The Five Parts of Rhetoric PDF

Preview

Summary

rhetoric...

Description

Definition: The Five Canons or The Five Parts of Rhetoric —from the Roman writer CICERO and early Ancient Greek rhetoricians In classical rhetoric (as defined by Cicero and by the first century Latin text, Rhetorica ad Herennium), the five overlapping offices or divisions of the rhetorical process: [NOTE: The links in light blue on this page are “hot” and will take you to web pages for further information.] inventio (Greek, heurisis), invention • dispositio (Greek, taxis), arrangement • elocutio (Greek, lexis), style • memoria (Greek, mneme), memory • actio (Greek, hypocrisis), delivery •

Remember that Cicero was writing about Speech Rhetoric. The great majority of people were illiterate, and written composition is a later development from the rhetoric of speechmakers. The good news for us as writers is that the last two of these “5 Parts” are not necessary. The page has perfect memory and the reader delivers the message to himself or herself.

I call these remaining 3 Parts: Substance (subject or topic), Structure (organization, arrangement), and Style (way with word, individual flair or eloquence). “The Three Ss”...