Metabasis
A brief transitional statement summarising what has been said and previewing what follows.
Metabasis (Greek, 'a passing over') is the signpost figure: the speaker pauses to say where the argument has been and where it is going. Classical handbooks treat it as a courtesy to the listener, who cannot re-read a speech.
Its shape is almost formulaic — 'Having shown X, I turn now to Y' — and that predictability is the point. In long spoken arguments, an audience that knows the structure can follow detail it would otherwise lose.
Written prose uses quieter versions: a one-sentence paragraph closing a section, a heading that restates the turn. The function survives even where the classical phrasing would sound pompous.
Common mistake: using metabasis to disguise a missing transition. If the second half does not actually follow from the first, announcing the move only draws attention to the gap.
“You have heard what the law requires; consider now what the circumstances permitted.”
Keep reading the glossary
Anticipating and answering an objection before the audience raises it.
Numbering your points aloud so the audience can count them with you.
Breaking a subject into its parts and listing them for force or clarity.
An explicit definition, mid-argument, of a term the speaker will then rely on — narrowing the sense to prevent ambiguity.