Essays II: Invention and Style

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The classical authors listed five canons of Rhetoric: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery. Of these five, three are also critically important to writing, and in fact represent the key prerequisites for a well-written piece: Invention (coming up with ideas), Arrangement (putting the ideas into the appropriate format), and Style (presenting the ideas in a memorable, polished manner).

In Living the Answer's most popular class, Introduction to Essays, students focus on Arrangment, along with some Invention. They learn to gather ideas, come up with a thesis, and present their views in the five-paragraph-essay format. Building on that experience, Essays II continues the development of skills in the area of Arrangment, while particularly focusing on Invention and Style.

Greater familiarity with the techniques of Invention is the solution for the writer who feels they have nothing to say, or who feels their writing needs greater substance. Though it's a mistake to blindly follow the classical model simply because it is classical, the great Greek rhetoricians did have valuable insights into the way the human mind works, so the classical idea of the "topics" will be our starting place in learning the tools of Invention. These "topics" (definition, comparison, relationship, circumstance, and testimony) are remarkably effective ways of priming the mental pump, helping students come up with useful ideas with which to fill their essays. Many students even find them rather fun, once they figure out how to use them!

Once the writer has something about which to write, the techniques of Style provide tools for writing it well. This doesn't mean a surface sophistry, but rather a thoughtful consideration of the idea being communicated, the audience, and the desired effect all combining to suggest the way in which words, sentences, and paragraphs should be molded together. Students will learn how to use sentence structure, word choice, phrasal order, and other techniques to present their thoughts in the most effective way possible.

It is recommended that students take Living the Answer's Intro to Essays prior to Essays II, but it is not a required prerequisite if students are already comfortable with the five-paragraph essay format.

In-class instruction is for one hour and fifteen minutes every week. Students will be expected to work on weekly assignments at home following class, and they will write several essays over the course of the class. Assignments will be posted to the private class forum for detailed, individual critique by the teacher.