LA 1300 · Trivium: The School of Rhetoric — Module 2: Arrangement, and the Parts of a Speech

Led by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus Simulacrum

Logic is indifferent to sequence; persuasion is not. The six parts of a speech, the order of arguments, and the discovery that a statement of facts is never neutral.

1. Module 2

   Arrangement, and the Parts of a Speech

   Led by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus Simulacrum

   The question

   Eight sittings. You begin by arranging your own Module 1 arguments

   Outcome

   The student can arrange a set of arguments into a speech, choosing the

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 2.1 Why Order Changes the Verdict Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   2. ○ 2.2 The Exordium Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   3. ○ 2.3 The Narratio Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   4. ○ 2.4 Partitio and Concession Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   5. ○ 2.5 Confirmatio: The Order of Arguments Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   6. ○ 2.6 Refutatio and Prolepsis Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   7. ○ 2.7 The Peroratio Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   8. ○ 2.8 Arranging for the Ear Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion

   Practice scenarios

   The Case in the Wrong Order

   A colleague's submission is failing. The material is good — every argument sound. But the panel has twice interrupted to ask questions the submission answers on page four, and one member has formed a view it contradicts on page six. He believes the panel is not reading carefully.

   Your goals

   • Determine what has gone wrong, which is not the panel's attention
   • Identify what the panel needed told before anything else, and why
   • Diagnose whether the failure is in the exordium, narratio, or partitio
   • Reorder it, and state what each change is meant to fix
   • Say what the interruptions were evidence of

   Practise this scenario →