Classical rhetoric requires inventionBefore your homeschool student starts accumulating high school speech credit, you should familiarize her with classical rhetoric.  The oldest surviving Latin text on communicating effectively, Rhetorica ad Herennium (possibly written by the ancient Roman orator Cicero), outlines five canons or principles by which all rhetoric is judged. These five canons form a template for critiquing speeches and written compositions as well as a pattern for educating your homeschool children in rhetoric. Adopted from classical Greek rhetors (orators) like Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle, this definitive guide to rhetoric was studied by the most famous orator in ancient Rome, Quintilian, as well as leading Christian medieval and Renaissance orators like Saint Augustine, Desiderius Erasmus, and Sir Francis Bacon. Although our family has not read Cicero’s original text, we use a contemporary text during the later homeschool high school years (junior or senior) called Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward Corbett which extensively explains and illustrates this tradition that has been practiced in Western culture for over two thousand years.   Invention, the first principle of classical rhetoric, is the subject of this article.

Determine the Topic

Discovering the main idea of the homeschool speech or essay is the first step of invention. What do you want to talk about in your speech or essay? Aristotle organized the potential topics of speeches into two categories: common and special. Common topics included definition of terms, division of the material into parts, comparison of similarities and contrast of differences, and testimonies of authorities. Common topics could be applied to any idea. Special topics were related to the three classical discourses and included justice, honor, and worthiness.

Sometimes we brainstorm for topics, but usually we simply select one of the more interesting subtopics of our homeschool academic reading (history, literature, philosophy, Scripture, science, etc). For example, Connor is reading about the battle of Gettysburg in the novel, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. When I gave him the book to read, I told him that I wanted a ten paragraph paper from him on one debatable point. As he’s read the compelling narrative, he’s been struck by the honorable character of three officers: Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain. Now if you were heavily influenced by the stories your great grandmother told, you may not find all three men honorable because two of the men he’s chosen to write about were Confederate officers and one a Union officer. However, Connor is going to argue that their characters transcended their national loyalties. That’s a debatable point or idea; it’s not a simple declaration of objective fact, but rather, there is subjectivity in the idea which is supported by evidence.

Discover the Arguments

During invention, ask lots of questions and discover arguments to support your point of view or case. In this exercise, try to find the core conflict of the debate. What is the real issue? Ancient orators asked four types questions:

1. Is it true?

Questions of fact deal with truth which can be supported by actual objective evidence. In the  homeschool example above, there are many facts to be examined such as Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet were both Confederate Generals while Joshua Chamberlain was a Union General.

2. What is it?

Questions of definition make a call about the nature of the idea. In our homeschool example, Connor would define character, the Confederacy, and the United States among other terms.

3. Is it important?

Questions of quality ask why the idea is important. Value judgments enter into these questions as each author will have differing opinions as to the importance or meaning of the idea.

4. Is this the right audience?

Questions of jurisdiction ask whether the venue for the homeschool speech or paper is the best for this issue or idea. An ancient orator would not present a deliberative speech to a judge just as the same orator would not present a forensic speech to a city council member.

The ultimate purpose of questions is to find arguments and evidence that support your point of view or case.

Develop the Thesis Statement

Once you’ve determined the topic of your homeschool essay or speech and developed the questions that support the topic, it’s time to develop a thesis statement. The word thesis often gives my homeschool writing students the quakes, probably because a good thesis statement is generally more difficult to create than a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a declarative statement which states a general fact usually followed by supporting facts. A thesis statement is a debatable point or claim. To be debatable, there must be differing opinions or conflicting facts which call into question the validity of the statement. Thus, the orator or author must prove his idea or claim with hard evidence. To distinguish between a topic sentence and thesis statement, I’ll provide an easy example from Connor’s essay:

  • Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character. (a topic sentence)
  • Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain were men of character because they allowed their decent, chivalric upbringing to transcend their nationalistic loyalties. (a thesis statement)

What’s the difference? The second sentence takes a position on each man’s upbringing that must be proven with evidence whereas the first sentence is a statement of fact which does not claim to know why they were men of character. There could be many unique reasons for why each man has character which makes the idea debatable. The debatable component of the idea is what makes invention so much fun and challenging. We think to uncover the truth which is the essential purpose of canon one of classical rhetoric, invention. Once you’ve invented your debatable idea, you can move on to canon two, arrangement.

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Do you have a homeschool child who struggles with writing thesis statements? Use the following acronym to help trigger debatable points: “www.asia.” Although homeschool writing titan Andrew Pudewa teaches this as a stylistic dress up, I think you could use it for another purpose:  developing a thesis.  “www.asia” stands for:

  • when
  • while
  • where
  • as
  • since
  • if
  • although

If you tacked any of these words onto the end of a regular topic sentence then add a supporting phrase, you might have a thesis statement that needs proof. Try it next time when you are trying to create a thesis statement for your next homeschool essay!