Leith’s analysis of rhetoric
Rhetoric, which is the skill of persuasion, is one of the most useful human skills to have been invented. A language is a tool used to exchange ideas and express feelings, which can generally be described as communication. While people communicate, several skills are employed to ensure that communication is effective, whether verbal, written, or sign language. One of the skills applied is rhetoric in which a person tries to persuade the other person into buying his or her point of view concerning the subject matter. Leith, in his chapter “Rhetoric then and now offers a description of how rhetoric began concerning the present culture. It is essential to know the connection between the historical figures and facts he presents to understand how the past has in effect in the present, however, with some elements of changes and how the present can have a possible impact in the future.
Leith’s analysis of rhetoric takes the audience through the centuries’ history, which reveals how rhetoric has prevailed and stood the test of time. Leith does not just explore rhetoric movement across time but also brings into the attention of how its presence was discovered in its nature. He points out at around three thousand years ago, where he describes a city found on the east side of Sicily’s island. The city’s governance was suffering from a succession of Tyrant. Until a promising ruler, a rose through persuasion. “In Syracuse, tradition has it that a man called Corax..” according to the traditions is that the man had mastered the skill of influence, and Leith goes ahead to explain how the man organized his speech to be effective in rhetoric. One thing that can be learned in this story is that politics have had a long history in applying rhetoric. The politicians have mastered the art of rhetoric to convince the citizens they are better than their competitors. A person can also learn that as the world keeps changing, rhetoric continues to find more applications in human life; for instance, it has acquired the new application in technologies such as the internet in the present culture.
In conclusion, Leith’s comparison of the past rhetoric application with the present culture is essential. It reveals how the past has in effect in the present, which has acquired new applications of rhetoric.