Rule of three (writing)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears uses the rule of three extensively, with the protagonist examining three sets of three items in a house, finding only the third of each set to be satisfactory








Slogans and catchphrases[edit]

Many advertising campaigns and public information slogans use the technique to create a catchy, memorable way of displaying information. In marketing theory, American advertising and sales pioneer St. Elmo Lewis laid out his three chief copywriting principles, which he felt were crucial for effective advertising:

The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.[10]

Better-known examples include:


In comedy, it is also called a comic triple,[16] and is one of the many comedic devices regularly used by humorists, writers, and comedians. The third element of the triple is often used to create an effect of surprise with the audience,[16] and is frequently the punch line of the joke itself. For instance, jokes might feature three stereotyped individuals—such as an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman; or a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead—where the surprise or punch line of the joke comes from the third character.

The comedic rule of three is often paired with quick timing, ensuring that viewers have less time to catch on to the pattern before the punch line hits. As a whole, the comedic rule of threes relies on setting up a pattern of two items and then subverting viewer expectations by breaking that pattern with the third item. One particularly notable example comes from The Dick Van Dyke Show - "Can I get you anything? Cup of coffee? Doughnut? Toupee?".[17]

Just like most comedic writing, the rule of threes in comedy relies on building tension to a comedic release. In the case of the rule of threes, tension is built with the first two items in the pattern and then released with the final item, which should be the funniest of the three. Most triples are short in length, often only two or three sentences, but the rule can also be implemented effectively at longer length as long as base formula is still followed.[18]

Fairy tales[edit]


Snow White receives three visits from her wicked stepmother.

Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folk Tale, concluded that any of the elements in a folktale could be negated twice so that it would repeat thrice.[19] This is common not only in the Russian tales he studied but throughout folk tales and fairy tales: most commonly, perhaps, in that the youngest son is usually the third, although fairy tales often display the rule of three in the most blatant form. A small sample of the latter includes:

  • In East of the Sun and West of the Moon, the heroine receives three gifts while searching for her lost husband; when she finds where he is held prisoner, she must use them to thrice bribe her way to the hero (the first two times she was unable to tell her story because he lay in a drugged sleep).
  • In The Love for Three Oranges, the hero picks three magical oranges, and only with the third is he able to keep the woman who springs out of it.


Rhetoric and public speaking[edit]

The use of a series of three elements is also a well-known feature of public oratory. Max Atkinson, in his book on oratory entitled Our Masters' Voices,[20] gives interesting examples of how public speakers use three-part phrases to generate what he calls 'claptraps', evoking audience applause.

Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights activist and preacher, was known for his uses of tripling and the rule of three throughout his many influential speeches. For example, the speech "Non-Violence and Racial Justice" contained a binary opposition made up of the rule of three: "insult, injustice and exploitation", followed a few lines later by "justice, good will, and brotherhood".[21] Conversely, segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace inveighed: "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" during his 1963 inaugural address.[22]

The appeal of the three-fold pattern is also illustrated by the transformation of Winston Churchill's reference to "blood, toil, tears and sweat" (echoing Garibaldi and Theodore Roosevelt) in popular recollection to "blood, sweat and tears".[23][24] Similarly, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan describes the importance of community, without which life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". This has been reduced to the commonly heard triad "nasty, brutish and short".




Usually (in court) a common example is quoted: "tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.[25][relevant? ]

See also[edit]


  3. ^ a b "Writing: The power of three". Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  10. ^ Bryant, Donnie (2016). "Is AIDA Outdated As A Marketing Process? (Part II)". Rhino Daily. Archived from the original on 22 Apr 2019. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  11. ^ "Slogan of the French Republic". Archived from the original on 2015-05-12. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  14. ^ "Crossing Ahead, Stop, Look And Listen". Archived from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  15. ^ " Registration". Archived from the original on 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  16. ^ a b "Critique Circle Online Writing Workshop The CC Blog". Critique Circle. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  17. ^ "The Triple". TV Tropes. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  18. ^ Henshey, Chelsea (2016-02-11). "Comedy Writing Secrets: Triple the Funny". Retrieved 2018-12-07.