Glossary of Rhetoric Terms - R

R

• Reasoning by Contraries. Where the first statement of two opposite statements directly proves the second. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'Or how should you expect a person whose arrogance has been insufferable in private life, to be agreeable and not forget himself when in power...?'"

• Rebuttal. Stephen Toulmin's term, conditions on the acceptability of a claim.

• Res. Latin: An argument's substance.

• Rhetor. A person who is in the course of presenting or preparing rhetorical discourse.

• Rhetores. (Greek) Those who make a living by speaking persuasively.

• Rhetoric. The study and practice of good effective expression. Also a type of discourse- focusing on goals of the speech or piece of writing that attempts to sway the mind of the audience.

• Rhetoric of Fiction. Wayne Booth's idea "the author's judgement is always present" in a narrative.

• Rhetorical Audience. Those who can be persuaded by rhetoric.

• Rhetorical discourse. Discourse created within the boundary of the principles of rhetoric.

• Rhetorical opposition. Protagoras's idea that there are two sides to everything.

• Rhetorical Situation. A term made popular by Lloyd Bitzer; describes the scenario that contains a speech act, including the considerations (purpose, audience, author/speaker, constraints to name a few) that play a role in how the act is produced and perceived by its audience. The counterargument regarding Bitzer's situation-rhetoric relationship was made by Richard E. Vatz in "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation" and “The Mythical Status of Situational Rhetoric” in The Review of Communication, 2009. He argued for a salience-meaning (or now, agenda-framing-spin) model of persuasion, which emphasized rhetoric as a creative act with increased agent or persuader responsibility for the situation his or her rhetoric creates. He maintained this added to the importance of rhetorical study and that Bitzer's formulation was "anti-rhetorical."

• Rhetorical Theory. The organized presentation of the art or rhetoric, descriptions of the various functions of rhetoric, and clarifications of how rhetoric achieves its goals.