For many people public speaking is one of the most frightening experiences they can imagine. There are many techniques that can help overcome this fear and this book presents a lot of them. I’ve had to speak and give presentations in front of various size groups and have used many of these ideas to help me to be successful. Worthwhile for anyone who does public speaking to help them improve and for those who want to or expect that they will need to give a speech or presentation at some point in For many people public speaking is one of the most frightening experiences they can imagine.
There are many techniques that can help overcome this fear and this book presents a lot of them. I’ve had to speak and give presentations in front of various size groups and have used many of these ideas to help me to be successful. Worthwhile for anyone who does public speaking to help them improve and for those who want to or expect that they will need to give a speech or presentation at some point in their life to be more prepared.
.Rhetoric ( ) is the art of persuasion. Along with and (or – see ), it is one of the. Rhetoric aims to study the capacities of writers or speakers needed to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. Defines rhetoric as 'the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of ' and since mastery of the art was necessary for victory in a case at law; or for passage of proposals in the assembly; or for fame as a speaker in civic ceremonies; he calls it 'a combination of the science of logic and of the ethical branch of politics'. Rhetoric typically provides for understanding, discovering, and developing for particular situations, such as Aristotle's three persuasive audience appeals:,.
The of rhetoric or phases of developing a persuasive speech were first codified in classical Rome:, and.From to the late 19th century, rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers, counsellors, historians, statesmen, and poets. Main article:In Europe, organized thought about public speaking began in. Possibly, the first study about the power of language may be attributed to the philosopher (d. 444 BC), whose theories on human knowledge would provide a newfound basis for many future rhetoricians.
The first written manual is attributed to and his pupil. Their work, as well as that of many of the early rhetoricians, grew out of the courts of law; Tisias, for example, is believed to have written judicial speeches that others delivered in the courts. Teaching in oratory was popularized in the 5th century BC by itinerant teachers known as, the best known of whom were (c.
481–420 BC), (c. 483–376 BC), and (436–338 BC). Of Miletus is believed to be one of the first women to engage in private and public rhetoric activities as a Sophist.
The Sophists were a disparate group who travelled from city to city, teaching in public places to attract students and offer them an education. Their central focus was on or what we might broadly refer to as discourse, its functions and powers. They defined parts of speech, analyzed poetry, parsed close synonyms, invented argumentation strategies, and debated the nature of reality. They claimed to make their students 'better', or, in other words, to teach virtue. They thus claimed that human 'excellence' was not an accident of fate or a prerogative of noble birth, but an art or ' techne' that could be taught and learned.
They were thus among the first humanists. Several sophists also questioned received wisdom about the gods and the Greek culture, which they believed was taken for granted by Greeks of their time, making them among the first agnostics. For example, they argued that cultural practices were a function of convention or rather than blood or birth or phusis. They argued even further that morality or immorality of any action could not be judged outside of the cultural context within which it occurred. The well-known phrase, 'Man is the measure of all things' arises from this belief.
One of their most famous, and infamous, doctrines has to do with probability and counter arguments. They taught that every argument could be countered with an opposing argument, that an argument's effectiveness derived from how 'likely' it appeared to the audience (its probability of seeming true), and that any probability argument could be countered with an inverted probability argument. Thus, if it seemed likely that a strong, poor man were guilty of robbing a rich, weak man, the strong poor man could argue, on the contrary, that this very likelihood (that he would be a suspect) makes it unlikely that he committed the crime, since he would most likely be apprehended for the crime.
They also taught and were known for their ability to make the weaker (or worse) argument the stronger (or better). Famously parodies the clever inversions that sophists were known for in his play The Clouds.The word 'sophistry' developed strong negative connotations in ancient Greece that continue today, but in ancient Greece sophists were nevertheless popular and well-paid professionals, widely respected for their abilities but also widely criticized for their excesses.Isocrates. Main article:Isocrates (436–338 BC), like the sophists, taught public speaking as a means of human improvement, but he worked to distinguish himself from the Sophists, whom he saw as claiming far more than they could deliver.
He suggested that while an art of virtue or excellence did exist, it was only one piece, and the least, in a process of self-improvement that relied much more heavily on native talent and desire, constant practice, and the imitation of good models. Isocrates believed that practice in speaking publicly about noble themes and important questions would function to improve the character of both speaker and audience while also offering the best service to a city. In fact, Isocrates was an outspoken champion of rhetoric as a mode of civic engagement. He thus wrote his speeches as 'models' for his students to imitate in the same way that poets might imitate Homer or Hesiod, seeking to inspire in them a desire to attain fame through civic leadership. His was the first permanent school in and it is likely that and were founded in part as a response to Isocrates. Though he left no handbooks, his speeches ( 'Antidosis' and 'Against the Sophists' are most relevant to students of rhetoric) became models of oratory (he was one of the canonical ') and keys to his entire educational program.
He had a marked influence on and, and through them, on the entire educational system of the west.Plato. Main articles: and(427–347 BC) famously outlined the differences between true and false rhetoric in a number of dialogues; particularly the and dialogues wherein Plato disputes the notion that the art of persuasion (the sophists' art, which he calls 'rhetoric'), can exist independent of the art of. Plato claims that since sophists appeal only to what seems probable, they are not advancing their students and audiences, but simply flattering them with what they want to hear. While Plato's condemnation of rhetoric is clear in the Gorgias, in the Phaedrus he suggests the possibility of a true art wherein rhetoric is based upon the knowledge produced by dialectic, and relies on a dialectically informed rhetoric to appeal to the main character, Phaedrus, to take up philosophy.
