Mark the three appeals in a short speech: Rhetoric, Round 1

1 Learn

You will be able to

State each appeal in one sentence, using the three kinds of proof Aristotle names (Rhetoric I.2, 1356a), which the first check question and the task set out: the speaker's character, the hearer's frame of mind and the argument itself.
Mark examples of each in a text of about 300 words.
Say which appeal does most of the work, and point to the sentences that show it.
Say whether the argument still stands when the appeals to character and feeling are removed.

LibraryThe Orator's Education: Cicero and Quintilian on Forming a Speaker · A good man skilled in speakingThe appeal to character at its source: Cato's orator is 'a good man, skilled in speaking', and Quintilian himself raises Demosthenes, a fine speaker said to be a bad man.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryAugustine on Signs, Interpretation and Eloquence · Eloquence that serves wisdomTeach, delight and persuade, each with its style, and Augustine's verdict that the speaker's life counts for more than the majesty of the style.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryWeighing Testimony: Marc Bloch and the Historian's Craft · How a false report is bornThe hearer's state of mind: Bloch's rule that people readily believe what they need to believe, and that strong emotion and fatigue erode methodical doubt.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryThe Seven Liberal Arts, Hands-On: Logic, Proof and the Quadrivium · Telling kinds of claim apartSeparates proof, evidence, rhetoric and propaganda, the labels to apply to what you read.2 min glance · 6 min
LabDefinitionsIts test for a proof: remove your name and see whether it still works. If it needed you, it was rhetoric.
LibraryThe Trivium as One Art: John of Salisbury and Sister Miriam Joseph · Where this could be wrongAn argument can be persuasive and fallacious, so the three arts keep separate standards even when one text exercises them all.2 min glance · 6 min
LibraryTechnical Writing as Reasoning · Countering the articulate-but-unchecked answerA fluent explanation persuades whether or not it is right: ask what is observed, what is assumed and what would show it wrong.2 min glance · 5 min
LibraryHow a Liberal Education Forms Judgment and Expression · Today and back: evidence beside eloquenceThe art that arms truth can arm falsehood, and a fine speech can hide weak evidence.2 min glance · 7 min

2 Practise

Answer each card from memory, then grade yourself honestly. The cards join your review deck and come back just before you would forget them.

recall
According to Book IV, an eloquent speaker must speak so as to do which three things, and how does Augustine describe each?

Show answer
To teach, to delight and to persuade. Quoting Cicero, he says that to teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to persuade is a triumph.
explain
Why does the page set evidence beside eloquence, and which ancient author already saw the danger?

Show answer
Because skill in speech can serve falsehood as well as truth: a valid argument can start from false premises, a fine speech can hide weak evidence, and a famous old book can hold science that has since been revised. Augustine saw it: rhetoric can enforce falsehood as readily as truth, so truth's defenders should not stand unarmed (On Christian Doctrine IV.2.3).
apply
An argument convinces people only because of who presents it, and stops working when the presenter's name is removed. By the Academy's test, is it a proof, and if not, what is it?

Show answer
No, it is rhetoric. A proof is a chain of steps each checkable by a stranger who does not trust you, so it still works with your name removed.
apply
A grammatically clean speech persuades its audience, but its main argument is fallacious. In Miriam Joseph's terms, which arts did the speaker exercise well and which badly, and why does the page keep separate standards?

Show answer
Grammar (the thing as symbolised) and rhetoric (the thing as communicated) went well; logic (the thing as known) failed. The page holds that the arts are united in the act but keep separate tests, so a text can pass two and fail the third.
connect
This page says the habits in 'Working with AI Coding Agents: A Disciplined Loop' rest on its defense against articulate but unchecked answers. Why do AI answers need that defense, and what is it?

Show answer
Language models produce well-formed prose whether or not the claim underneath is true, so fluency is no evidence. The defense is steps 2 and 4: ask which parts are observed and which assumed, and what would show the answer wrong.

3 Prove it: the mastery check

5 questions drawn from a pool of 12. The pass mark is 80%. There is no time limit, and you can retake it with new questions; your best result counts.

4 Prove it: the performance task

Mark the appeals in a published text

Choose a published persuasive text of 200 to 400 words, such as an editorial, a charity appeal, an advertisement or a campaign leaflet. Do not use your own writing or a private message, and leave out the names of private individuals. (1) Quote the text or link to it. (2) Mark every sentence with the appeal or appeals it makes: to the speaker's character (ethos), to the hearer's feelings (pathos), to the argument itself (logos), or none. Give each mark a one-line reason that points to the words that earn it. (3) Say which appeal does most of the work, and why. (4) Write out the argument alone: the claims and reasons that would still stand with the speaker's name and every appeal to feeling removed. (5) Say whether that argument supports the conclusion, and if it does not, what premise or evidence it lacks. Allow 35 to 45 minutes.

What to hand in: A marked copy of the text, or a table of its sentences with their marks and reasons, followed by the argument written out alone and a short verdict. Save it on the page or download it.

Check your work against the rubric Every sentence carries at least one mark (character, feeling, argument or none), and each mark has a one-line reason that points to words in the sentence. The write-up names the appeal that does most of the work and supports the choice with at least two marked sentences. The argument written out alone contains only claims and reasons taken from the text, with every appeal to the speaker's character and to the hearer's feelings removed. The verdict says whether the argument alone supports the conclusion, and if it does not, names at least one missing premise or piece of evidence.

Your work Or a link to it (optional)

Saved only in this browser. To keep a copy, download it or export your progress.

5 Discuss: the seminar

Read the text, then think, write or talk through the question with someone. There is no answer key: the aim is a better question.

Rhetoric · Round 1

Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, sections 6 to 10, with the summary at section 15 (Diels-Kranz 82 B11)LaRue Van Hook's 1913 translation (Classical Weekly 6, no. 16), public domain in the United States, but partial: it gives sections 1 to 10, 15 and 19 to 21, so sections 11 to 14 are not on the page. Section 6 lists the four possible causes of Helen's flight; section 8 begins the account of the power of speech.
Plato, Gorgias, 447a-466aW. R. M. Lamb's Loeb translation with the Greek, on Perseus. Socrates sets out to learn the function of Gorgias's art from 447c; belief and knowledge are separated at 454c-455a; the orator is more convincing than the doctor only to those who do not know at 459a-c; rhetoric is called no art at all but a 'habitude or knack' and a branch of flattery at 462b-466a.

Gorgias calls speech a powerful potentate that can put an end to fear and increase compassion (section 8), and he uses that power to excuse Helen. Plato's Socrates says that rhetoric is no art at all but a knack, a branch of flattery that convinces those who do not know (459a-c, 462b-466a). Is the power of speech a reason to trust the speaker or to distrust him?

Socrates separates persuasion that produces belief from persuasion that produces knowledge (454c-455a). Which kind does the Helen produce in its hearer?
Gorgias sums up that if Helen was won over by persuasion she deserves commiseration, not condemnation (section 15). Is a listener ever responsible for being persuaded?
At 462b-466a Socrates compares rhetoric with cookery, and calls such flattery no art because it 'has no account to give of the real nature of the things it applies' (465a). What would rhetoric need to have in order to count as an art in his sense, and does the Helen have it?

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Mark the three appeals in a short speech