The Art of Rhetoric · Part 9 · The five canons · C1
Arrangement: The Parts of a Speech
Part 9 of The Art of Rhetoric: once the arguments are found, they must be put in order. Aristotle said a speech needs only two parts; later teachers counted six. Discourse markers for structure and signposting (first of all, let me now turn to, as I mentioned earlier, it may be objected that, finally, to sum up), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
You have found your arguments. Now: in what order?
He says a speech needs only two parts: state your case, and prove it. Everything else is there for the sake of the audience.
In Book 3 of the Rhetoric, Aristotle laughs at the handbook-writers who divided speeches into many little parts. Only two are necessary, he says: the statement of the case and the proof. But he allows an introduction, to make the audience attentive and friendly and to tell them what the speech is about; a narration, especially in court; a refutation of the other side; and a conclusion.
The conclusion, he says, has four jobs: to make the audience think well of you and badly of your opponent, to make your points look great and his look small, to stir the right feelings, and to remind them of what you have said. He ends the whole Rhetoric with an example: “I have spoken; you have heard; you have the facts; give your judgement.”
Roman teachers counted six parts: introduction (exordium), narration, partition (a short plan of what is coming), proof, refutation and conclusion (peroration). The story below is about a famous speech that broke the first rule. The version we read was published by Cicero three years later, and he may have improved it.
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