Rhetoric was once an essential part of western education. Aristotle wrote an important treatise on it and Demosthenes remains famous to this day for his skills as a rhetorician. But skill with rhetoric today is no longer admired. Rhetoric is often seen as a synonym for shallow, deceptive language-empty words, empty rhetoric--and therefore as something quite negative. But if we view rhetoric in more neutral terms, as the "art of persuasion," it is clear that we are all forced to engage with it at some level, if only because we are constantly exposed to the rhetoric of others. In this Very Short Introduction, Richard Toye explores the purpose of rhetoric. Rather than presenting a defense of it, he considers it as the foundation-stone of civil society, and an essential part of any democratic process. Using wide-ranging examples from ancient Greece, medieval Islamic preaching, the wartime speeches of Winston Churchill, and modern cinema, Toye considers why we should all have an appreciation of the art of rhetoric.

"Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing--and why should any of us care? In this entertaining and eminently practical book, the bestselling cognitive scientist Steven Pinker rethinks the usage guide for today's writers. Using examples of great and gruesome modern prose while avoiding the scolding tone of the classic manuals, he shows how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and intellectually fascinating. The Sense of Style is for writers of all kinds, and for readers who are interested in how the sciences of mind can illuminate how language works at its best."-- Back cover.

"In the tradition of The Elements of Style comes Trish Hall's essential new work on writing well--a sparkling instructional guide to persuading (almost) anyone, on (nearly) anything. Drawing on her vast experience editing everyone from Nobel Prize winners and global strongmen (Putin) to first-time pundits (Angelina Jolie), Hall presents the ultimate guide to writing persuasively for students, job applicants, and rookie authors looking to get published. She sets out the core principles for connecting with readers--laid out in illuminating chapters such as 'Cultivate Empathy,' 'Abandon Jargon,' and 'Prune Ruthlessly.' Hall offers an infinitely accessible primer on the art of effectively communicating above the digital noise of the twenty-first century.In the tradition of The Elements of Style comes Trish Hall's essential new work on writing well--a sparkling instructional guide to persuading (almost) anyone, on (nearly) anything. Hall spent years immersed in argument, passion, and trendsetting ideas--but also in tangled sentences, migraine-inducing jargon, and dull-as-dishwater writing. Drawing on her vast experience editing everyone from Nobel Prize winners and global strongmen (Putin) to first-time pundits (Angelina Jolie), Hall presents the ultimate guide to writing persuasively for students, job applicants, and rookie authors looking to get published. She sets out the core principles for connecting with readers--laid out in illuminating chapters such as 'Cultivate Empathy,' 'Abandon Jargon,' and 'Prune Ruthlessly.' Combining boisterous anecdotes with practical advice (relayed in 'tracked changes' bubbles), Hall offers an infinitely accessible primer on the art of effectively communicating above the digital noise of the twenty-first century"--

""'There's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. Nothing can defeat it.' Thus spake Tyrion in the final episode of Game of Thrones, claiming the throne for Bran the Broken. Many viewers liked neither the choice of king nor its rationale. But the claim that story brings you to world dominance seems by now so banal that it's common wisdom. Narrative seems to have become accepted as the one and only form of knowledge and speech that regulates human affairs." So begins the scholar and literary critic Peter Brooks's reckoning with today's flourishing cult of story. Forty years after Brooks published his seminal work Reading for the Plot, his own important contribution to what came to be known as the "narrative turn" in contemporary criticism and philosophy, he returns to question the unquestioning fashion in which story is now embraced as excuse or explanation and the fact that every brand or politician comes equipped with one. In a discussion that ranges from Gone Girl to legal argument, to the power storytellers exercise over their audiences, to what it means for readers and listeners to project themselves imaginatively into fictional characters, Brooks reminds us that among the powers of narrative is the power to deceive. Precisely because story does command our attention so, we must be skeptical of it and cultivate ways of thinking about our world and ourselves that run counter to our penchant for a good story"--