Rhetoric is an interesting thing in the present day. We still need to have a good grasp of it, but it seems that it has fallen out of favor when it comes to things being studied. I mean, what even is rhetoric? Well, Rhetoric is defined as the art of persuasion. It is the use of different methods to argue a case or persuade someone of something. If you communicate with human beings, the time will come where you need to argue a position. It might be something really innocuous, like whether Captain Kirk is better than Captain Picard. Or it could be something essential and important, like the passage of a law.

Modern Rhetoric is a textbook that covers all of these items and more. It is sometimes dry and pedantic but overall it is very informative and effective. The dryness comes from the book being a textbook intended for a College Course. The book was published back in 1958 since I have the second edition. This makes for an interesting read since some of the things you read about just don’t occur anymore. For instance, the book discusses the methods used in advertising by talking about what brand of cigarettes to buy. It suggests a situation wherein a heavyweight champion promotes a particular brand of ‘smokes’ which isn’t something that happens. The point is to discern between garbage arguments and good arguments, but it still is a bit off-putting. The book is also somewhat racist, but it is merely a product of the times, so that isn’t really bad either.

As I mentioned, this book is a College Course textbook. It contains all the rules and information you need to communicate effectively. That is the main idea in this book, effective communication. If you need to go and work on your writing skills, this book is really good for that. The presentation is of the sort that makes me think of an informative movie from the 1950s. You know, the man talking has a clear, pleasant voice that resonates and makes you think of a leather chair that you can sink into, the video is in black and white, and he wears a suit.

All in all, the book is slightly outdated, but this is only due to the references it makes. The idea of being able to communicate your ideas and convince other people of things is really important, even though people seem to be losing the ability to concentrate on things. ( )