constructed in Context?

A Rhetoric Primer

ANDREW R. CLINE

Cline, Andrew R. “A Rhetoric Primer.” Retorica.net. Andrew R. Cline, 2006. Web. 6 June 2013.

Framing the Reading

The Rhetoric Primer (or textbook) that you are about to read is part of a larger site devoted to rhetoric, designed and maintained by Andrew R. Cline, an Associate Professor of Journalism at Missouri State University. Although we’ve only excerpted the Primer here, you will enjoy exploring his full site, which uses the lens of rhetoric to explore what Cline describes as “the persuasive tactics of politics and the press” (rhetorica.net/aboutme.htm).

You should find the Rhetoric Primer to be a helpful companion piece to Covino and Jolliffe and to Grant-Davie. Here, Cline defines rhetoric (in a way that you should find quite similar to the definition we provided in the introduction to this chapter), provides a history of ancient Greek rhetoric, outlines some elements of the rhetorical situation, and then provides detailed information about what Aristotle and other Greek rhetoricians called the “five canons of rhetoric”: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. (Canon here refers to a general principle or rule; note it has one n, not two!)

The discussion of the rhetorical situation and the five canons of rhetoric here should provide some helpful tools for conducting rhetorical analysis.