What Is Rhetoric?

We have been talking in class a lot about rhetoric and what that means. I will admit, I am still a bit confused about this word, so I took the liberty of asking the dictionary:

1:  the art of speaking or writing effectively: as

a : the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times

b : the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion

2:

a : skill in the effective use of speech

b : a type or mode of language or speech; also : insincere or grandiloquent language

3

: verbal communication : discourse

Still a little lost, but I think a really good point brought up in class is that there are many different ways of looking at things, writing included. Different ways of writing about a topic can give you different results. That makes sense, so for now, that is rhetoric.

What is a professional writer? This question has been looming over our class for a week now. From what I can see, a professional writer is a writer who can put technical terms into something that can be understood by everyone else. That may be too specific, but it’s a start. A professional writer must know different types of writing inside and out. They must be flexible to shift between one style of writing and another as they are given different projects to work on. As a professional writer you will need to ask questions, probably lots of questions, so you need to be assertive and not be afraid to admit that you don’t know something.