Rhetoric Alive!: Principles of Persuasion

A one-semester or yearlong course for students in grades 10-12. Rhetoric Alive! Book 1: Principles of Persuasion, written by Alyssan Barnes, an experienced rhetoric teacher with a PhD in rhetoric, is a clear, compelling, and delightful text on rhetorical theory and practice. The highly engaging Rhetoric Alive! explores the principles of winsome speech as developed in the foremost text on persuasion, Aristotle's Rhetoric. The fifteen chapters of Rhetoric Alive! step through the essential components of persuasion: the three appeals; Ethos (speaker's credibility), Pathos (audience's emotion), and Logos (argument's reasoning), the three types of speech; Deliberative (exhort or dissuade), Ceremonial (praise or blame), Judicial (accuse or defend), and the five canons; Invention, Organization, Style, Memory, Delivery. Each chapter includes an exemplary classic text for analysis and discussion, spanning from Pericles's 'Funeral Oration' to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' Students also have plenty of practice developing their own rhetorical skill through weekly workshops, imitation assignments, and oratory presentations.