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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. Nihil acciderat ei, quod nollet, nisi quod anulum, quo delectabatur, in mari abiecerat. Si qua in iis corrigere voluit, deteriora fecit. Si stante, hoc natura videlicet vult, salvam esse se, quod concedimus; Quam ob rem tandem, inquit, non satisfacit? Sed quae tandem ista ratio est? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Et quidem saepe quaerimus verbum Latinum par Graeco et quod idem valeat; Mihi enim erit isdem istis fortasse iam utendum. Aperiendum est igitur, quid sit voluptas; Quis enim redargueret? Idem iste, inquam, de voluptate quid sentit? Quasi vero, inquit, perpetua oratio rhetorum solum, non etiam philosophorum sit. Omnes enim iucundum motum, quo sensus hilaretur. Ergo, si semel tristior effectus est, hilara vita amissa est? Nos quidem Virtutes sic natae sumus, ut tibi serviremus, aliud negotii nihil habemus. Virtutibus igitur rectissime mihi videris et ad consuetudinem nostrae orationis vitia posuisse contraria. Duarum enim vitarum nobis erunt instituta capienda. Idem iste, inquam, de voluptate quid sentit? Quicquid porro animo cernimus, id omne oritur a sensibus; Hoc sic expositum dissimile est superiori. Ab hoc autem quaedam non melius quam veteres, quaedam omnino relicta. Aut haec tibi, Torquate, sunt vituperanda aut patrocinium voluptatis repudiandum. Inde sermone vario sex illa a Dipylo stadia confecimus. Nam si quae sunt aliae, falsum est omnis animi voluptates esse e corporis societate. Nam ante Aristippus, et ille melius.
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Weave the Rule of Three into your communication.
Practi ...
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Graecis hoc modicum est: Leonidas, Epaminondas, tres aliqui aut quattuor; At iam decimum annum in spelunca iacet. Quia dolori non voluptas contraria est, sed doloris privatio. Nihil enim hoc differt. Ut placet, inquit, etsi enim illud erat aptius, aequum cuique concedere. Atque ab his initiis profecti omnium virtutum et originem et progressionem persecuti sunt.
Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Expressa vero in iis aetatibus, quae iam confirmatae sunt. Cum audissem Antiochum, Brute, ut solebam, cum M. Non enim ipsa genuit hominem, sed accepit a natura inchoatum.
Indicant pueri, in quibus ut in speculis natura cernitur. Nec enim, dum metuit, iustus est, et certe, si metuere destiterit, non erit; At iam decimum annum in spelunca iacet. Mihi enim satis est, ipsis non satis. Videsne quam sit magna dissensio? Sin tantum modo ad indicia veteris memoriae cognoscenda, curiosorum.
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.
My Notes
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