Thursday, September 13, 2007

On Rhetoric XIII: The Final Four

The final four stages are advanced applications and variations of earlier stages, and since I have neither taught, nor yet worked extensively through them, I will simply provide brief definitions and explanations.

Impersonation: Compose a speech or dialogue from the 1st person perspective of an historical or literary figure; an "in-character" composition, if you will.

Description: Describe an object, event or person in such a way as to set it clearly before the reader's eye; the mastery of Tropes, Figures of Speech and Figures of Description.

Thesis: Advanced argumentation for or against a speculative or theoretical idea, such as "Should a person marry?" (a high-level refutation/confirmation)

Defend/Attack a Law: a declamation setting forth the pros and cons of a given law using the Heads of Purpose (right, just, decent, probable, possible, proper,etc...)

Once a student has mastered these 14 Progymnasmata, he should be ready and competent to tackle advanced rhetorical applications within the Canons of Rhetoric...but I'll save those for another day!

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