I've started reading the next book in my seemingly inexhaustible list; this particular one covers the ever-interesting topic of rhetoric.
Titled You Talkin' To Me, it's written by Sam Leith, the former Literary Editor of The Daily Telegraph and a regular contributor to publications such as Wall Street Journal, Spectator, and the Guardian.
Now, I had some idea of what rhetoric was; something stereotypically done by the ancient Greeks and Romans during debates.
However, I was wrong.
It's persuasion, entirely, and it's practised by... well... everyone, ever.
Which makes rhetoric particularly relevant for me and you because knowing how to persuade effectively means you can shift someone from inaction to action.
Quite the valuable skill if one has a business, for example...
In Leith's book, I discovered that from the time of Cicero (the famous Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher nicknamed 'The Attack Dog of the Roman Forum') onwards, rhetoric had been conventionally divided into a framework consisting of 5 parts.
This was commonly known as the 'canons of rhetoric'.
The 'Canons of Rhetoric'
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Invention
-
Arrangement
-
Style
-
Memory
-
Delivery
What's cool is that this framework still works perfectly today.
As Leith puts it:
"These five parts roughly correspond to the sequence in which you might imagine putting a speech - or, more broadly, any persuasive appeal - together. You think up what there is to say; you devise an order in which to say it; you light on the way in which you want to say it; you get all the aforementioned into your head; and then you get on your hind legs and let rip."
(p.43)
And, over the next 5 emails, I'll write about each of these 'canons of rhetoric' and how they apply to marketing as we employ it today.
If feedback is good, I'll do more 'mini-series' like this based on whatever I'm reading at the time.
So, considering I read about 62 books a year (thank you Goodreads app for counting for me), there's plenty of topics to potentially cover.
Do you have a book or topic you'd like me to consider? Hit reply and let me know.
