Objective
This lesson will help you learn how to use questions (Aristotle called these
questions topoi and commonplaces) to discover and develop ideas
for an essay.
What Are Topics?
One way to keep your writing on subject is to use Aristotle's topics (the Greek
word is topoi) as guidelines. Around 300 BC, Aristotle developed a set of twenty-eight
valid and ten invalid topic statements that are still used today as a test of
validity in written and spoken arguments. In modern times, we have turned these
topics into a set of questions.
Usually the subject of the introductory sentence (topic or focus) in each of
your paragraphs will somehow relate to one of the twenty-eight topics that this
philosopher proposed, as well as reflect your thesis. Don't be nervous! You
do not need to use all twenty-eight of the topics in every paper! Instead, you
can use them as guidelines for how to write about the ideas that you have. Or,
if you don't have very many ideas, you can use the topics to help generate some
new ways to think about your general subject.
Few people have Aristotle's topics memorized; instead, they have reduced the
long list to four general categories that are easier to remember: what can
and cannot happen (present situation), what has and has not happened
(past situation), what will and will not happen (future situation),
and size, which in modern times includes cost. (You will find a list
of topics after the summary section, at the end of this document.) You will
also find more information about the topics and how to use them later in this
lesson.
What are Commonplaces?
The term "commonplace" is one that you might hear when people talk
or write about Aristotle's Topics. A commonplace is something that your
audience will already know and you can use as an illustration. These commonplaces
are the common knowledge facts or ideas that do not need to be cited to a specific
source in your paper. If you want to assume that something is common knowledge
(something that your readers would know), you must remember to take into consideration
things like cultural ideas, age, and gender.
For instance, in an argument to restrict tobacco advertisements, you can probably
assume that everyone will agree that smoking can cause cancer. You can state
this commonplace idea without proving it with cited facts or examples. Historical
facts or cultural habits are often used as commonplaces in written work. For
instance, you might refer to a Fourth of July barbecue safely assume that your
American readers would know about the Fourth of July. Commonplaces are good
tools for describing or comparing things that the reader will easily understand.
How Can You Use Topics and Commonplaces to Develop Your Writing?
Topics are a set of circumstances about any subject, and they can be used
as an invention tool to help you develop your paper. To use them effectively,
you need to have a general subject for your paper in mind. With this in mind,
let's explore the idea of cigarette advertising in magazines using Aristotle's
topics.
Tentative Thesis (Remember you need a tentative thesis before you start to
use topics and commonplaces to develop your idea.): Cigarette advertising in
magazines should be restricted or banned because the tobacco companies encourage
young people to begin smoking. To use the topics, begin by listing them: present,
past, future, and size. Then, ask the specific questions linked to each topic;
your answers to those questions will help you to develop your thesis.
Our example below will show you how this works.
Topics:
The two sections above are based on information that you know or can find,
so they are the basis of your claim (opinion). You will probably choose to write
about these in the earlier parts of your paper so that when you develop the
argumentative parts of your paper your readers are well-informed. Can you see
how forcing yourself to think in terms of time helps to establish a base for
making guesses about the future?
Because the thesis proposes a change, any results will be in the future. Consequently,
there will more ideas in the "future" area, because you are guessing
and will need to cover many viewpoints. In an essay, you would probably spend
a paragraph or two on the present situation, a paragraph on past events, and
then several paragraphs on the future ideas that the topics generate.
Based on our tentative thesis, predicting the future is tricky, because we
cannot prove that cutting out magazine advertising will cause fewer young people
to smoke, but we may have shown that in the past other kinds of bans have been
successful. With this information, it is time to look at that tentative thesis
again:
Tentative Thesis: Cigarette advertising in magazines should be restricted or
banned because the tobacco companies encourage young people to begin smoking.
Armed with the information we developed using the topics, we can narrow our
thesis a little so that it is more effective.
Proposed Thesis to Support Ban: Cigarette advertising should be banned in magazines,
because tobacco companies glorify smoking in a way that encourages young people
to establish an unhealthy addiction.
Notice that the idea of restricting advertisements disappeared in the final
thesis? We did not really explore that idea enough to include it. In fact, it
is such a big subject that we could probable write another paper on this topic
alone. Also some of the vague words were replaced with specific and persuasive
words that came out of your exploration: glorify for encourage, unhealthy addiction
for smoking habit. These words are emotion packed so that they are more persuasive.
