Classical ethos and the modern composition teacher

Abstract

The modern composition teacher, and his class, can benefit from the teacher's careful reading of such ancient scholars as Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Cicero, and Quintilian and by his thoughtful presentation and application of their various precepts. Besides studying the ancients' styles and common sense approaches to human communication, the modern composition teacher should review the Rhetoric, De Oratore, and Institutio Oratoria with an eye for how Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian taught the art of communication. For example, instead of ignoring the classical topics of memory and delivery because they do not seem to affect writing, the modern teacher ought to realize that those topics, and what the ancients say about them, are especially applicable to him because he is an orator in front of an audience. The purpose of the modern classroom orator should be not only to instruct, but, as Cicero suggests, also to delight and move--to persuade. As Aristotle recognized, and as should the modern composition teacher, ethos "is the most potent of all the means to persuasion." Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Cicero, and Quintilian all realize the importance and value of ethos in the art of communication. They not only discuss ethos as a means of persuasion, but they evoke that quality in their writing. What they say is made more believable because they are believable. The same believability should hold true for the modern composition teacher--he should convince by showing. For instance if he can successfully persuade his class of students to write for different audiences, then an explanation of how he effected that persuasion, or the persuasion itself, should be an excellent example of the human communication that he is teaching. He can thus refer to logic, emotion, and ethos, not only through textbooks, blackboard diagrams, or slides, but also through himself. For just as he can discourage a class by not caring or not being interesting, so he can encourage it by paying attention to the class' needs, his responsibilities, and the wide-ranging and versatile aspects of what he is teaching. Ethos for the modern composition teacher, as for the ancients, is "potent" and should never be neglected.