Klaipėdos universitetas

The article explores the rhetorical disposition (structural composition) of the speeches delivered by the most renowned American business leaders, which is approached from the perspective of persuasion. The aim of the research is to analyse the dispositional topic of the speeches in question: to determine and generalise the most common elements of rhetorical composition. Fifty speeches by American business leaders, delivered on various occasions in the period 1981 to 2019, have been chosen and analysed in this article. The research is intended to answer the question whether contemporary orators still follow the principles of structural composition proposed by Classical rhetorical theory, and to observe how dispositional topics are changing with regard to orally delivered speeches.