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Was De La Soul right, is three really the magic number? Dive into this model and decide for yourself.
< ... Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ego quoque, inquit, didicerim libentius si quid attuleris, quam te reprehenderim. Terram, mihi crede, ea lanx et maria deprimet. Sullae consulatum? Nihil enim hoc differt. Sic enim censent, oportunitatis esse beate vivere. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Quam si explicavisset, non tam haesitaret. Quid de Platone aut de Democrito loquar? Et quidem illud ipsum non nimium probo et tantum patior, philosophum loqui de cupiditatibus finiendis. Nunc omni virtuti vitium contrario nomine opponitur. Si sapiens, ne tum quidem miser, cum ab Oroete, praetore Darei, in crucem actus est. Ita redarguitur ipse a sese, convincunturque scripta eius probitate ipsius ac moribus. Sed vos squalidius, illorum vides quam niteat oratio. Et nemo nimium beatus est; Hinc ceteri particulas arripere conati suam quisque videro voluit afferre sententiam. Videsne quam sit magna dissensio? Hoc dixerit potius Ennius: Nimium boni est, cui nihil est mali.
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Weave the Rule of Three into your communication.
Practi ...
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quasi vero, inquit, perpetua oratio rhetorum solum, non etiam philosophorum sit. Quis animo aequo videt eum, quem inpure ac flagitiose putet vivere? Fatebuntur Stoici haec omnia dicta esse praeclare, neque eam causam Zenoni desciscendi fuisse. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Haec dicuntur inconstantissime. Ego quoque, inquit, didicerim libentius si quid attuleris, quam te reprehenderim. Graecum enim hunc versum nostis omnes-: Suavis laborum est praeteritorum memoria. Dolere malum est: in crucem qui agitur, beatus esse non potest. Si quicquam extra virtutem habeatur in bonis. Apparet statim, quae sint officia, quae actiones. Eiuro, inquit adridens, iniquum, hac quidem de re; Ita relinquet duas, de quibus etiam atque etiam consideret.
Conclusum est enim contra Cyrenaicos satis acute, nihil ad Epicurum. Istam voluptatem perpetuam quis potest praestare sapienti? Nam de summo mox, ut dixi, videbimus et ad id explicandum disputationem omnem conferemus. Fortasse id optimum, sed ubi illud: Plus semper voluptatis? Quid enim tanto opus est instrumento in optimis artibus comparandis?
Nondum autem explanatum satis, erat, quid maxime natura vellet. Quae cum dixisset, finem ille. Si enim, ut mihi quidem videtur, non explet bona naturae voluptas, iure praetermissa est; Sed non sunt in eo genere tantae commoditates corporis tamque productae temporibus tamque multae. Quid, si etiam iucunda memoria est praeteritorum malorum? ALIO MODO. Ita enim se Athenis collocavit, ut sit paene unus ex Atticis, ut id etiam cognomen videatur habiturus.
Overuse of any communication technique can become jarring, and the Rule of Three should simply be seen as one of the arrows in your toolkit. To that end, mixing your approach and changing the rhythm of your sentence structure is important.
In addition to rhythm, sometimes using two examples or points can be useful to provide a binary or contrasting view rather than pointing to a pattern.
Martin Luther King Jr— I have a dream.
The Rule of Three is a feature of many of King’s speeches. This site breaks down his most famous speech, and captures this key example:
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Note that even the list of six items — black men and white men etc. — has been grouped in three groups of two, to maintain the rhythm of the Rule of Three.
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Evidence of the Rule of Three can be traced back as far as Aristotle and biblical writing. Aristotle, inherently captured it in his Rules of Rhetoric, though it is unclear who formally named and identified the ‘rule’, thus we’ve left the model uncredited.
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