Aristotle really hit the nail on the head when he developed the book the Rhetoric . It not only developed new ideas about audience psychology, but it also helped to bring about different forms of public speaking. I think that it can rightfully be called "The Bible of Public Speaking". Why would someone relate Aristotle's Rhetoric to a religious doctrine? Well, because of the fact that it has been around since before the birth of Christ and that even to this day it is considered the best known theory that relates to public speaking.

Aristotle said that he saw the basis of rhetoric as, "the available means of persuasion" (Griffin 303). I agree with this statement. After all, most public speeches are designed to stir up an emotion, to persuade or convince someone to act upon the message of the speech. This message may be something the audience should act upon, think about or change their point of view. This is what rhetoric aims to achieve. Speeches like "The Gettysburg Address", "I Have a Dream", and "The Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy" demonstrate this.

I agree with the three forms of classification that deal with rhetoric, courtroom (forensic) speaking, political (deliberative) speaking and ceremonial (epideictic) speaking. The reason for this is because, they are very useful and they all demonstrate modern ways of speech that are in constant use. Look at forensic speaking; people make an excellent living off of knowing the law and above all, how to speak in the courtroom. This classification, or method of speech, many times helps determine the fate of a jury's decision. Political is in constant everyday use. Turn on the television and watch the news, "CNBC", "Politically Correct", or just about any other station and you will be surrounded by politics. Remember that politics is power, and knowing how to speak deliberative speech is a key to that power. Finally comes the form of speech that is used in wedding ceremonies, funerals, formal induction, etc. This is the ceremonial (epideictic) speech. You can see the usefulness from the above examples listed. Ceremonial, like the previous classifications, is in constant use in the world. I like the way that these are classified. They are broad enough to cover the different examples of speech, and yet, they are specific to the point that you understand what they represent.

The four standards for measuring quality of a speaker are true to modern day public speaking. These four, invention, arrangement, style and techniques are what most people today use to create a good speech. When I was graded in a public speaking class, I was graded upon this criteria. When forming a speech, the author must be original and inventive (invention), he must grab attention (arrangement), produce a distinction (style) and put it all together to get the message across (technique).