When preparing a
speech, public speakers today are often offered this advice "1) Just
tell"em what you're going to tell'em; 2) tell'em; 3) then, tell'em what
you told'em."
This sage advice is a distilled version
of classical speech structure outlined more than 2,000 years ago, when
philosophers examined the great public speeches of the day, such as
Pericles famed funeral oration delivered in 430 BC, and the impassioned
courtroom speeches of Cicero, considered the most eloquent speaker of
all of Rome, to determine the secrets of their success. The ancient
Greeks and Romans concluded that all public speech could be broken down
into six separate parts:
- the introduction (exordium),
- the proposition (narratio),
- the outline of what's to follow (partilio),
- the proof (confirmatio),
- the refutation (refutatio),
- the conclusion (peroratio).
Successful speakers, these philosophers pointed out, each
had different goals and, depending on which part of the speech they were
in, used different rhetorical devices to achieve them. During a
speech's
introduction, for example, the speaker should establish
ethos,
or credibility, with the audience. To do so, a speaker may explain that
she shares the same concerns and values as her listeners. During the
proposition,
the speaker briefly states her case, for example, "we should have more
field trips at school" or "income taxes are too high". In the
outline,
the speaker prepares the listener with what to expect next. In addition
to helping the speaker organize her thoughts, stating the outline of
the speech also helped the speaker remember what she had planned to say,
especially in the days before teleprompters and cue cards. The
proof usually makes up the bulk of a speech, and in it, the speaker should make appeals to
logos, or logic, possibly by bringing in outside sources and references to support her case. During the
refutation, the speaker attacks the validity of her opponent's arguments. In the
conclusion section, speakers often summarize their position, build emotion and end with a call to action, usually by making an appeal to
pathos, or emotion.
Internet: <http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/criticscorn/cc_pr.html> (with adaptations)
From text, it can be gathered that
each part of a classical speech follows specific euphuistic method.