Brevitas and the disabled

Brevitas is a doctrine of communication style that emerged from classical rhetorical theory. This approach to writing or speaking valorizes directness, clarity, “just rightness” in choice of words, and ease of comprehension for the reader or listener — all the while pursuing the goal of greatest effectiveness. For the ancients, the idea was to find the virtuous golden mean for all one´s words, in the zone midway between the opposing vices of prolixity (too much) and obscurity (too little). The habit of speaking or writing with brevitas constituted a virtue just like courage, wisdom, self control, or any other virtue. It was one of the things that defined human excellence. In this paper, a college professor, a tutor, and a student discuss the value of brevitas and the way it was taught — and learned — in a technical communication course at an American university. For the student, who is both quadriplegic and nonverbal, the power and the philosophy of brevitas hold special interest.