What is rhetoric?

Rhetoric is the art of language. Whether it is oral or written it is the ability to move and persuade an audience. In class we discussed that rhetoric is not so much what a person says, but how they say it. Rhetoric is the ability to use language effectively to persuade, inform, educate, or entertain. I love Jodi Picoult's books. In fact I used to hate reading, and my mother always used to push me to read but I never would. My mother is a writer and could never understand how anybody could not enjoy reading, let alone her own daughter. But one day she gave me a Jodi Picoult book and begged and pleaded with me to read it. Although I mumbled, grumbled and whined about reading it, I actually read it and found myself really enjoying it. Since then I have read a few more Jodi Picoult books and find them to be very entertaining. I would say that her ability to entertain, her ability to make readers laugh or cry just through the use of words is what makes her books rhetorically effective.