If, on the other hand, we decided that the ban on advertising in the past did
not have much effect (based on the ideas we explored) then we might write a
thesis that looks like this:
Proposed Thesis to Deny Ban: While we need to reduce the number of young people
who begin using tobacco products, banning cigarette advertising will not be
effective, because in the past similar measures have not reduced the number
of new smokers.
This thesis does not say that smoking is desirable. It states clearly that
the ban does not have the effect that we want to say it will have, so we should
look for another solution. Our paper then would argue that we should be concerned
about ways to reduce this statistic, but advertisement bans would not work.
Using the Topics as an Organizational Tool
The greatest strength of using Aristotle's topics as an organizational tool
is that they remind us that we need to establish details about the past to
make guesses about the future. Often writers assume that their readers already
know all the background of a problem, but they do not. For a reader to understand
our reasoning, they need something called context. Context provides the situation
in which what we propose as good is true. An overview of the past and present
provides this contextual base.
The topics provide a natural transitional flow to our papers:
- Currently we have a situation that needs to be solved
- In the past, we dealt with it this way and it did or did not work
- In the future, we should do X.
Exercise: Practicing Using the Topics
Using the following thesis, you can practice developing ideas for an essay
using the four general topoi:
Tentative Thesis: Evening students at Sand City College should be allowed to
park in faculty spaces, because the commuter lots are so far from the classroom
buildings.
Using this thesis, answer the questions linked to the topoi below..
Topoi Focus One: What can or cannot happen:
Topoi Focus Two: What has or has not happened:
Topoi Focus Three: What will or will not happen:
Topoi Focus Four: Size
Topoi Focus Four: Size and Cost
As a final step, you can revisit your original thesis and see how you would
revise it after thinking through your problem using the Topics!
Now that you have developed some ideas using the Topics, you can try writing
two revised thesis statements: one that maintains the viewpoint that students
should be able to use faculty spaces, and one that denies this is a good idea.
Summary
Using Aristotle's topics is one part of the writing process that helps writers
develop their ideas and organize their thinking. By beginning with a tentative
thesis that you know you will revise later, you can look at a situation with
an open mind.
The easy way to remember the Topics is to categorize them as present situation,
past situation, and future situation. Size is a constant, and you will use this
topic when you are writing to compare or change things.
Finally, when you are looking for examples to illustrate your ideas, commonplaces
will help you because you can assume that you share their context with your
reader. They add description and encourage reader interest without long written
descriptions.
Twenty-Eight Valid Topics from Aristotle's Rhetoric
Like in the section about how to use the Topics, this section uses a common
theme to explore the topics individually. Although, each example is labeled
past, present, future, or size so that you can relate them to general categories.
Remember that when using Aristotle's Topics, you begin with having an opinion
that may turn into your thesis. Here, we will argue that colleges should help
their students purchase personal computers. We will work with the following
assumptions:
- Students are required to turn in papers that are typed.
- Colleges have computer laboratories for students to use.
- The computer labs operate on an appointment basis during busy times.
- Teachers use e-mail to communicate with their students.
- Group assignments are more effective if the students can communicate
online.
As you explore the examples below, you can think about how each is almost like
a mini-thesis. In fact, they are topic sentences that you might use to start
paragraphs in a larger paper, but they each must reinforce the main thesis in
some way.
Restate you contention in an opposite way, and if the opposite statement
is true, so is the original.
Original contention: Students need computers to complete their courses.
Opposite contention: Students cannot only complete coursework unless they have
computer access (Present). Redefine a key term slightly to support your idea, or suggest a synonym that
seems like a better word choice.
Example: Word processing on a computer is not the same as typing on a typewriter
because writers can edit without retyping the whole paper, so final products
are better quality (Present). Use a correlative idea.
Example: The spell checker on in a computer word processing program helps students
learn spelling and new words, but there are no such learning devices attached
to a typewriter (Present). Argue history (fortiori). Prove that something was bad in the past so it
still must be bad.
Example: In the past, computer laboratories have been inconvenient because they
are crowded; with the increase in enrollment, it will be impossible to reserve
the time blocks needed to work on long assignments for those students who rely
on the lab (Past). Argue from past circumstance. What has been promised must be performed, even
thought times and circumstances have changed.
