The Rule of Three and writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wikipedia article about the Rule of Three says it is a writing principle which suggests that a trio of events (or characters) is more humorous, or satisfying, or effective than other numbers. A well-known example with three monkeys is shown above. In a post on September 20, 2016 titled Great versus small minds I gave another example:

 

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”

 

In that blog post I referred to an article by Andrew Dlugan at Six Minutes on May 27, 2009 titled How to use the Rule of Three in your speeches. Another article by Lisa B. Marshall at Quick and Dirty Tips on November 1, 2013 is titled How to communicate better using the Rule of Three. An article by the late Denise Graveline in the November 2013 issue of Toastmaster magazine (on pages 16 to 19) titled Speechwriting Secrets says:

 

“The beginning-middle-end construction is just one variant on the classic ‘rule of three,’ which grew out of the ancient oral storytelling tradition. That tradition is the way we shared information before writing it. Over time, storytellers found that they and their listeners could most easily remember stories structured in three parts, which is why so many fairy tales have triads in them (think three little pigs or three blind mice). The rule of three can help you create the same dramatic tension, release and conclusion you find in such tales, writes Christopher Booker in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories.”

 

A third example of the rule is the mission of Cirque du Soleil (stated in their About web page under at a glance):

 

“The mission of Cirque du Soleil is to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses, and evoke the emotions of people around the world.”

  

There is an excellent 15-page article by Patrick Barry from 2018 in Legal Communication & Rhetoric (Volume15, pages 247 to 261) simply titled The Rule of Three. Similar information appears in his 2019 book, Good with Words (Writing and editing), where Chapter 3 is on The Rule of Three.

 

In a recent blog post on May 25, 2022 titled 20 Excellent brief YouTube videos from Patrick Barry on poise, rhythm, optimism, being dynamic, and the unexpected I linked to his video titled

Rhythm: the rule of three. There are two more great videos in one of his series at Michigan Law about writing:

 

The Rule of Three: Clint Eastwood, the Chipmunks, and the Declaration of  Independence (10:30)

 

and The Rule of Three: Nobody Has a Monopoly on Effective Language (3:09)

 

The cartoon with three monkeys came from Openclipart.