RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION Part I GENERAL PRINCIPLES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY 1. Definition of rhetoric. Rhetoric may be regarded either as a science or as an art. As a science, its business is to discover and formulate the principles which underlie all effective discourse. Nowadays, however, it is seldom or never regarded in the light of a pure science and studied for its own sake. It is studied almost wholly for the sake of its bearing upon the practical question of learning how to write; that is to say, it is regarded almost universally as an art rather than as a science. Various definitions of rhetoric have been given. In the Century Dictionary, for example, it is defined thus: "Rhetoric is that art which consists in a systematic use of the technical means of influencing the minds, imaginations, emotions, and actions of others by the use of language." A briefer definition is that 3 |