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Rule of Three
Rule of Three
Rule of Three
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Overview

Was De La Soul right, is three really the magic number? Dive into this model and decide for yourself. 

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Dicet pro me ipsa virtus nec dubitabit isti vestro beato M. Sequitur disserendi ratio cognitioque naturae; Inde sermone vario sex illa a Dipylo stadia confecimus. Equidem e Cn. Quamquam tu hanc copiosiorem etiam soles dicere. Neque enim disputari sine reprehensione nec cum iracundia aut pertinacia recte disputari potest.

Cuius similitudine perspecta in formarum specie ac dignitate transitum est ad honestatem dictorum atque factorum. Aperiendum est igitur, quid sit voluptas; At quicum ioca seria, ut dicitur, quicum arcana, quicum occulta omnia? Ait enim se, si uratur, Quam hoc suave! dicturum. De quibus cupio scire quid sentias. Pauca mutat vel plura sane;

Sed fortuna fortis; Quid dubitas igitur mutare principia naturae? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Nam Pyrrho, Aristo, Erillus iam diu abiecti. Conferam tecum, quam cuique verso rem subicias; Atque hoc loco similitudines eas, quibus illi uti solent, dissimillimas proferebas.

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Actionable Takeaways

  • Weave the Rule of Three into your communication. 

Practi ...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nec enim, omnes avaritias si aeque avaritias esse dixerimus, sequetur ut etiam aequas esse dicamus. Non pugnem cum homine, cur tantum habeat in natura boni; Que Manilium, ab iisque M. Quicquid enim a sapientia proficiscitur, id continuo debet expletum esse omnibus suis partibus; Quid autem habent admirationis, cum prope accesseris? Duo Reges: constructio interrete.

Non quaeritur autem quid naturae tuae consentaneum sit, sed quid disciplinae. Sextilio Rufo, cum is rem ad amicos ita deferret, se esse heredem Q. Quas enim kakaw Graeci appellant, vitia malo quam malitias nominare. Itaque haec cum illis est dissensio, cum Peripateticis nulla sane. Quae similitudo in genere etiam humano apparet. Quae diligentissime contra Aristonem dicuntur a Chryippo. Pudebit te, inquam, illius tabulae, quam Cleanthes sane commode verbis depingere solebat.

Re mihi non aeque satisfacit, et quidem locis pluribus. Certe, nisi voluptatem tanti aestimaretis. Cum sciret confestim esse moriendum eamque mortem ardentiore studio peteret, quam Epicurus voluptatem petendam putat. Quid in isto egregio tuo officio et tanta fide-sic enim existimo-ad corpus refers? Cur id non ita fit? Sint modo partes vitae beatae. Cum ageremus, inquit, vitae beatum et eundem supremum diem, scribebamus haec. Habent enim et bene longam et satis litigiosam disputationem. Facillimum id quidem est, inquam.

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Rule of Three is featured in these playbooks:
How to be an Expert Communicator
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How to be an Expert Communicator

Connect, explain & engage.
Limitations

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. 

In Practice

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. 

Build your latticework
This model will help you to:

d

Origins & Resources

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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