Progym 5: Encomium

In ancient Greece—and in much of the time that followed—rhetoric was looked upon like athletic competition. People would come from miles away to see skilled rhetors argue it out. Rhetors were often compared to wrestlers because of their ability to use language to twist around and to hold tight. Kairos was as important to chariot racing and archery as it was to rhetoric, and in both rhetoric and athletics there are terms for different maneuvers. For instance, in baseball we use terms like “homerun,” “foul,” and “stealing,” while in rhetoric we use terms like “anaphora,” “occupatio,” or “zeugma.”

For your progym, you will use at least one of the rhetorical maneuvers listed below in “A (Short) Glossary of Rhetorical Maneuvers,” and you will need to emphasize it, to make it a key factor in your speech.

Assignment

Toast or roast the person or thing of your choice. The subject of your progym is entirely up to you. It could be your parent, your friend, your car, your favorite TV show, your favorite food, etc. To fill out the time you may describe your subject in detail, tell stories, or whatever is necessary to your audience understanding what a great person or thing your subject is.

Challenge: Use of Language

You may make your speech serious or humorous, but you need to use vivid, descriptive language to convey your feelings to your audience. Consider using metaphors or similes to help your audience understand how you feel about your subject. I will be looking for your use of phrasing, word choice, and imagery.

Challenge 2: Rhetorical Maneuver

Your rhetorical maneuver will be evaluated separately from your use of language, more generally. I will be looking for the proper use of the maneuver along with your placement of it. What rhetorical maneuver should you use and where in your speech should you put it to best take advantage of it? In your outline make sure to mark your rhetorical maneuver clearly.

Due: Wednesday 21 March 4-6pm.

The image above is the chariot race from Ben Hur. Speech is like a sport, and now it is racing for the finish line.

A (Short) Glossary of Rhetorical Maneuvers

The techniques below are taken from Richard Lanham’s A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, though I have added some of my own (bad) examples. Choose one or more for your progym.

• Accumulatio (ac cu mu LA ti o): Piling on the praise to emphasize (and sometimes to summarize): “He was a good dog, a loyal buddy, a smart hunter; proud, funny, tough; a brave soldier; though, at times, he begged at the dinner table.”
• Adynata (a DY na ta): A list of impossibilities, often accompanying the statement that words are not enough: “Not if I had all the time in the world and the best poets working at my side could I list all you mean to me.”
• Anaphora (a NA pho ra): Repetition of the same word or phrase as the beginning of successive statements (*asterixed*): “You know, my friends, *there comes a time* when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression . . . . *There comes a time*, my friends, when people get tired of being thrown across the abyss of humiliation where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair . . . . *There comes a time* when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July, and left standing amidst the piercing chill of an Alpine November” (Martin Luther King).
• Apostrophe: Pausing in a speech to address some person or thing either present or absent: “You there, in the back, you know what it’s like to eat french fries like that.” Or, to address a thing, “And I ask you, M^cDonald’s, where now is the M^cDLT? How now are we to keep the cool side cool and the hot side hot?”
• Comprobatio (com pro BA ti o): Complimenting your audience or evaluators to get them on your side: “I’m so glad you all showed up for class tonight. It makes me feel good to look out at this audience and to know you are looking forward to hearing what I have to say.”
• Erotesis (e ro TE sis): A “rhetorical question,” a question that implies rather than expects an answer: “Why did she never ask for reward? Why did she do so much for people she did not know?”
• Hyperbole (he PER bo le): Exaggerating to the point of excess: “His name was Skeel. And he was so strong everyone in the lumberyard called him ‘The Man of Skeel.’ He put the forktrucks on their shelves at night.”
• Hypophora (hy PO pho ra): Asking questions and immediately answering them: “Who was it who taught me to run so far? Mr. Spieles. Who was it who taught me to never give up? Mr. Speiles. Who was it who taught me to win the race? Mr. Speiles.”
• Occupatio (oc cu PA ti o): Emphasizing something by first saying you’re not going to talk about it: “I will not dwell here on the twenty books and the thirty articles Professor Jones has written, nor his forty years as Dean, nor his many illustrious pupils, but only say that last year in Africa he killed ten men with his spear.”
• Ratiocinatio (ra ti o ci NA ti o): Asking yourself for the support for your own statements: “But how could I have the arrogance to assert that the Bellybuster is the world’s greatest hamburger? What makes me feel so confident that I am right?”
• Zeugma (ZEUG ma): Making one word, usually a verb, key to several phrases that follow (*asterixed*): “She *pierced* me with her eyes, with her voice, with her pencil.” Here’s another kind of order: “The old statue’s lines with rain *wears away,* and with wind and pollution, and with the forgetfulness of history.” And another: “So many of the show’s producers and the good writers and finally the fans *have left* it to the fate of late night syndication.”

