Rhetoric tradition

A class on public speaking is essentially a rhetoric class. The study of rhetoric is the study of what is persuasive. People are always interested in studying of what goes into a dynamic and persuasive speech. The ancient Greeks and Romans spent a lot of time thinking and writing about good speaking. Throughout history, thinkers and charlatans tried to find what sounds good, looks good, and works to motivate various audiences.

Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the faculty of discovering in any particular case the available means of persuasion.” Plato held that rhetoric is “the art of winning the soul by discourse.” The Roman thinker Quintilian suggested simply that rhetoric is the art of speaking well.

5 MAIN PARTS OF RHETORIC/PUBLIC SPEAKING

Earlier thinkers argued that the study and practice of rhetoric involved five main parts.

1. INVENTION 

The first thing that must go into a good speech is good material. Invention means finding or thinking up good speech content.
Basically, a good speaker knows what s/he is talking about. There are a number of different strategies which help to prime the mental pump. The main focus is on good arguments (solid claims supported with good evidence).
Aristotle suggested that the speech content was either artistic (you had to think it up) or inartistic (it already existed). Aristotle saw three main ways to make an argument

• LOGOS: We convince people through our use of logic. So, I can argue that it rained last night by pointing to the puddles on the ground. I use the evidence of rain puddles to make a claim about something that I didn’t see, relying on the basic logical premise that “puddles generally indicate recent rain.”
• PATHOS: We persuade people by appealing to their emotions. Aristotle saw pathos as putting the audience in the right frame of mind. So, if you are arguing for something that might seem unfamiliar to your audience, you need to tell some personal stories that help people to understand the human element. The commercials you see asking for help in funding starving populations rely a lot on pathos. They are trying to evoke your compassion by showing you what the living conditions are like for many in need.
• ETHOS: We can persuade people by virtue of good character. Aristotle suggested that of the three artistic proofs, ethos was potentially the most persuasive. Do we trust the speaker’s credibility as a person and her/his credibility on the topic? Do we trust that the speaker has our best interests at heart? We can gain ethos by doing all the research that a good speech needs and then demonstrating that ethos by being able to talk about the topic intelligently. We can “borrow” ethos by citing the best research available. Ultimately, though, ethos must be earned by showing the audience that you are a credible source on this topic.

A good speech requires you to think about a host of different issues ranging from possible arguments, oppositional arguments, and all the different types of evidence you can use. A good speech also includes a mix of logos, pathos, and ethos. The process of sorting through all this material and deciding on the best for your case is the process of invention.

2. ARRANGEMENT 

Once you determine what your speech will be about and what types of artistic and inartistic proofs you will use, then you need to think about the best possible way to arrange your speech.

• How much background information do you need to give? 
• How should you arrange your main points? 
• How long or short should the introduction be? 

In many ways, arranging a speech is more difficult than arranging an essay because a reader can jump around in an essay (look at the section headings, jump back and revisit something s/he was unclear on, etc.), but an audience member must listen to the speaker’s flow of information in chronological time. Given this, you must think about how your audience will hear and understand your speech.

3. STYLE 

Once you know what you will say and the order in which you will say it, then you can begin to focus more on the details of exactly how you will say it.

Some speeches are stylistically rich (Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is a famous example) while others are more stylistically plain (say, a business presentation), yet both have a type of style.

The rhetorician Cicero talked about high, middle, and low styles in public speaking. We are probably
familiar with the high style; many political orators use it for famous speeches. In the U.S. the State of the Union Address is usually delivered in a middle or high style.

We are also probably familiar with the low style. If not, watch a television talk show; here the style is very casual. Ultimately, style is governed by the topic and the audience you are addressing.

You should think strategically about your style and how your audience will hear and understand your words.

The three main speech assignments move from

• low-middle style (impromptu speech), to 
• middle style (persuasive speech), to 
• middle-high style (advocacy speech).

4. MEMORY 

This part of rhetoric was really important for speakers in classical Greece and Rome because they delivered really long speeches (often in very high style). It remains important for us because a speech is spoken not read.

If you don’t practice your speech, you won’t be familiar with it. If you aren’t familiar with your speech, you will probably read it to us. This is not a class in public reading, but in public speaking. You should not try to memorize your speeches word for word.

You should know the main parts of your speech. This comes down to a matter of knowledge and practice. You need to know your material well enough so that you can talk about the topic intelligently (invention). You also need to practice enough so that you know how best to explain this topic to the audience (arrangement and style).

5. DELIVERY

The final part of a study of rhetoric is the one that people fear the most: standing up in front of an audience and actually delivering the speech. Of course, if you have the invention, arrangement, style, and memory parts, the delivery part shouldn’t give you too many headaches.

That said, there are a number of delivery issues that can help or hurt your speech. There are some of those delivery issues that are most distracting and those techniques that are most beneficial.

However, the basic delivery approach is conversational delivery. This doesn’t mean simply speaking as you would with your friends about any subject, but finding a style that looks good, sounds good, and helps your ethos.