rhetprimer - Writing Process (the Rhetorical Canons)

Writing Process (the Rhetorical Canons)

doodle of stick figures on a start-to-finish line as a friendly face watches everyone move forward

Persuasive Process (the Five Canons): Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, Deliver

Different people write in different ways. This is fine. But it’s also useful to learn about ways of approaching writing that could be right—or maybe even better than you could ever have imagined—for you. Understanding the stages of the writing process can get you there.

Most writers (and rhetors) have a sense of the stages they go through to complete a piece of writing, recognizing that these stages may change to accommodate different writing and working situations, familiarity with genre or topic, audiences, etc. In the rhetorical tradition, this process of stages is called “The Five Canons,” as described by Arvatu and Aberdein (8-9). These stages are INVENTION, ARRANGEMENT, STYLE, MEMORY (which we'll mostly ignore), and DELIVERY.

I often think of this process as having three more-or-less separate stages (keeping in mind that they are also recursive). In the first stage, you concentrate on clarifying what you are saying (invention). In the second, you work on the structure or how you are saying it (arrangement). And in the third, you smooth it all out, make sure you have edited and proofread carefully and that everything flows and can be presented appropriately (style and delivery).

Arizona State Univerity's multi-part "Crash Course in Composition" videos with Yumna Samie include some of the best video introductions to the writing process I've seen, and I've embedded several of these throughout the site.

Note that while Samie does not talk about the 5 canons directly (instead presenting invention, planning, drafting, revising, and editing), these terms still align with our concepts and terms from rhetorical theory.

Writers have used many metaphors to illuminate the writing process, from bones/muscles/skin to ingredients for baking cakes. Philosopher Walter Benjamin uses these striking metaphors in “One Way Street”:

Caution: Steps

Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven. (455)

Doodle of a snail, turtle, and sloth (all labeled “me”) on a series of steps with flags and a loopy line representing the steps toward the “finish” line. “Every step is a speed bump.”

@RebeccaCaprara: "The Stages of Writing, according to a 2nd grader. First, she is wise beyond her years. Second, I feel so called out." Image of a list written in pencil by a young kid: “The stages of Writing: 1. I have an idea! 2. This will be the best book ever! 3. This book is trash! What was I thinking? 4. Maybe this book is not so bad. 5. I am a genius! 6. Wait this is not working. 7. Do I have to start over? 8. I’ve got this! 9. All this book is poop. 10. I wrote the best book!”

doodle of a draft and a much longer essay

Doodle of many, many pieces of paper with writing, a chair and computer, and a student thinking a tangle with “This is hard” and a brain: “hmmmm.”

Want more?

The Five Canons of Rhetoric in visual form

graphic overviews are helpful tools for memory

A quick animated overview of The Writing Process (video)

(you know how I like stick figures—let these help you make sense of the writing process in 2.5 minutes)

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. “One Way Street.” Selected Writings, Volume 1: 1913 – 1926. Edited by Marcus Paul Bullock, et al, Belknap of Harvard University Press, 1996, 444–488.
@RebeccaCaprara: "The Stages of Writing, according to a 2nd grader. First, she is wise beyond her years. Second, I feel so called out." 13 Apr. 2021, 4:21pm, https://twitter.com/rebeccacaprara/status/1382111658110296065?s=12

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