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Aristotle’s Theory of Rhetoric Is the Key to Giving a Good Speech
It’s all about that logos, ethos, and pathos, baby
In his definitive work, Rhetoric, Aristotle wrote that a good speaker must have three things under control: the argument (logos), the presentation (ethos), and the audience (pathos). This is just as valid today as in ancient times.
Aristotle and, later, the Romans Cicero and Quintilian, established a complex five-point plan for writing brilliant speeches, which essentially boils down to this: Good preparation is everything.
Aristotle considered rhetoric to be not a tool to convince the audience but an art form that could help present a persuasive argument. Because people with good ideas are often poor speakers, he provided them with a toolbox full of rhetorical resources. You might say that Aristotle was the first person to prepare academics for their TED Talks and keynotes.
These are the tools:
- Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase; typical in political speeches: “I demand justice. I demand understanding. I demand…”
- Inversion: Reversing the usual word order, such as in “Infinite is his sorrow” (instead of “His sorrow is infinite”).
- Irony: Saying one thing when you really mean the opposite; for…
