TECHNE: The Ancient Art of Public Discourse for the 21st Century Speaker
Edition: 4
Copyright: 2020
Edition: 4
Copyright: 2020
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How does one become a competent public speaker?
Public Speaking teachers have been asking this question for a very long time. There are many answers to this question. The answer this book chooses is The Progymnasmata.
The Progymnasmata is close to 2,500 years old. The ancient Greeks and later the ancient Romans used it to teach their students the fundamentals of good public speaking. The Progymnasmata is a group of fourteen or so basic exercises that when artfully constructed allow a speaker to produce the gymnasmatum—a full-blown public address. Public Speaking was important to the workings of both the Greek city state and the Roman Republic. The Greek or Roman citizen had a responsibility to be competent in public speaking because in a direct democracy like Greece or a republic like Rome, the citizen might be called on at any time to speak in the Greek agora or before the Roman senate.
The ancient teachers taught their students the art (techne) of public address. They taught them through small exercises in oratory and argument so that they could give their students the building blocks of a speech and asked them to put those blocks in whatever order they thought necessary to produce a well-crafted, interesting, persuasive, and unique speech.
TECHNE: The Ancient Art of Public Discource for the 21st Century Speaker teachers readers how to craft their speeches the way the ancient Greeks and Romans did theirs; the way Medieval and Renaissance Europeans did theirs; the way modern Americans do theirs; by studying public speaking the old-fashioned way, they will be on the road to learn the Art of Rhetoric.
Introduction: What Are We Doing Here?
Part One—Aristotle and Aphthonius and Cicero, Oh My!
Chapter 1 Some Early History of Public Speaking and Why You Should Know About It
Chapter 2 Beginning with Aristotle
Chapter 3 Roll Out the Canons
Chapter 4 Let’s Argue
Chapter 5 Let’s Argue Some More
Chapter 6 Let’s NOT Argue Like This
Part Two—The Progymnasmata
Chapter 7 Exercise 1—Fable
Chapter 8 Exercise 2—Tale or Narrative
Chapter 9 Exercise 3—Chreia
Chapter 10 Exercise 4—Proverb
Chapter 11 Exercises 5 and 6—Refutation/Confirmation
Chapter 12 Exercise 7—Commonplace
Chapter 13 The Ceremonial Speech Exercises 8 and 9—Encomium/Invective
Chapter 14 The Informative Speeches Exercises 10, 11, 12—Comparison, Descriptive, Characterization
Chapter 15 The Persuasive Speech—The Deliberative and Forensic Exercises Exercises 13 and 14—Thesis and the Introduction to Law
Appendices
Appendix 1 Self-Analysis
Appendix 2 Speech Critiques
Bibliography
How does one become a competent public speaker?
Public Speaking teachers have been asking this question for a very long time. There are many answers to this question. The answer this book chooses is The Progymnasmata.
The Progymnasmata is close to 2,500 years old. The ancient Greeks and later the ancient Romans used it to teach their students the fundamentals of good public speaking. The Progymnasmata is a group of fourteen or so basic exercises that when artfully constructed allow a speaker to produce the gymnasmatum—a full-blown public address. Public Speaking was important to the workings of both the Greek city state and the Roman Republic. The Greek or Roman citizen had a responsibility to be competent in public speaking because in a direct democracy like Greece or a republic like Rome, the citizen might be called on at any time to speak in the Greek agora or before the Roman senate.
The ancient teachers taught their students the art (techne) of public address. They taught them through small exercises in oratory and argument so that they could give their students the building blocks of a speech and asked them to put those blocks in whatever order they thought necessary to produce a well-crafted, interesting, persuasive, and unique speech.
TECHNE: The Ancient Art of Public Discource for the 21st Century Speaker teachers readers how to craft their speeches the way the ancient Greeks and Romans did theirs; the way Medieval and Renaissance Europeans did theirs; the way modern Americans do theirs; by studying public speaking the old-fashioned way, they will be on the road to learn the Art of Rhetoric.
Introduction: What Are We Doing Here?
Part One—Aristotle and Aphthonius and Cicero, Oh My!
Chapter 1 Some Early History of Public Speaking and Why You Should Know About It
Chapter 2 Beginning with Aristotle
Chapter 3 Roll Out the Canons
Chapter 4 Let’s Argue
Chapter 5 Let’s Argue Some More
Chapter 6 Let’s NOT Argue Like This
Part Two—The Progymnasmata
Chapter 7 Exercise 1—Fable
Chapter 8 Exercise 2—Tale or Narrative
Chapter 9 Exercise 3—Chreia
Chapter 10 Exercise 4—Proverb
Chapter 11 Exercises 5 and 6—Refutation/Confirmation
Chapter 12 Exercise 7—Commonplace
Chapter 13 The Ceremonial Speech Exercises 8 and 9—Encomium/Invective
Chapter 14 The Informative Speeches Exercises 10, 11, 12—Comparison, Descriptive, Characterization
Chapter 15 The Persuasive Speech—The Deliberative and Forensic Exercises Exercises 13 and 14—Thesis and the Introduction to Law
Appendices
Appendix 1 Self-Analysis
Appendix 2 Speech Critiques
Bibliography