Retorik is both an academical study of communication theory with starting point in the platonic points of view and also a document meant to serve practical purposes in teaching the students. The three books Rhetorica are predisposed as follows: the first two volumes deals with the contents and the third with the formalities such as form of language and disposition. The principal considerations mainly occurs in the first couple of chapters in the first volume.

Aristoteles lived from 384-322 B.C. At the age of 17 or 18 he left his hometown Athens to matriculate himself as a student at Plato's Academy. Plato was 60 years old at that time. Not long after the first years of studying were over, Aristoteles started to participate actively in the lectures at the Academy. This became the foundation of his authorship, which like Plato's dialogues were adressed to an audience outside the academical circles. Except a few titles none of Aristoteles' work exists today.