The commonplace, a rhetorical device used by Aristotle and the sophists, is less common now but still used in public speaking. It consists of prepared themes that can be adapted to praise or criticize something. While clichés are now seen as too trivial, impromptu speakers can still use common observations to appear more informed.
A commonplace is a rhetorical device developed by teachers such as Aristotle, and has been used in numerous applications in public speaking for many years. Ironically, the commonplace is less common now, although you’ll still see references to common books, which are quite different. You will very often find platitudes in things like the modern sermon or in oral presentations given by motivational or impromptu speakers.
Even before Aristotle, the sophists, a group of itinerant scholars who traveled to the various Greek city-states, often taught writing and giving speeches. They often performed such talks for audiences to acquire new students and were occasionally asked to speak on a specific topic with little preparation time. To create studious sounding material, they usually had prepared a series of themes or compositions that could easily be quickly adapted to be performed at will.
Aristotle called these themes platitudes, and by the term he did not mean derision. In fact, he taught his students to create a variety of prepared themes, which could be delivered as needed. They generally took two forms: praise or vituperation. The commendations praised something, usually something virtuous that struck a chord with most people, like different emotions or things like democracy. The vituperation criticized something considered evil.
Every platitude could be adapted into praise or criticism of a person or institution displaying virtue or vice, and most were studied compositions filled with applicable quotations, maxims, or adages. This led many to keep common books or notes that could be used if a speaker needed to deliver a speech on a particular topic or to make a speech quickly for a unique occasion. Shorter platitudes could also be developed, usually with a few sentences for or against something and a well-placed quote or two of familiar material.
There has been a trend reversal in the study and production of rhetoric that has begun to consider clichés as too trivial, too studied and too “common”. You see such a sentiment expressed in fiction from the early 19th century, just before the Romantic era, which valued genuine expression and the “spontaneous overflow of feeling.” In Pride and Prejudice, for example, both Elizabeth Bennet and her father laugh at the ridiculousness of her cousin Mr. Collins when he openly confesses that he practices trite compliments for his employer Lady Catherine De Bourgh, and claims that he tries to give them “a air not studied” at the time of delivery.
Sentiment in both literature and rhetoric had begun to praise the real impromptu, instead of the prepared, and often dismissed the platitudes as something to be avoided because they sounded hackneyed and repetitive. However, students and contestants in speech contests, especially those who have to give impromptu speeches, can lean lightly into the commonplace today, having a few prepared observations on a variety of topics that can be fed into a speech that is to be delivered on the spot. Being able to refer to a few quotes on “common” topics often makes the impromptu speaker appear more informed, prepared and relaxed.
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