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CHAPTER II

THE FORMS OF DISCOURSE

She hath prosperous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure, Act I. Scene 2.

Rhetoricians recognize five forms of discourse,1 whether spoken or written: Description,2 Narration, Exposition, Argumentation,3 and Persuasion. The last two are sometimes regarded as one.

While these titles are really definitive, a somewhat closer examination into their nature and scope is necessary.1

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1. Description

Description is the portrayal of concrete objects, material or spiritual, by means of language," says Genung. Each word of this admirably explicit definition is significant, and separately is worthy of the student's notice.

1 For full discussion see Working Principles of Rhetoric, Genung, pp. 475-662.

2 See Highways of Literature, Pryde, pp. 152, 153.

See Principles of Argumentation, Baker.

4 Some practical hints on the rhetorical use of the Forms of Discourse are offered in Chapter XIV.

In order to accurate, vivid, and attractive description,

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six things are necessary.

(a) Establish a point of view and maintain it. - Do this so consistently that your hearers must understand and adopt your attitude toward the object or idea described. This may be compared to establishing a scale of inches to miles in map drawing.

(b) Briefly and comprehensively outline the whole scene before describing it in detail. —A vivid initial survey will give tone and spirit to the entire portrayal.

(c) Relentlessly cut out all ideas and words not necessary to produce the effect you desire. - Details in a mental picture either help or hinder. Be sure they do not hinder, for they cannot be passively present in any discourse.

(d) Give vivid prominence to important characteristics. -That is, to those things which give an object its individuality, and so distinguish it from all different objects. Learn a lesson from the poster-artist.

(e) Follow a natural, logical, and climactic order in description. One feature introduced out of its order will distort the picture you are painting for your audiHold things in proportion.

ence.

(f) Make a powerful and effective summary in presenting the general view at the close of the portrayal. — First and final impressions remain the longest. The mind may be trained to take in the characteristic points of a subject, so as to view in a single scene, action, experience, or character, a unified impression of the whole.

It is necessary to gain this "bird's-eye view" before you can select fitting words wherewith to portray your subject effectively. In other words, a clear and sharply outlined picture of what you wish to describe must be in your mind's eye before you can transfer it to your auditors.

This clear, unified mental picture often suggests a striking epithet or a figure of speech, and hence effective speakers often employ epithets and figures in description.

2. Narration

The recounting of the particulars of an event, or of a series of events, in the order of occurrence, is called narration. Sometimes this order is changed with the purpose of making a more powerful impression upon the hearer. Narration is closely related to description, each frequently being made auxiliary to the other.

(a) Be sure you see the end from the beginning. This

is fundamental to all narration.

est.

(b) Subordinate the minor to the major points of inter

(c) Keep the application of the narration in mind. Particularly must this be observed if the narrative is used as an illustration, else the story may defeat its own end by absorbing all the interest, leaving the motive for its introduction uncertain.

(d) Narration must preserve its forward movement at all hazards. - Digressions are fatal. Narration deals

with events, and when these lag, failing to follow each other with variety, interest, and surprise, or when the "point" is revealed too soon, a dispiriting anti-climax results and the hearer loses interest.

3. Exposition

This may be defined as the clear and simple setting forth of what a thing really is. It does not deal with reasons or with arguments, but confines itself to inquiries as to what things mean, as to how they differ from other things, and as to questions of fact.

For the purposes of this treatise it is enough to note the four lines along which exposition may proceed.

(a) By definition, exposition attempts so to outline a subject as to distinguish it from all objects not bearing the same name. This process of discrimination, of showing just how the subject of definition differs from other subjects with which it might be confused, is fundamental to effective discourse.

(b) By classification, exposition seeks to place the subject in the class, order, genus, and species in which it belongs. This process is synthetic.

(c) By division, which is classification reversed, exposition so divides the subject as to bring clearly to view its parts, severally as well as in relation. This process is analytic.

(d) By generalization, exposition attempts to make a broad, general statement of the subject so as to present it in a single view.

When illustration by example is used according to the laws of narration, it becomes an efficient aid to exposition. It should be remembered that illustration is not argument, though argument often appeals to examples to support its contention.

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To master the process of exposition is to become a clear thinker. "I know, when you do not ask me," replied a gentleman upon being requested to define a highly complex idea. Now some ideas defy explicit definition; but no mind should take refuge behind such exceptions, for where definition fails, other forms succeed. Sometimes we feel confident that we have perfect mastery of an idea, but when the time comes to express it, the clearness becomes a haze. Exposition, then, is the test of clear understanding. To speak effectively you must be able to see your subject clearly and comprehensively, and to make your audience see it as you do. It is the basis of all sound argumentation.

4. Argumentation

This we define as the process of producing pure conviction. For the accomplishment of this end argumentation proceeds according to the laws of Logic - defined by McCosh as "the science of the laws of discursive thought "; and by Whately as "the science, and also the art, of reasoning." 3

2

1 Working Principles of Rhetoric, Genung, p. 561.
2 Logic, p. I.
3 Logic, p. I.

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