Rhetorical Categories

Some Rhetorical Categories Used by Ancient Theorists

I. Five parts of rhetoric

            1. Invention

            2. Arrangement

            3. Style

            4. Memory

            5. Delivery

II. Three types of speech

            1. judicial

            2. deliberative

            3. epideictic

III. Six parts of a speech

            1. exordium: prepares hearer

            2. narration: explain facts of case

            3. partition: list what is to be disputed or proven

            4. confirmation: make case by argument

            5. refutation: respond to opponent’s arguments

            6. conclusion (=peroration): sum up, arouse indignation and/or pity

IV. Three types of style

            1. High (Grand)

            2. Middle

            3. Low (Plain)

V. Three ways of influencing hearer (from Aristotle)

            1. logos

            2. ethos

            3. pathos

VI. Some rhetorical tropes

1. anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis:

•  I will not bear it, I will not endure it, I will not allow it. 

2. apostrophe: addressing a person who is not present

• Then shalt thou, great Jupiter, who has been established with the same rits as this city... keep this man an dhis associates far from they fanes and the other temples.

3. hyperbole: exaggeration

• [He] marks down with ominous glances every single one of us for massacre.
  

4. tricolon crescens: combination of three elements, increasing in size

• Yes, Catilina (1) quit the city; (2) deliver Rome from apprehensiion; (3) go indeed into exile, if you are waiting for that word.

5. prosopopoeia: Speaking as another person or being

• Your country, Catilina, pleads with you thus, and appeals with mute eloquence: "For several years now no crime has been committed without your help."
  

6. Rhetorical question: asking of a question without expecting an answer

• Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?