Traditionally, rhetoric studies the effect of a text, written or spoken, on its
audience. Classical rhetoric starts from a belief that audiences are open to
persuasion. It holds also that ways of presenting arguments can be taught,
and that the validity of these arguments can be analysed. There is therefore
much debate on questions such as whether eloquence or style of presentation
of an argument can compensate for its faulty logic. The systematic study
of rhetoric and the structure of discourse was founded by scholars such as
Aristotle in his work on narrative and tragedy. Scholars such as the first
century Roman orator Quintillian wrote textbooks on the art of speaking,
discussing the choice of subject matter and the style of delivery appropriate
to different speakers such as politicians, attorneys and preachers. It is
perhaps not too much of an exaggeration to say that little progress was made
between such work and the twentieth century. Indeed, Corbett (1965) uses
the categories of traditional rhetoric to analyse famous public speeches.