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, McDonald’s, where now is the McDLT? 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.”
