Styles Of Speech And Writing In Aristotle's Rhetoric

In Aristotle’s Rhetoric, he pursues the means of persuasion throughout his teaching. All of his teachings were documented in a well written and educational book, that is meant to teach people like us, in the modern day, the art of speech and writing. The manner of how a speech is written or delivered can affect how certain audiences view and understand the dialogue. In this paper, the goal is to analyze and deconstruct Aristotle’s styles of speech and writing and how they are needed to persuade different audiences.
Book III is where Aristotle takes on the idea of styles and the influences they create on our audiences. Aristotle defines style as that “it must be clear.. avoiding both meanness and undue elevation.”(Rhetoric). With this, he is saying speech must be evident by using words that are common. By avoiding meanness, we as writers or orators, have a more secure and positive enhancement in the words of our speech. Our audience should greatly influence what kind of language …show more content…
This style is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the high style. The low style is mainly used for simple-minded audiences, where they are under the majority of their peers. This style’s syntax is simple, usually very straightforward. The simple syntax is basic sentence structure, opposite to the structure we find used in high style. The diction used in low style is vulgar. This meaning that the choice of words used in the writing or speech is lacking sophistication. Figurative language for low style is very plain, almost like child’s play. Examples used in low style are most often jokes and common phrases. There is nothing wrong with this type of style, it's actually quite powerful and gets the point across to the audience quickly and easily. Younger people are more likely to be seen using this style. However, in a general audience, the speaker might be seen as someone unintelligible, weak or not suitable compared to