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That's right: we're going to get those light bulbs glowing…and orderly. Only rarely do good ideas come alone. (Source)
We're going to dredge up our old buddy Cicero yet again at the start of this unit, because there's no such thing as too much Cicero. This time we're going to talk about Cicero's five canons of persuasion.
(That's canon with one "n," meaning "a general law, rule, or principle." Not the old-timey thing that shoots cannonballs. We know; we're sorry.)
Those five canons are:
Invention
Arrangement
Style
Memory
Delivery
We're actually going to spend this entire unit on the first two: invention and arrangement. (But don't think we're ignoring those last three. We'll spend several units on those, too.)
Now, before you get the wrong idea, we're not talking "invention" in a mad-scientist-pouring-stuff-into-beakers way. And we're not talking "arrangement" as in some sort of feng shui, keep-your-bed-far-away-from-your-bedroom-door kind of thing.
We're talking about the inventing and arranging of ideas.
JUST A LITTLE MORE JAY
Although we're not going to spend as much time with Jay Heinrichs and Thank You For Arguing in this unit as we did in the last one, we are going to start with it.
That's because one of the chapters you haven't read yet gives a good overview of Cicero's five canons—and therefore will act as a nice, solid base for what we'll spend the rest of the course talking about.
First, please note that the only reason we haven't make a joke equating Cicero's five canons to "the big guns" is that Heinrichs does it in the very first sentence of the chapter you're about to read.
Now that we've totally spoiled that joke, go ahead and read Chapter 25: Give a Persuasive Talk on pages 281-293 of Thank You For Arguing.
Ch 25.pdfInvention and Arrangement
Invention and Arrangement
As Heinrichs points out, Cicero put his five canons in order according to the order you actually do them. (Cicero = genius, right?) Notice that "delivery" is the last thing—because actually delivering the speech comes after a whole bunch of other stuff you do to prepare for it.
First come invention and arrangement. Let's hammer home a few points Heinrichs made about both.
Invention is about discovering "the available means of persuasion." (That's a quote from Aristotle, as we're sure you recall, since you read it in the first unit. Don't believe us? Go back and check. We'll wait.)
During the invention phase, you should:
Decide what the goal of your speech will be.
Determine the primary issue of your speech.
Find the materials you'll use to support your claims.
Once you've got all that stuff, you'll want to come up with an effective, logical outline (or arrangement) for your speech.
(If this is starting to sound familiar, it absolutely should. We know you made an outline or two—or two hundred—back in high school. Same thing, only it's for a speech instead of an essay.)
The classical arrangement goes like this:
I. Introduction
II. Narration, or statement of facts
III. Division
IV. Proof
V. Refutation
VI. Conclusion
Looks like a pretty good outline, right? But don't run out and get it tattooed on your forearm for easy access just yet. Remember that this is a classical way to arrange a persuasive speech. There are other kinds of speeches, of course, and it may be better to rearrange those elements (or throw some out entirely) for an informational speech or a special occasion speech.
Now that we've brought those up again, it seems like a good time to focus on what exactly those different types of speeches are. That's exactly what we'll do in the next few lessons.
But first, we'll sneak in a quick read to really get into the mindset of exactly why we should bother preparing for our speeches. Mosey on over to the next lesson for the scoop.
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