Chapter Review for Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs Essay

To designate a persuader enriched with ethos and rhetorical virtue, one should determine if the persuader is keeping all of the choices in the argument or if they are attempting to distract, threaten, or alter the tense from the future tense. If choices are limited, the persuader cannot be thought of as virtuous. According to Aristotle, the persuader that sticks with the average of two extreme options is virtuous. In a store, a salesman has virtue by asking for a customer’s range and staying mostly in the middle of that range. When numbers are nowhere to be found, someone should ask himself or herself what the middle in their question would look like. Doing this comes in handy when asking someone for their advice. If the advice references the

Gerard A. Hauser covers a plethora of details on how to create a well-made persuasive argument in his book, an Introduction to Rhetorical Theory; however, he covered three specific essentials that are necessary for persuasion: the components logos, pathos and ethos; purposive discourse and rhetorical competence; identification. I will argue for each constituent, respectively, to prove that persuasion cannot thrive without the aforementioned essentials.

Sussman 's article deals with the idea of framing the message that provides the perspective that we want others to adopt by presenting a rationale, and a sequential pattern for presenting the evidence for that position. The article draws from Aristotle 's traditional method of examining the ethos, pathos, and logos pattern of persuasion. Sussman provides for steps to framing a message which includes: determine your specific objective, conduct a swot analysis of the other party 's current status, determine the other party 's core values, and write a simple, vivid, evaluative statement linking the other three. The frame is important because it orients the receiver to examine the message with a certain disposition. The three goals of the frame that are to choose the evaluative theme that is believed to be the most credible or compelling. Next, decide on the evidence that supports that perspective, and create a structure that provides the perspective that we want the receiver to understand.

be establish their knowledge about the subject they are trying to persuade the audience to believing. Aristotle sums it up best by saying “This kind of persuasion, like the others, should be achieved by what the speaker says, not by what people think of this character before he begins to speak” (Aristotle 25). What makes an audience see a speaker credible is when the play to the emotions of the audience. When an audience is able to relate to what the speaker is saying whether it be something personal to them or they know someone it pertains to it gives the audience the sense that the speaker is knowledgeable and understanding. Thus, making the speaker seem credible. All of these factors used together can contribute to the speaker being successful

The act of persuasion is achieved by character anytime the speech is held in such a way as to render the speaker trustworthy. In case the speaker seems to be reliable, the audience is more likely not to have a room for doubt and believe him easily. In order to appear a credible person, the speaker must display ‘good sense, good moral character, and goodwill’

Jay Heinrichs, the author of Thank You For Arguing What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About The Art Of Persuasion is an editorial consultant who specializes in Persuasive argument. He is also a public speaker with very successful presentations. Thank You For Arguing is a very insightful book that many people can learn from. Heinrichs discusses many useful tools/strategies you can use in day to day life. Heinrichs mainly explains in his book the uses of rhetoric, and introduces a ‘commonplace,’ where anyone can be taken advantage of; this book has many valuable lessons in it, creating a book that everyone needs to read.

In the first section of the book, Thank You For Arguing, Heinrichs primarily writes about the different techniques when taking the offense position in an argument. Heinreichs first discusses the importance of rhetoric skill as he mentions “Rhetoric is the art of influence, friendship, and eloquence, of ready wit and irrefutable logic,” (pg.4). He mentions of the significance that arguments play in daily lives whether it is talking a person into a favorable decision or changing an attitude. Heinrichs begins to list techniques in persuading an audience starting with setting goals. The approach of manipulating the mood proved to be appraisable when persuading an audience. He states that putting the audience in the mood to listen causes the audience

“I can be pretty persuasive if I believe in something strongly enough” (Brainy Quotes). This quote by Rashida Jones describes the importance of passion in a speech. To persuade an audience, the speaker must incorporate passion and meaningful body language in order to convince people of their beliefs. If the speaker fails to present a clean speech, the audience may lose concentration and become unaffected. Brené Brown presented a speech with intentions of persuading the listeners that vulnerability is normal and common in everyday life. Sugata Mitra offered a persuasive speech in which he was attempting to inform the crowd of children’s ability to teach themselves. Both speakers felt passion for their topic, yet each presented his or her speech differently.

