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::: COMMUNICATION is fundamental but ...
by Franco Cesaro
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We’re living in an age of communication diseducation. Although communication is essential for human survival, we’ve forgotten the basic rules. We’ve got to start remembering these rules again.

For too many years I’ve had to take part in or describe training courses that promise to teach or persuade others to do what we want them to do.
Similar expectations are raised particularly in sales personnel, who are led to believe that there are innovative and strategic techniques and psychologies that can convince others to buy or behave favorably to our will.
Then I remembered my daughters, who even as infants were capable of persuading with just a mere whimper (or often even just a moan, pout or gesture of the hand) an army of grandmothers, aunts, mothers, and baby sitters to do exactly whatever they had in mind: eat, drink, play, get picked up, get taken outside for a walk, whatever - and they couldn’t even talk! They could only whine, gesture, smile, and so on. In short, they had mastered a form of communication that was very efficacious and very persuasive.
They had obviously never attended a training course. Mother Nature had provided them like all children with sufficient communication for survival and growth without any special talent or skill.
Communication is therefore fundamental for human survival; usually, however, we communicate our needs and opinions through words.
Yet all of us have experienced difficulties in communicating at some point in our lives: at school, at work, at home, and every day we encounter problems further upstream and often far from our current personal situation.
We are currently living in an age of complete communication diseducation in which we are accustomed to the transfer of information “in pills”, in which we are atoms colonized by television, and in which we are accustomed only to receiving and not replying.
Moreover, if communication is an exchange between at least two people, then some form of relationship must necessarily be established. There is a complete lack of relationship in today’s communication, however, and therefore no reciprocal respect.
In centuries of culture we have unconsciously learned how to formulate speech.
Unfortunately, this basic know-how is disappearing because we are constantly exposed to an incorrect use of communication and unaware of its rules.

How can we improve the way we communicate using words?
Verbal communication uses empathy to transmit the importance of words to others.
An orator, for example, must know precisely when the audience is approaching the limit to its attention span. In order to do this, the orator must be first of all a good observer.
Written communication is different: although the same relationship based on empathy can obviously not be established, there are other ways to personalize the communication plan.

They had already invented everything

::: Why reflect on Rhetoric?
Man is a creator of worlds, an animal without shape. The form he gives himself through human expression and communication is therefore complex and linked to the fact that we are all different, unique, and unrepeatable.
If we wish to persuade others – using expression in its authentic, positive meaning - we must necessarily obey rules. Knowing the rules that lie at the basis of verbal communication lets us redevelop certain experiences and improve our communication skills.
Reflecting on why we communicate in certain unaways, we can formulate general rules.
Lastly, taking the rules of rhetoric as reference, we can capture the attention of others and seek support in other tools as well, provided that we use them always with precise criteria. Rhetoric, in fact, is a precise and complex strategy for human communication.

::: Premise
Rhetoric is the science of generating and comprehending the text through the identification of rules that lie at its base of its construction. Although it is anything but straightforward, it revolves around the art of speaking to the public. Defined by the Ancients as the art of persuasion through the use of linguistic tools, rhetoric today is confused with the term Public Speaking, which takes the roots of its more modern techniques for “speaking in public to the public” from the elder art. What we must understand is that today’s communication proposals are inspired by this original configuration and also implies an academic vision that cannot be abandoned.
We will now review the steps in the development of one of the world’s oldest disciplines regarding human expression by putting certain things already learnt by intuition into proper order.

::: The evolution of rhetoric: a bit of history…
Linguistic expression was preceded by figurative depiction, the artistic representation of figures or scenes.
This was followed by the sacred or juridical use of the written word that spread wider and wider before the miracle that occurred in the 6th- 5th Century B.C.: the “discovery” of the importance of verbal communication.
One of the most significant sites of the phenomenon was the Magna Grecia region, given that one of the distinctive features of ancient Greek culture was the dominance of oral over written communication (unlike the Judeo-Christian and Moslem cultures known as “peoples of the book”, the Bible and the Koran). Experts say that the initiator of the process was Gorgia of Lentini, a native of Sicily who came to Athens in the days of the Sophists (sofia = knowledge), an itinerant band of masters of eloquence.
The Sophist School had remarkable success in Athens and was favored by the sociopolitical environment. Athens was, in fact, the sole example of democracy in the ancient world, and its dialogue, comparison, and debate all promoted a system of relationships that led to the development of the Athenians’ great specialty: the art of persuasion.

The word is the sound of our soul…

::: Persuasion is like a song: the beat is everything
Persuasion is fundamentally pragmatic: this art and science structures speech with a precise technique that convinces others to change their ideas and/or behavior through the use of elements that apply leverage to the emotions (from the Latin verb e-movére).
Although there is no special attention on presenting the truth, one’s speech must possess a certain degree of verisimilitude in order to achieve the results desired for the political-judiciary purposes. This is a practical use of the word that serves the purpose of one’s line of reasoning.
The art of eloquence is like modulating a musical harmony using three styles - humble, median, and sublime – to the pleasure of the listener.

The orator’s mortal sin is to bore…

::: Counterpoint from the philosophers
Eloquence and persuasion have been used to great effect by philosophers in the exercise of their profession: some of the most famous examples can help us better understand certain questions and the different ways to express ourselves in public.
Socrates is the father of philosophy based on men (prior to him, all philosophy was naturalistic, a search for a unifying principle in nature).
We must thank Socrates for the development of the first theoretical philosophical systems.
Socrates helped men envision truth through a maieutic system; a concept further developed by Saint Augustine, who held that truth is inside Man.
The objective of his research was the truth and his speech was organized to assert solid topics in order to convince others: this is the denotative use of the word, speaking in neutral, conventional way to better present the contents of a given expression or situation.
Plato wrote his dialogues as if his characters were speaking to us in order to grant greater priority to the spoken word than the written word. Plato stood in clear opposition to the Sophists, and expressed an the enormous need to establish solid and unquestionable values for political ends.
Aristotle attempted to reach an intermediate position between Socrates and Plato: a great arbitrator in all fields, he maintained an open mind in all questions.
All three were masters of the art of rhetoric.

