Aristotle’s five traditional canons of rhetoric invention | arrangement | style memory | delivery

Invention “Write about dogs!” Copyright The New Yorker Collection, 1976. George Booth. All rights reserved.

Invention From Latin “invenire,” meaning “to find” Definition: the art of finding and developing materials, the ability to discover ideas Having something to say rather than having to say something

Arrangement AKA organization How do I put my ideas together? How does the author put her ideas together? When we talk about “genres,” “modes of development,” “functional parts,” we are talking about arrangement.

Arrangement Argument – 4-part structure: Assertion (I think…) Concession (Others may think…) Evidence/rebuttal (However, here’s why I’m right…) Conclusion (Therefore … agree with me) Aristotle’s classic arrangement Excordium – introduction Narration – context Partition – Defines scope of argument Confirmation – “body” of argument Refutation – Considers and counters other points of view Peroration - conclusion

Style Every piece of writing has style Good style always depends on situation Includes figurative language, diction, language resources (grammar, punctuation), levels of formality, syntax, allusion You probably know more about this than any of the others.

Memory Copyright Mike Keefe, Denver Post, 2007

“You have to know stuff.” Memory In Aristotle’s time, it literally meant memorizing Contemporary memory refers to what a student knows, can access, and use. Part of a “mature academic perspective” “You have to know stuff.”

Delivery In Aristotle’s time, it was the art of public speaking, enunciation, gestures, eye contact, cadence, pacing. In our time, how text looks on the page Involves font size and style, use of white space (margins, columns), insertion of visuals, layout (columns, bullets, boxes, etc.), hypertext links, emphasis techniques like italics, bold, dashes.

Delivery On-demand writing Revised writing One side of the paper One-inch margins on all sides Use ink. “Medium size” penmanship Revised writing Typed, double-spaced One-inch margins Proper header (name, class/period, date) 12-point Times New Roman One side of the paper MLA/APA format