Laura Saetveit Miles

scholar, author, runner, explorer, mother, singer, gambist, designer, book-binder. By day, professor in British lit (medieval) at University of Bergen, Norway

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

My monograph won another book prize - so honored to be recognized by the excellent Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship! @SocietyMedFem @boydellbrewer

[Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship @SocietyMedFem]

.@saetveit Congratulations to Dr. Laura Saetveit Miles, winner of the 2022 Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship Best First Book in Medieval Feminist Studies Award! #AcademicTwitter #MedievalTwitter @boydellbrewer

[Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress]

🇺🇦snipers hit 🇷🇺colonels from 2.8 km, save battalions of 600 men & and help liberate villages without a single KIA. Helping them achieve this is theology professor-turned sniper patron @Y_Chornomorets. He shares his secrets with @Euromaidanpress patrons ⬇️
https://t.co/wGQF8HVSyx

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

@carmelpilgrim @YorkStJohn Congrats! 🎉

[Carey Davies @carey_davies]

Hiking outside the UK can be one of the most powerful ways of understanding how naturally impoverished the British landscape is, particularly the high places and uplands.

A thread following a trip to the Alps which vividly reminded me of what we're missing. 🧵

[Nathan Baugh @nathanbaugh27]

In his 3rd and least-read book of Rhetoric, Aristotle lays out his 4 steps for persuasive communication:

1. Exordium
2. Narratio
3. Confirmatio
4. Peroratio

What blows my mind is he wrote it 2,400 years ago.

Yet the structure still sets the foundation for modern-day logic, debate, and persuasion.

1. Exordium (“Beginning”)

Aristotle says a good intro should do two things:

• Capture the audience’s attention
• Establish the speaker’s credibility

He goes on to suggest four ways to create a great exordium:

• Use vivid language
• Ask rhetorical questions
• Tell a story (knew I liked him)
• Establish common ground with your audience

The beginning “sets the stage” for the rest of the work.

2. Narratio (“Narrative”)

Aristotle is referring to backstory, to additional context. He says backstory should accomplish three goals:

• Further establish credibility
• Create a sense of need to hear the argument
• Provide just enough info the audience knows what’s going on

Notice how the backstory comes after the hook. Plus, he suggests using as little as possible.

3. Confirmatio (“Establish”)

Aristotle argues your intro and backstory should naturally lead to your solution.

Then you use a combo of Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to persuade your audience.

But while schools like to display Aristotle’s famous three as an equilateral triangle, he doesn’t recommend using them in equal weight.

Quite the opposite.

Instead, he suggests finding the one that connects most to your audience and solely focusing on that.

“Rhetoric then may be defined as the faculty of discovering the possible means of persuasion in reference to any subject whatever.”

4. Peroratio (“Closing”)

Aristotle says your conclusion should inspire a specific action.

You weren’t talking just to talk – you want them to move, to decide, to laugh, to share, to vote, to do whatever it is you want them to do.

You have to ask for that thing. Nobody can read your mind.

Make the ask.

Point 1:

Aristotle believes the ultimate goal of communication is to persuade others to take a specific action.

The term he used was “Teleology.”

In Rhetoric it meant knowing the end goal first to craft the beginning and middle of your argument.

Authors like Toni Morrison and Neil Gaiman start with the end, then write the rest of their books to get there.

Same idea.

Point 2:

AIDA (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) may be the most widely used copywriting framework in the world.

But it’s literally this idea from Aristotle re-worded.

In another of his less-read books, Poetics, Aristotle lays out his 6 key points for storytelling.

Those same points get re-worded in The Hero’s Journey, 3-Act Structure, and many other “modern” storytelling frameworks.

It’s been 2,400 years but Aristotle’s ideas are still everywhere around us.

***

“Naturalness is persuasive, artifice just the reverse.” – Aristotle

Follow me @nathanbaugh27 for more writing like this!

[Renáta Modráková @renatamodrakova]

St. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), mystic and saint, founder of the Brigittine order, died today, i.e. 23.7. 1373, 650 years ago.

@narodniknihovna XVII F 1
[Tomáš ze Štítného: Zjevení svaté Brigity, druhá recenze], 1453
https://t.co/a6vWtJ3KpZ

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

Or Birgitta’s magistra apostolorum!

[Liz Schirmer @LizSchirmer93]

And, we have a winner.

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

Must listen to this! Maria is great

[My Favourite Mystic Podcast @myfavmystic]

Today we celebrate the feast of Birgitta of Sweden, who died 650 years ago today. Thanks again to Maria Oen for speaking about her on our episode from April: https://t.co/9MpXllGSvS #OTD #mysticism #Saint #medieval

[Knut Falk Qvigstad @KnutQvigstad]

- India stanser eksport av ris fordi ekstremvær utløste avlingssvikt.

- Ukrainsk korneksport blokkeres.

- Studie sier klimaendringene kan gi avlingssvikt på flere kontinenter samtidig.

SAMTIDIG I NORGE:

- 1 % av landet er kornjord. Her planlegges IKEA, boliger og motorveier.

[Dr Laura Kalas @LauraKalas]

The Exeter Symposium: The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England at Charney Manor was truly joyous! Missing everyone now. @saetveit @ChristianiaW @DenisRenevey @eve__johnson @Sarmada16 @HannahALucas

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

@jilltxt

[Jens Brun-Pedersen @JensBP]

Jeg synes vi bør gratulere hverandre med det finurlige økonomiske systemet vi har skaffet oss. Mens vanlige folk sliter med høye renter, dyre matvarer og økte boligutgifter, håver de som har mye fra før inn milliarder. Banker, dagligvarebaroner osv. Hurra!

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

@bethallisonbarr

[Bonhoeffer's Child @bonhoefferchild]

1/ PERSONAL STORY: Our daughter just came home from a trip. She told us another pastor's son was part of the group and kept making pointed cracks about men being in charge and women having to obey. Eventually, she told him to knock it off and he said "Why? It's biblical."

[Chaucer Doth Tweet @LeVostreGC]

TAKINGE SOME TYME OFF HEERE YS MY NOTE
https://t.co/OwmoMfTq3h

[Kjell Magne Fagerbakke @kmfag]

Politikk betyr ein forskjel. Ofte betyr det destruksjon, men den kan til ein viss grad reverserast. Lokalt hint: me har eigen regnskog, men mange vil heller ha #hordfast motorveg.
https://t.co/2uhrNj9d3K

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

@EileenAJoy @IMC_Leeds @punctum_books I caught that person in the act of going for The Lone Medievalist! The power is strong!

[Laura Saetveit Miles @saetveit]

@HrEkrull That’s really tough!! Reach out if you need support/advice ☺️

[Dr. Elizabeth (Liz) Lehfeldt (she/her/hers) @school_tales]

#HigherEd Twitter: what are some of your favorite guardrails/norms for meetings? Things like "three before me" and the like?

(And yes, I know that most meetings in #HigherEd need more of this--preparing a workshop and some writing around exactly this issue)

[Kirsty Sedgman @KirstySedgman]

This is amazing! “This book won’t give you a new theory of gender, because I did that already & it was perfect. Instead, this book will explain how you dickheads have wilfully misconstrued & twisted my theory to suit your evil purposes, like absolute twats”

[Scott Leger @Scotterybarn]

favorite story about a legendary TV Director I played some ping pong with once:

While sitting at the monitor, she got a very brash note from one of the network heads seated behind her.

“She’s too shrill. Tell her to tone it down.”

So she gets up and walks over to the actress…