Student Essay on Rhetorical Thought, Useful or Antiquated?

Gives a brief overview of rhetoric as useful tool for persuasion and speaks of Poulakas, one of the masters of rhetorical thought.

Rhetoric, unlike a well-defined science such as physics, has been portrayed in many lights by classical and contemporary rhetoricians alike. Rhetorical thought has been contributed to Corax and Tisias, who in 467 B.C. defined rhetoric as "The artificer of persuasion." (James J. Murphy, One Thousand Neglected Authors) Poulakos defined rhetoric as such: "Rhetoric is the art which seeks to capture in opportune moments that which is appropriate and attempts to suggest that which is possible." (John Poulakos, Toward a Sophisticated Definition of Rhetoric) Poulakos saw rhetoric as the artful display of winning your argument, whilst Plato saw rhetoric as "The art of winning the soul by discourse," both definitions similar but discretely unlike. Both believed rhetoric was an art form, in which you can win something either (a) the argument or (b) the faith of the.....