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A Brief Guide to Classical Rhetoric

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Richard Kroll, UCI

1. Functions of Rhetoric/Types of Discourse:

a) Deliberative: This branch engages with two major areas:

questions of the worthy (dignitas) or the good (bonum);

questions of action, the expedient, the useful (utilitas).

b) Judicial or Forensic: This "legal" branch deals with the following:

questions of right and wrong; legal evidence; guilt and innocence.

c) Ceremonial or Epideictic: Here, the motive is to praise what is already praise- worthy rather than to persuade the audience to the right course of action.

2. The Types of Appeal:

a) Logical (logos)

b) Ethical (ethos)

c) Emotional (pathos)

3. The Divisions of the Standard Oration:

Exordium: a leading into, "beginning a web"--examine the opening of Philip Sidney's Defense of Poesy.

Narratio: a statement of fact, especially in forensic oratory; this is where the speaker sets forth the facts of the case to be decided.

Confirmatio or Probatio: the body of the argument, where the author really gets down to business.

Refutatio: deals with possible objections.

Peroratio: closes the argument--leaves the audience with a good opinion of the speaker; amplifies the force of points made previously; rouses the appropriate emotions in the audience; restates/summarizes the main points of the speech.