Definition:
In classical rhetoric, the introductory part of an argument in which a speaker or writer establishes credibility (ethos) and announces the subject and purpose of the discourse. Plural: exordia.
See also:
Etymology:
From the Latin, "beginning"Observations and Examples:
- "Ancient rhetoricians gave elaborate advice for exordia, since rhetors use this first part of a discourse to establish their ethos as intelligent, reliable, and trustworthy people. Indeed, Quintilian wrote that 'the sole purpose of the exordium is to prepare our audience in such a way that they will be disposed to lend a ready ear to the rest of our speech' (IV i 5). However, in Book II of the Rhetoric, Aristotle contended that the main purpose of the introduction was 'to make clear what is the end (telos) of the discourse' (1515a). Other functions of introductions, according to Aristotle, include making the audience well disposed toward the rhetor and the issue and grabbing their attention."
(S. Crowley and D. Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, Pearson, 2004) - "An exordium is a passage which brings the mind of the auditor into a proper condition to receive the rest of the speech. This is accomplished if he becomes well-disposed, attentive, and receptive."
(Cicero) - Analysis of the Exordium of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech
"The exordium [paragraphs 2-5] breaks down into two parts, both of which make a similar syllogistic argument while shifting its major premise. The syllogism takes the form of (a) America consists of a promise of freedom, (b) the Negro in America still is not free, therefore, (c) America has defaulted on its promise. The major premise of the first argument is that the Emancipation Proclamation constituted a promise of freedom for Afro-Americans. The major premise of the second argument is that the American Founding as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution constituted such a promise. In both cases, King argues, the promise has not be fulfilled.
"King's exordium is essentially moderate. This is necessary because he must win the attention and trust of his audience before he can make his more militant plea. Having established his ethos, King is now ready for confrontation."
(Nathan W. Schlueter, One Dream or Two? Lexington Books, 2002) - Exordium of John Milton's Address to His Classmates (An Academic Exercise)
"The noblest masters of rhetoric have left behind them in various screeds a maxim which can hardly have escaped you, my academic friends, and which says that in every type of speech--demonstrative, deliberative, or judicial--the opening should be designed to win the good will of the audience. On those terms only can the minds of the auditors be made responsive and the cause that the speaker has at heart be won. If this be true (and--not to disguise the truth--I know that it is a principle established by the vote of the entire learned world), how unlucky I am! What a plight I am in today! In the very first words of my speech I am afraid that I am going to say something unbecoming to a speaker, and that I shall be obliged to neglect the first and most important duty of an orator. And in fact, what good will can I expect from you when in as great an assembly as this I recognize almost every face within eyeshot as unfriendly to me? I seem to have come to play an orator's part before an utterly unsympathetic audience."
(John Milton, "Whether Day or Night Is the More Excellent." Prolusions, 1674. Complete Poems and Major Prose, ed. by Merritt Y. Hughes. Prentice Hall, 1957) - "I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women.
"We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves."
(Daniel Defoe, "The Education of Women")
Pronunciation: egg-ZOR-dee-yum
Also Known As: entrance, prooemium, prooimion