The second element of persuasion that interests me is consensus. This element of persuasion can help me determine whether the task I am doing is the correct way or wrong way. For example, in phlebotomy class, my fellow classmate and I were taught different method of drawing blood by using a butterfly needle. The reason why it was called a butterfly needle because there are two wings near the end of the needle for better grip and penetration of the skin. The one important thing to remember about needle is keeping the bevel (sharp end) up, and fingers anchor down on the skin. This is to keep the needle from flying out of the skin, or shaky hands. Continuing on, the instructor showed us two ways of holding the wings, the first way was by

Speak without offending and be persuasive without being abrasive. The more important the discussion, the less likely we are to be on our best behavior. The best at dialogue speak their minds completely and do it in a way that makes it safe for others to hear what they have to say and respond to it as well. It can be done if you know how to blend three ingredients: Confidence that what you have to say adds to the pool of meaning; humility willing to express your opinion and encourage others to do the same; and skill you’re willing to share information and are good at doing so. In order to make it safe for others to hear our views, we start with the facts to stay in dialogue. Facts are the least controversial. Facts are the most persuasive. Facts are the least in-sulting. Gathering the facts is the homework required for crucial conversations. When you do start talking about what you are starting to conclude they will understand why. Starting with our stories is the most controversial, least influential, and most insulting way we could begin. Facts alone are rarely worth mentioning. It’s facts plus the conclusion that call for a face to face dis-cussion. It takes confidence to share. If you’ve done your homework, you have a reasonable con-clusion. By thinking through the facts, then leading with them, you’re much more likely to have the confidence you need to add controversial and vitally important meaning to the shared pool. Watch for

Persuasion goes on around us everyday, all the time, on television, on advertisements, even in conversations with friends. Perhaps because of this, much has been written on how to persuade more effectively. Most of this literature is built upon the notion that to persuade is to urge successfully and completely. Going along these lines, certainty and confidence are logical complements to effective persuasion, since we cannot hope to convince others when we are ourselves in doubt. Doubt, therefore, is felt to be at the other end of the spectrum and antithetical to persuasion. But the art of persuasion is a human art, and so it is a living art, which cannot be satisfactorily summed up between the covers of self-improvement guides. In reality,

The writer should be knowledgeable of the subject that they are writing about. According to McKay, ‘a man may have the most logical and well-thought-out argument, but if his audience doesn’t think he’s trustworthy or even worth listening to, all his reasoning will be for naught.’ (McKay,1) Preparing for the speech in advance, such as making sure that the writer is knowledgeable and has done ample research on the speech topic can be helpful. It is important because the writer should know what type of tone and style of the message would be needed so they would be able to connect their argument to their audience’s personal views. Once the writer has a good understanding of the speech that they want to convey, the next persuasive factor the writer should consider is

Terms: Look for the disconnects- gap between your intrests and the persuader's. Disintrest-merger of your needs and the persuader's. A state of character- Virtue that exisits only during an argument and adapts to the audience. Concern with choice- virtue comes out of choices if a choice is being prevented the persuader lacks virtue. Lying in a mean- stay moderate and in the middle ground this allows a persuader to have more virtue because he isnt on any on extreme and apeals to both sides.

According to our book, there are four components of effective persuasion. These components are establishing credibility, finding a common ground, providing evidence, and making an emotional connection (Griffith & Dunham, 2015).

Throughout the course we covered many topics regarding persuasion and persuasive communication. One of the topics I really enjoyed was the history of persuasion. While persuasion has been around since the beginning of human existence, the Greeks spearheaded the study of persuasion (Adams, 2017). The Sophists were a group of scholars that were concerned with how to win an argument. They taught manipulation, entrapping opponents, using intimidating language, and logic and reasoning. While the Sophists believed that learning these skills were essential to training people to be good citizens, others believed that their teachings were immoral. Plato taught that the ideal speaker is moral and truthful, and his purpose should be to better the audience, not flatter of take advantage of them (Which is why he hated the Sophists). Aristotle believed persuasion was more of a combination of these theories. He believed that to have a compelling argument, three components were necessary: ethos, pathos, and logos. This is when persuasion clicked for me. Persuasion became a formula—creating strategies to persuade audiences became easier and I was better able to recognize persuasive appeals aimed at me in my day to day life.