Aristotle's Style Of Style Analysis

Although Aristotle provides an in-depth explanation of both style and arrangement, he reluctantly mentions the two because he does not want the composition of rhetoric to be perceived as mere style and arrangement. Instead, he believes more emphasis should be placed on the logical and ethical aspects of rhetoric. Even when discussing style, he makes references back to rhetoric’s logical appeal, stating that “virtue of style” should be clear to its listeners, which hinges upon his long discussion about logic where he explains that all information in a speech should make sense and seem reasonable to a given audience. Furthermore, Aristotle associates too much emphasis on style with that of the sophists, whom he despises for their rhetorical choices; he views them as rhetoricians that are more concerned with flattery and ornamented words rather than a deep knowledge of their particular subject. He states, “Thus, by speaking poetically in an inappropriate way [Alcidamas and other sophists] impart absurdity and frigidity, and also lack of clarity because of the verbiage” (204). From the reading, I believe Aristotle fears that by spending a substantial amount of time discussing style and arrangement, his listeners will begin to lose focus of the traits of rhetoric he deems most significant.

In my two flyers, I attempt to outline Aristotle’s definitions, principles, and virtues of style (lexis) and arrangement (taxis) through creating modern-day fictional sessions in which

The pink photo in the “lexis” flyer is a combination of preselected words, which represent the appropriate choice of diction Aristotle refers to as style. The second picture is a finished book, representing arrangement, because a book is composed of various preselected words that have been combined in a certain order in order to produce one product, which is a book here, but is also symbolic of a speech, which Aristotle