::: From the Roman Empire to modern times
Over the following centuries, the art of persuasion “migrated” to Rome where Cicero and Quintilian swayed the crowds, but the fragile soil in which rhetoric had first flourished (democracy) began to dry out and its traditions withered because space for free confrontation had disappeared. Rhetoric was used more and more for panegyric (intentionally exaggerated to laud a patron’s glories and virtues) and in the early Christian era was finally transformed into the preacher’s homily. The rhetorical tradition flourished anew in 17th century Baroque society (setting is important in linguistic terms as well) and continues even in modern times where, with all it ups and downs, we are currently witnessing a renewal of the tradition through various applications in commerce, economic, politics, advertising, and entertainment.
It even seems, in fact, that an effort is being made to “sublimate” the mediocrity of existence through a more correct and artistic use of the word.

::: Rhetorical speech: the right technique to employ
Accepting that the task of rhetoric is persuasion, there are three different types of rhetorical speech:
• deliberative: which tends to differentiate between what is useful and what is harmful; this approaches a political use of speech;
• judiciary: like the defending counsel’s final harangue that hopes to sway the judge’s verdict using logical reasoning that is also often emotive, underling the human aspect of the story;
• demonstrative: which tends to differentiate between what is beautiful and what is ugly, or in other words, an address that lauds a man’s qualities and virtues through a panegyric.

::: Construction of rhetorical speech
Rhetorical speech is constructed through five fundamental moments that are authentic “oral” sales techniques. Try to imagine each point of rhetorical speech as a new sales pitch. You’ll be surprised.
Invention = the search for topics (establishment of the format) and construction of the mental map. The construction of speech resembles a Chinese box-within-another- box system. This step is the biggest container; similarly, it is well worth remembering that writers write their books with the last page in mind right from the start.
Disposition = the organization of conceptual reasoning. In this phase, we pose a series of emotively efficacious questions with respect for a precise sequence:
• the beginning of a speech (OUTSET);
• where and how to position the topics (NARRATION), the telling of facts and experiences;
• what purpose they serve (REASONING) and the advantages derived;
• the end (CONCLUSION), in the sense of providing listeners with practical information and suggestions for behavior.
Elocution = is the way to present reasoning through the use of rhetorical figures. Oratory power is linked to the use of such figures, which are many in number. Although I illustrate only a few below, I advise everyone to read a book or conduct a search in Internet in order to acquire a greater understanding of the many different ways speech can be enriched without banality. Examples:
• Allegory, e.g.: Giovanni Pascoli when he speaks of “…the crooked little horse that carried away he who would never return...”
• Irony, the application of comic diction to tragic situations or for the greater emphasis of limits;
• Metaphor; • Metonym. For example: I earn my daily bread by the sweat of my brow; • Climax. Memory = no orator reads his text – it would be awkward. Neither do great lawyers read their harangues. A good memory is fundamental, however, no large audience can be faced without one. Everyone must take careful stock of their own characteristics and train hard to the best of their ability.
Pronunciation = is the ability to persuade by modulating one’s voice with excellent diction, and regards characteristics of non-verbal communication in which tone of voice, rhythm, speed, and pitch are all important. Speech is all the more convincing when we bring our words to a clear ending and when we speak with evident pauses in clearly punctuated phrases.

::: The importance of silence, and not only for listening
Although the fundamental tool we use to communicate is the word, silences and pauses also play an important role. Being afraid of silence, or in other words, the inability to express oneself, is a refusal of silence (but not in the sense of preferring the babble that surrounds us today), while forgetting that the most important things all happen in silence: conversions, the most beautiful moments, even our strongest experiences.
What is silence? What do we mean by silence?
All this brings us back to our emotions that keep us constant company and never leave us alone.
How do we feel, what do we experience when we are required to speak in public? For some people speaking in public - even in front of just one person alone - is a pleasure, a natural gesture, or sometimes even a need.
Although motivation and content obviously change when the roles of the interlocutors change, as in all disciplines, once you learn and assimilate a few rules and keep yourself in practice, you’ll always able to handle even the most challenging situation.
Some people experience more anxiety than others whenever they have to improvise in stressing or fatiguing situations. Preparing yourself well for the encounter, checking your own motivations and those of others, and attentively listening and watching the others with participation all help ensure good results for your eloquence.

::: The therapeutic value of the word
This magical property was hypothesized by Antiphon and has perennially attracted the attention of the world’s great thinkers, including Freud: it is the rationalization and expression in linguistic terms of what has been removed that cures us.
We’re symbolic creatures, and our type of linguistic expression is one reflection of our interior order. Human beings need to impose order over disorder: mathematics and law are only two of the disciplines with which Man achieves to impose order.
Just how does the word heal? Why do we sicken from words unspoken and emotions unexpressed? Learning how to speak with others in orderly fashion helps us feel more self-assured and better about ourselves, and clarifies our ideas.

::: Gender difference in communication
We must never forget that men and women reason and communicate in different ways: men adopt more linear reasoning, for example; women think in more complete and more complex terms of mosaic.
Women speak to establish and cultivate relationships. Men usually speak to achieve objectives, accomplish things, and feel useful.
Learning to respect these differences will help you communicate more effectively.