Canons of Rhetoric

Classical rhetoric divides the process of persuasion into five cannons:

1. Invention, the search for persuasive ways to present information and formulate arguments - Deduction  and Induction

2. Arrangement, the organization of the parts of a presentation to ensure that all the means of persuasion are present and properly disposed

3. Style, the use of correct, appropriate, and remarkable language throughout the speech

4. Memory, the use of mnemonics and practice practice practice

5. Delivery, presenting the message with effective gestures and vocal modulation

3 types of rhetoric

  1. Deliberative. 
    involves future actions.  Made to Congress, legislatures, etc.  Also to voters & advertisements to consumers
  2. Forensic. 
    Past guilt/liability.  made to juries/judges
  3. Epideictic. 
    Present honor/dishonor.  Ceremonial.  Encomium/invective

Label the 5 topic sentences for the "My Sister" exercise.  Say whether they are deliberative, forensic, or epideictic encomium / invective.

Invention

Finding a thesis (Corbett 35)

The necessity of following the suggestion of a theme instead of writing random thoughts on a general subject is exemplified in the following passage, by Cardinal Newman. It occurs in a lecture of his on " Elementary Studies," and takes the form of remarks on an imaginary thesis written by a young candidate for admission to the University. It will be noticed that what he calls by the popular designation the subject — "Fortes Fortuna Adjuvat" [Fortune favors the brave]— is rather what we are here defining as the theme, while the subject, which the young man persists in treating as unrestricted, is more truly expressed by " Fortuna."

"Now look here," he says, "the subject is 'Fortes fortuna adjuvat'; now this is a proposition; it states a certain general principle, and this is just what an ordinary boy would be sure to miss, and Robert does miss it. He goes off at once on the word 'fortuna.' 'Fortuna' was not his subject; the thesis was intended to guide him, for his own good; he refuses to be put into leading-strings; he breaks loose, and runs off in his own fashion on the broad field and in wild chase of 'fortune,' instead of closing with a subject, which, as being definite, would have supported him.

"It would have been very cruel to have told a boy to write on 'fortune'; it would have been like asking him {358} his opinion 'of things in general.' Fortune is 'good,' 'bad,' 'capricious,' 'unexpected,' ten thousand things all at once (you see them all in the Gradus), and one of them as much as the other. Ten thousand things may be said of it: give me one of them, and I will write upon it; I cannot write on more than one; Robert prefers to write upon all.

Ask 3 questions to find a thesis
an sit       if it is.
quid sit    what it is.
quale sit   what kind it is.

Label the two essays on fathers as deliberative, forensic, or epideictic encomium / invective.

LogoV
Logos
The Logical Argument


EqoV
Ethos
The Ethical Argument

 triangle

PaqoV
Pathos
The Pathetic Argument

Week 3, Period 1

The Common Topics

  1. Definition
    1. Genus
    2. Division
  2. Comparison
    1. Similarity
    2. Difference
    3. Degree
  3. Relationship
    1. Cause & Effect
    2. Antecedent and Consequence
    3. Contraries
    4. Contradictions
  4. Circumstance
    1. Possible and Impossible
    2. Past Fact & Future Fact
  5. Testimony 
    1. Authority
    2. Testimonial
    3. Statistics
    4. Maxims
    5. Law
    6. Precedents   (Corbett 97)




http://web.archive.org/web/20040426171532/http://virtualology.com/rhetoricaltheory/canonsofrhetoric.com/



http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm

Gates, Rosemary.  "Causality, Community, and the Canons of Reasoning: Classical Rhetoric andWriting Across the Curriculum"