Friends Skills

Two classical figures, Quintilian and Cicero have influenced the modern state of rhetorical education. Both were influenced by Isocrates and looked for orators with a natural ability to communicate. They emphasized a cultural approach to rhetoric and viewed reading and writing as essential tools to effective oratory. Both were Roman figures crucial to the development in rhetoric in later eras such as the Renaissance. Cicero influenced Quintilian especially in his ideas of teaching rhetoric. Here is an overview of their different ideas about rhetoric.
Quintilian argued that writing isn't just a skill but encourages personal growth. It serves as an example of transformative learning that is ethics-grounded and civically oriented. He organized oratory into five canons, invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. The goal was to learn to sift through information in order to present the most relevant and persuasive case in a given situation. He was concerned with developing a field of study in what seemed to have no specific subject and determined that rhetoric was the theory of effective communication and is based on a citizen capable of analysis, reflection and action. He emphasized real life application such as political action and as a means of entertainment and cultural criticism.
Cicero was another classical figure who argued that the orator who needed to live a good life in order to be persuasive. Further, he has to empathize with his audience and believe in what he is saying. To become a good orator, one must recognize that truth is the aim of rhetoric and truth didn't exist prior to when it was communicated. He connected the virtue of the orator with the stability of the state. A virtuous democracy is maintained by the citizen's virtue and reflected in good public discourse. Rhetoric has the goal of proving claims, winning the audience, moving them to action through their emotional response and recognizing that ethical, evaluative and emotional...