Formal Speech & Related Assignments

The formal speech is here. Don't panic. Put in the work and apply what you've learned this term, and you will do fine.

1. Speaking/Planning Outline

The usual outline with an extra copy for me to follow. You may choose to submit a planning (like you brought to conference) or a speaking outline (like you usually submit).

2. Formal Speech

Present a persuasive speech on the topic of your choice. Whatever your topic, chose a central idea and supporting details that this audience will find the most provocative. The basic requirements:

• Create a 5-7 minute speech on a specific topic.
• Cite at least two sources in the body of your speech and on an MLA works cited page attached to your outline.
• Include at least one visual (you can use props, make a handout, use PowerPoint, etc.). Beware of posterboard with small text and images—these often do not show up from the back of the room.

Consider using 1 of the 4 persuasive organizational patterns on pages 187-93 (problem-solution, Monroe’s motivated sequence, comparative advantage, and refutation). Doing so helps you with ideas, and it makes your speech more clearly persuasive.

3. Short Statement 2

Each of you will be selected randomly to respond to a speech orally. You say the kind of response you are doing and then explain why you respond in that way.

Your feedback will be evaluated on focus and support. Essentially, answer the appropriate question and support your answer well, with both examples from the speech and your own reasoning. If you are absent when you are randomly selected, you will have another opportunity but with -2 points.

The above image is Homer from the Simpsons (in a parody of Edvard Munch’s “Scream”). Don’t worry—he’ll be alright.

Working/Planning Outline

Meet with me in my office (Semon 115) to discuss your planning outline for the formal speech. When me meet you must bring 2 copies of the planning outline. They must be typed with full sentences, title, topic, purpose, thesis, transitions, and works cited. Basically, mimic the format of the outline on 113-7. Remember, 2-4 main points. As it says in the syllabus, transcripts (word-for-word) will receive a zero.

Above is the cover image to Bob Shea's children's book big plans. It's time to show us what you can do.

Progym 4: Preview of Formal Speech

As Dr. Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, has said, “the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas” (and I think Thomas Edison must have said it before him). Often, we are tempted to cut the creative process short just to get work done, and by doing so we often have weaker ideas than we should. One of the main goals of this progym is to develop copia, “copiousness,” for your formal speech, and you should have a fair amount of copia already for the preview. If you come prepared only to speak for 2-4 minutes it’s not going to go well.

Assignment

Provide an objective summary to the issue your will be persuading on in the formal speech. Think of it as a “teaser” to get people interested in your topic and to give them enough information that they can ask questions. Your progym should be the usual 2-4 minutes, and it will be followed by a Q and A session of 2 or more minutes (depending on the discussion).

Choosing a Topic

The topic you choose for the progym and for the formal speech that follows is essentially up to you. Try going back to the Stump or CQ Researcher for ideas. Following the links that interest you on Wikipedia can also be a good way to come up with ideas. The only thing that I ask is that you avoid topics that people might not disagree about in a reasonable way. Avoid religion, extremist politics, and brand loyalties (PC versus Mac, Coke versus Pepsi). At the same time, you can argue quite everyday issues, like that people need to hug more or that Bladerunner is the best science fiction movie (as long as you provide useful criteria, so it isn’t just about personal taste).

