Three species

Aristotle sorted civic speech by the judgment the audience is asked to make. Time is a clue to that job, not the test. A tribute can spend its length on the past and still be praise. Learn the division as a diagnostic, not as a costume.

• Forensic

  Judging past conduct. What happened, who did it, and whether it was just. Courts, incident reviews, the post that reconstructs a breakdown. Also called judicial. The past is the usual clue.

• Deliberative

  Choosing a future action. What we should do, given costs and chances. Policy, roadmaps, advice, any real proposal. Also called legislative or advisory.

• Epideictic

  Affirming what deserves praise or blame. The speech displays what a community honors now. It may recall the past or look ahead. Toasts, eulogies, manifestos, commencement talks. Also called ceremonial.

A recall notice reconstructs the past, recommends a next step, and tries to show that the company still deserves trust. Name the species doing the main job. The others are supporting it.

Misread the species and you will answer the wrong assignment. A jury does not need a vision statement. A toast is a poor place to smuggle a budget, unless the budget is the value you are actually praising, in which case say so.

Kairos is the fit between an argument and its moment. The same claim can be exact and still be clumsy, because the audience cannot hear it yet, or cannot hear it anymore.

Species: Aristotle, Rhetoric I.3. The division starts with the audience's job. Kairos is older than that treatise. It is the Greek sense of the opportune moment, not a fourth species. Rhetoric I.3