The Common Topics
{{More citations needed|date=February 2025}}{{Rhetoric}}
In classical rhetoric, the Common Topics (koinoi topoi)were a short list of four traditional topics regarded as suitable to structure an argument.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}
In Aristotle's Rhetoric, the common topics are discussed in Book II.{{Cite journal |last=Quandahl |first=Ellen |date=1986 |title=Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Reinterpreting Invention |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/466031 |journal=Rhetoric Review |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=128–137 |jstor=466031}} They are generally considered to be heuristic.
Four traditional topics
- Past Fact (Circumstance)
- Possible/Impossible (Possibility)
- Future Fact (Circumstance)
- Greater/Lesser (Comparison)
Expanded list of topics
Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connors expanded the list in their 1971 book Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student to include:
- Definition
- genus / division / species
- etymology
- description
- definition
- example
- synonyms
- Comparison
- similarity
- difference
- degree
- Circumstance
- cause and effect
- timing
- Relationship
- contraries
- exclusion
- Testimony
- statistics
- maxims
- law
- precedents
- personal example
- historical example
- authoritative quotes
See also
References
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External links
- [http://www.u.arizona.edu/~tkinney/pdf/handouts/commontopics.pdf Common Topics (course handout)]
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