Challenge 1: Objective Presentation

Though you will argue your issue in the formal speech, think of the progym as the informative version. The challenge will be evaluated on the degree to which you retain your objectivity while still conveying the importance of your issue. Make it objective, but don’t make it boring. It’s okay if your personal opinion comes out in the Q and A, but it doesn’t have to.

Challenge 2: Answering Questions, Including a Really Tough One

If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it, but do so gracefully. Don’t get embarrassed, don’t fake an answer—say it’s an interesting question, say you’ll get back to them on it. And if you really want to be good, refer to the question and the person who asked it when you give the answer in your formal speech.

Additionally, to give you extra practice responding to at least one really tough question in a safe environment, I will intentionally ask each speaker a stupid, tangential, openly hostile, or conceptually difficult question. Appendix B (282-3) gives good advice on how to respond to questions. The challenge will be evaluated on responding the right way to the right questions, using eye contact inclusively, and preparing the ending.

Make Sure to Attribute

Research at least one source, attributing it in your speech. Example: “As Mike Hutcheson observes in his article for the business e-journal Unlimited, entitled ‘Good Ideas, Lots of Ideas,’ wait to judge ideas until after the brainstorming is completed.”

Due: Monday 20 and Wednesday 22 February.

The image is of Plato and Aristotle from “The School of Athens,” by Raphael. They liked to talk a lot about ideas, too.

Progym 3: Fight the Fallacy

Summarize and respond to an opinion piece, whether editorial, syndicated, or letter to the editor. Take your opinion piece from The Stump, which is the Oregonian opinion website. The piece doesn't have to be on the first page.

Of course, your response needs to be persuasive, but remember that summaries need to objectively represent the source's ideas. Make sure to frame the issue, too—provide a complete speech with full intro and conclusion, not just summary and response. Finally, make sure to introduce and to attribute your source in your speech.

Challenge 1

Each speech must have an objective summary and an argumentative response, and there should be a clear distinction between them. The idea is to first give your audience a clear idea of what the source is saying and to then allow in your own opinion of the sources ideas, good or bad.

Challenge 2

I will challenge each speaker's argument with a fallacy (on pages 197-9). To counter the fallacy you can't just say that I am using a fallacy, because I already told you that. You must name the type of fallacy and explain why precisely the fallacy is faulty thinking.

Hard Copy of Your Source

As always, you will be required to provide a speaking outline for your progym, but for your outline to be accepted you must also provide a hard copy of the piece from The Stump you responded to.

Length: 2-4 minutes.

Due: Wednesday 08 February.

The above image is, of course, Darth Vader. Fallacies are powerful, but they are the dark side. Resist the dark side. As Yoda says, the dark side is “easier, more seductive, but not more powerful.”

Short Statement 2: Response to Speech

Each of you will be selected randomly to respond to a speech orally. You say the kind of response you are doing and then explain why you respond in that way. Choose from the following responses:

• Revise: change one of your beliefs. What do you now see differently?
• Endorse: already agreed, but now feel it much more, inspired. What makes you feel more strongly?
• Learn: don’t change beliefs but substantially increased your knowledge. What did you learn?
• Accept: already agreed and/or knew, and haven’t changed. What did you already believe and/or know?
• Consider: withhold judgment; need more processing time. Why do you need more time to think it through?
• Concede: still disagree, but have to allow a substantial point. Why do you disagree, and what do you concede?
• Refute: still disagree, and can point out at least one substantial hole. Why do you disagree, and what do you refute (in a friendly way)?

Your feedback will be evaluated on focus and support. Essentially, answer the appropriate question and support your answer well, with both examples from the speech and your own reasoning.