The art of rhetoric is one of the hallmarks of a classical education. With roots in ancient Greece and Rome, the tools of rhetoric remain relevant for effective communication in today’s world. Students who learn the genres of rhetoric along with the canons of rhetoric gain avenues for clarifying their thinking and presenting ideas in the most persuasive ways possible. Quintilian describes rhetoric as “as good man speaking well.” So the ultimate aim of a rhetoric program is to promote virtue in a formative environment. By applying classical rhetorical strategies, students can then consider the biggest issues and problems that confront us today.
The Basics of Classical Rhetoric
Classical rhetoric can be broken down into several categories that can be used as learning objectives for classes today.
Three Genres of Rhetoric
The ancient philosophers trained their students in the three basic genres of rhetoric: deliberative, forensic and epideictic. There is a form for every occasion:
- Deliberative: the speaker proposes the best course of action or policy, something that will promote the most good or protect people from harm.
- Forensic: the speaker examines past events to promote justice, usually in a judicial setting to defend the innocent or to prosecute the guilty.
- Epideictic: the speaker praises or censures someone or something, often to stir up the emotions of the audience as in a eulogy, graduation or retirement.
The Five Canons of Rhetoric
The canons of rhetoric help to generate, organize and express ideas that can be communicated through speech.
- Invention: coming up with what to say about a topic.
- Arrangement: putting structure and order to one’s ideas.
- Style: making choices about the best language to use to convey one’s ideas.
- Memory: internalizing the message to find the best means of presentation.
- Delivery: producing a presentation that best engages an audience.
The Five Common Topics of Invention
There are five common topics that serve to elucidate any subject. These can be used in class discussions or written assignments to efficiently get lots of ideas on the table.
- Definition: articulate the meaning of the terms of an argument
- Relation: identify cause and effect relationships
- Comparison: find similarities and differences of degree and kind
- Circumstance: draw proof from the context and circumstances
- Testimony: locate authoritative accounts by experts and witnesses
The Three Persuasive Appeals
There are three tools speakers have at their disposal, often referred to as the rhetorical triangle. It is a model that addresses the three main aspects of communication.
- Ethos: the credibility and character of the speaker
- Pathos: the emotions and feelings of the audience
- Logos: the truths and reasoning of the message
Equip Your School to Implement the Power of Rhetoric
Educational Renaissance has developed resources to equip your school with a rhetoric program that has a deep and lasting impact in the lives of your students. Dr. Patrick Egan’s book, Training the Prophetic Voice is grounded in biblical theology, and provides a framework for developing students’ prophetic voices – the ability to speak with wisdom, clarity, and conviction on the issues that matter most.
Discover how to empower your students to become effective communicators, courageous truth-tellers, and agents of transformation in their communities and beyond. If you are a rhetoric teacher, this book can be a great tool to inspire you for the work you do in the classroom. If you are an administrator or department chair, you can use this book to develop your philosophy of rhetoric at your school.
In addition, we’ve developed a great tool to help you evaluate your rhetoric program. Use the Rhetoric Program Questionnaire (RPQ) to assess your rhetoric program to determine whether there are areas you would like to develop your school. The RPQ is a simple tool that highlights essential aspects of a great rhetoric program. It’s a twelve-item inventory where you answer on a five-point scale. By taking the RPQ, you can easily identify the key strengths and weaknesses of your program. As a team, you can generate plans and priorities to grow your rhetoric program.
Are you satisfied with the scope and quality of your rhetoric program? Why not bring in one of our trainers at Educational Renaissance to provide a one- or two-day training session with your faculty. Visit our consultation page to learn more.
Pedagogical Principles in Rhetoric
In our educational renewal movement, rhetoric is one of the keys to equipping students to think well, write well and ultimately to live well. Numerous authors have added insights into how to masterfully incorporate rhetoric as an educator.
The Liberal Arts Tradition
As one of the three language arts – alongside grammar and logic – rhetoric plays an important role within the classical Christian curriculum. One of the best frameworks for a complete curriculum that is “grounded in piety” and “governed by theology” is provided in The Liberal Arts Tradition by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain. We look to these liberal arts not merely to teach content or techniques, but to form individuals into their full potential.
“Like all the liberal arts of language, rhetoric cultivates the innate potential of the human soul that comes from being the living being that has language.” (62)
Charlotte Mason
Although there are some who question whether Miss Mason is compatible with classical education, her pedagogical methods are largely informed by the liberal arts tradition. She envisioned how students trained in the art of narration would be well equipped to speak well to the benefit of society.
“The beautiful consecutive and eloquent speech of young scholars in narrating what they have read is a thing to be listened to not without envy. . . . A schoolmaster remarks that his big boys are now eager to speak at some length––a thing new in his experience. Consider what an asset this should be to a country whose safety will depend more and more upon the power in the middle classes of clear and conclusive speech. Oral composition is the habit of the school from the age of six to eighteen.” (A Philosophy of Education, 269-270)