Thus Plato's rhetoric is actually dialectic (or philosophy) 'turned' toward those who are not yet philosophers and are thus unready to pursue dialectic directly. Plato's animosity against rhetoric, and against the sophists, derives not only from their inflated claims to teach virtue and their reliance on appearances, but from the fact that his teacher, Socrates, was sentenced to death after sophists' efforts.Aristotle. A marble bust of Aristotle(384–322 BC) was a student of Plato who famously set forth an extended treatise on rhetoric that still repays careful study today. In the first sentence of, Aristotle says that 'rhetoric is the counterpart literally, the of dialectic'. As the 'antistrophe' of a Greek responds to and is patterned after the structure of the ' (they form two sections of the whole and are sung by two parts of the chorus), so the art of rhetoric follows and is structurally patterned after the art of dialectic because both are arts of discourse production.
Thus, while dialectical methods are necessary to find truth in theoretical matters, rhetorical methods are required in practical matters such as adjudicating somebody's guilt or innocence when charged in a court of law, or adjudicating a prudent course of action to be taken in a deliberative assembly. The core features of dialectic include the absence of determined subject matter, its elaboration on earlier empirical practice, the explication of its aims, the type of utility and the definition of the proper function.For Plato and Aristotle, dialectic involves persuasion, so when Aristotle says that rhetoric is the antistrophe of dialectic, he means that rhetoric as he uses the term has a domain or scope of application that is parallel to, but different from, the domain or scope of application of dialectic. In Nietzsche Humanist (1998: 129), Claude Pavur explains that 'the Greek prefix 'anti' does not merely designate opposition, but it can also mean 'in place of.' ' When Aristotle characterizes rhetoric as the antistrophe of dialectic, he no doubt means that rhetoric is used in place of dialectic when we are discussing civic issues in a court of law or in a legislative assembly. The domain of rhetoric is civic affairs and practical decision making in civic affairs, not theoretical considerations of operational definitions of terms and clarification of thought. These, for him, are in the domain of dialectic.Aristotle's treatise on rhetoric systematically describes civic rhetoric as a human art or skill (techne). It is more of an objective theory than it is an interpretive theory with a rhetorical tradition.
Aristotle's art of rhetoric emphasizes persuasion as the purpose of rhetoric. His definition of rhetoric as 'the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion', essentially a mode of discovery, limits the art to the inventional process, and Aristotle heavily emphasizes the logical aspect of this process. In his account, rhetoric is the art of discovering all available means of persuasion. A speaker supports the probability of a message by logical, ethical, and emotional proofs. Some form of logos, ethos, and pathos is present in every possible public presentation that exists. Bust of Marcus Tullius CiceroFor the Romans, oration became an important part of public life.
(106–43 BC) was chief among Roman rhetoricians and remains the best known ancient orator and the only orator who both spoke in public and produced treatises on the subject., formerly attributed to Cicero but now considered to be of unknown authorship, is one of the most significant works on rhetoric and is still widely used as a reference today. It is an extensive reference on the use of rhetoric, and in the and, it achieved wide publication as an advanced school text on rhetoric.Cicero is considered one of the most significant rhetoricians of all time, charting a middle path between the competing Attic and to become considered second only to among history's orators. His works include the early and very influential (On Invention, often read alongside the Ad Herennium as the two basic texts of rhetorical theory throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance), (a fuller statement of rhetorical principles in dialogue form), (a rhetorical treatment of common topics, highly influential through the Renaissance), (a discussion of famous orators) and (a defense of Cicero's style). Cicero also left a large body of speeches and letters which would establish the outlines of Latin eloquence and style for generations to come. It was the rediscovery of Cicero's speeches (such as the defense of Archias) and letters (to Atticus) by Italians like that, in part, ignited the cultural innovations that is known as the Renaissance. He championed the learning of Greek (and Greek rhetoric), contributed to Roman ethics, linguistics, philosophy, and politics, and emphasized the importance of all forms of appeal (emotion, humor, stylistic range, irony and digression in addition to pure reasoning) in oratory. But perhaps his most significant contribution to subsequent rhetoric, and education in general, was his argument that orators learn not only about the specifics of their case (the hypothesis) but also about the general questions from which they derived (the theses).
Thus, in giving a speech in defense of a poet whose Roman citizenship had been questioned, the orator should examine not only the specifics of that poet's civic status, he should also examine the role and value of poetry and of literature more generally in Roman culture and political life. The orator, said Cicero, needed to be knowledgeable about all areas of human life and culture, including law, politics, history, literature, ethics, warfare, medicine, even arithmetic and geometry. Cicero gave rise to the idea that the 'ideal orator' be well-versed in all branches of learning: an idea that was rendered as 'liberal humanism', and that lives on today in liberal arts or general education requirements in colleges and universities around the world.Quintilian. Main articles: andQuintilian (35–100 AD) began his career as a pleader in the courts of law; his reputation grew so great that created a chair of rhetoric for him in Rome.
The culmination of his life's work was the ( Institutes of Oratory, or alternatively, The Orator's Education), a lengthy treatise on the training of the orator, in which he discusses the training of the 'perfect' orator from birth to old age and, in the process, reviews the doctrines and opinions of many influential rhetoricians who preceded him.In the Institutes, Quintilian organizes rhetorical study through the stages of education that an aspiring orator would undergo, beginning with the selection of a nurse. Aspects of elementary education (training in reading and writing, grammar, and literary criticism) are followed by preliminary rhetorical exercises in composition (the ) that include maxims and fables, narratives and comparisons, and finally full legal or political speeches. The delivery of speeches within the context of education or for entertainment purposes became widespread and popular under the term 'declamation'.