2008 NJCL Convention
Creative Arts Passages

Ms. Amy Elifrits, NJCL Creative Arts Chairman, has announced the dramatic interpretation and Latin oratory selections for the Creative Arts competitions at 2008 NJCL Convention to be held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Use the links below to obtain the passages in Acrobat PDF format.

Oratory Overview

Three styles of oratory

Asiatic - elaborate, artificial, and emotional
Attic - clear, forceful, and direct
Rhodian - combination of Asiatic and Attic

Three kinds of orations (according to Cicero)

Demonstrative - praises or criticizes
Deliberative - supports or attacks a measure or proposal
Judicial - employed in the courts

Five qualities were essential to the orator

Invention - the power to gather facts and line up arguments
Disposition - the ability to arrange contents in the most effective order
Expression - the choice of words most suitable to the thought and occasion
Memory - the firm grasp of content, words and arrangement
Delivery - the perfect control of voice, features, gestures, and bodily movement to reinforce each phase of the speech

A typical oration:

Introduction
- Exordium - win the attention of audience
- Narratio - summary of the facts
Body
- Partitio - outline of the treatment of point to be proved
- Confirmatio - affirmative argument
- Refutatio - rebuttal against opposite side
Conclusion
- Peroratio - conclusion (brief recapitulation, arousing emotion, appealing to the sympathies of the audience)

Body language:

Hands not too expressive
Arm extended forward a bit
Stomp foot at the beginning or ending of an energetic passage