Example: In the past, students used the library almost exclusively to research
their assignment, but in the age of the Internet, this is no longer true (Past/Present). Turn an accusation against the accuser. If an accusation is unjust, attack
the moral superiority of the accuser.
Example: The school should be concerned about students' access to research materials,
as well as the quality of the work students turn in (Present/Future). Define your terms so that you place your ideas in a favorable light.
Example: The cost of adequate computers is no longer overwhelming (Present). Play on different senses of a word.
Example: When we suggest that the school help students purchase computers, we
are really suggesting that the cost be deferred into tuition (Future). Divide your argument into its logical parts.
Example: Students need to have enough computer time to research and complete
shorter assignment from beginning to end without being interrupted because their
computer lab appointment is restricted to 30 minute intervals or the machine
they reserved is broken (Present/Future). Argue from plain induction by using events with parallel circumstances.
Example: Just as the library was once the source for all current research, the
Internet is becoming a requirement for finding timely information (Present/Future). Argue against a previous judgment.
Example: In the past, computers were costly items that were considered a luxury,
but times have changed (Past/Present) Argue your idea part by part.
Example: Computers are a necessity for students to be successful in their coursework.
However, we know that student's budgets are often tight, so the school should
help students purchase appropriate computers (Present/Future). Argue from consequences. If people take an action the outcome will be bad
or good.
Example: If the school defers the cost of a reasonable computer for each student,
then the burden on teachers to help students without computers will be reduced
(Future). When an action can have good or bad consequences, argue that there is no
right answer.
Example: Obviously, students will not be happy if their tuition is raised, so
we must find ways to make this assistance optional (Future). Oppose an argument by saying that you agree, but then notice that things
are not as they first appeared to be.
Example: When the administration decided not to assist students in this area,
adequate computers were selling for several thousand dollars. Because this is
no longer true, it is time to revisit this issue (Past/Present). Argue from logical consequences.
Example: If students cannot find space in the labs, and they do not have access
to personal computers, then those who can afford this hardware have an advantage
that cannot be tolerated (Present). Argue that if two results are the same, then their causes must be the same
Example: Schools recognize that the library is a necessity for students to complete
research, and they should also recognize that the most current information for
research is sometimes only available on the Internet (Present/Future). Apply an opponent's earlier decision to a later case, to his disadvantage.
Example: When the administration decided that they would not assist students
who needed to buy computers, instructors were making assignments that required
extended computer use (Past). Take the possible motive for the one actually prevailing.
Example: Perhaps, the school does not want to deal with the actual record keeping
of such a plan, but once the system is in place it should administer itself
(Future). In arguing motive, point to general motives or prohibitions for or against
your case.
Example: Generally, our school might resist this plan because computers still
seem like a luxury item, but because instructors require their use, they are
not (Present/Size). Make people believe an improbability by pointing to an even greater improbability
that is true.
Example: Some critics think that students would order hardware that was beyond
their needs, but this seems unrealistic because the actual cost would become
part of individual's tuition bill (Present/Future/Size). Catch you opponent contradicting himself.
Example: The administration argues that there are computer labs for students
who do not own their hardware, but records of the computer labs show that toward
the end of the semester only 63% of the students wanting to use the equipment
are served (Present). Refute slander by showing that it was evoked by a mistaken view of the facts.
Example: Our opponents say that we are trying to blame poor grades on the lack
of computers, but we are really interested in helping students meet the requirements
of their coursework (Present/Future). Prove effect by showing the presence of its cause, or vice versa.
Example: If students own their own computers, then instructor's will be able
to comfortably assign extended work, both research and collaboration (Future). Disprove an action by showing it inconsistent with previous actions.
Example: No university would dream of forcing students to make half hour appointments
in their library to complete their research projects, yet our school wants us
to complete long assignments with just such time constraints (Size). Show that the opposition had a better argument and failed to use it.
Example: The school does not seem to care that this plan would really cost them
little or nothing after the start-up (Present). Use previous mistakes as a defense for present ones.
Example: In the past, purchasing equipment has been administered by one person,
and often the choices she made did not really meet the needs of students, but
our plan allows students to decide their own level of need (Past/Present/Future) Support an argument by playing upon the meaning of names.
Example: Donald Apple, is a good example of a student who was hurt by the fact
that our labs only provide computers with IBM based operating systems (Present).
  
|
