Definition:
In classical rhetoric (as defined by Cicero and the anonymous author of the first-century Latin text, Rhetorica ad Herennium), the five overlapping offices or divisions of the rhetorical process:
- inventio (Greek, heuristics), invention
- dispositio (Greek, taxis), arrangement
- elocutio (Greek, lexis), style
- memoria (Greek, mneme), memory
- actio (Greek, hypocrisis), delivery
Examples & Observations:
- "In De Inventione, Cicero advances what is probably his best remembered contribution to the history of rhetoric: his five canons of oratory. He admits, however, that these divisions are not new with him: 'The parts of [rhetoric], as most authorities have stated, are Invention, Arrangement, Expression, Memory, and Delivery.' Cicero's canons provide a useful means of dividing the work of the orator into units."
(James A. Herrick, The History and Theory of Rhetoric. Allyn and Bacon, 2001) - "Since all activity and ability of an orator falls into five divisions, . . . he must first hit upon what to say; then manage and marshal his discoveries, not merely in orderly fashion, but with a discriminating eye for the exact weight as it were of each argument; next go on to array them in the adornments of style; after that keep them guarded in his memory; and in the end deliver them with effect and charm."
(Cicero, De Oratore) - "The canons of rhetoric are a model, to my mind the most efficacious, for any interdisciplinary study."
(Jim W. Corder, Uses of Rhetoric. Lippincott, 1971) - "The Canons have stood the test of time. They represent a legitimate taxonomy of processes. Instructors can situate their pedagogical strategies in each of the Canons."
(G. M. Phillips, Communication Incompetencies. SIU Press, 1991)
Also Known As: canons of oratory
