Quintilian’s method is based on the interrelationship between speaking, reading, and writing. Murphy lists and defines the main elements that appear in the Institutio oratorio. Each of these elements—Precept, Imitation, Composition Exercises, Declamation, and Sequencing—is further subdivided according to goals and exercises.

The first two books of the Institutio oratorio concern the early education of the orator, with the focus on the interplay between seen-language and heard-language. Book Ten is an adult’s commentary on the instruction of rhetoric. It involves itself primarily with facilitas, the readiness to use language in any situation.