Book III, Chapters 1-9 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1: The preceding chapters have dealt with what the successful rhetorician ought to say, but it is also necessary for the rhetorician to be able to say it in the correct way. Ideally, this would not be needed; people should be convinced simply by sound arguments. However, many people are too uneducated to be properly swayed by these arguments and are more easily reached through non-logical means, like a convincing delivery or eloquent style. Orators will always write and speak prose and should be careful to avoid becoming overly poetic. Speeches should have a rhythm, for arrhythmic prose is too unrestricted and meandering, but they should avoid having a strict meter, for such would make their speech too poetic.

Chapter 2: The stylistic rules for poetry and prose are much the same. First of all, any...