Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs Review

Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs

Review of Introduction to page 46

Open Your Eyes – The Invisible Argument • Rhetoric: The art of influence. Rhetoric harnesses the argument. Rhetoric serves as an argument’s decoder. • The most productive arguments use the future tense. The language of choices and decisions • Great rhetoric does not always mean elaborate speech. The most effective rhetoric disguises its art.

Set Your Goals • What is the difference between an argument and a fight? • You succeed in an argument when you persuade your audience. You win a fight when you dominate the enemy. • To win a deliberative (as in a deliberation) argument, don’t try to outscore your opponent. Try instead to get your way.

Set Your Goals Continued… • Three goals for persuading people – in order of difficulty… – Change their mood: Put them in a mood where they are eager to hear your view/option – Change their mind: Convince them that your way is what is best for them. – Inspire them to act: Show them (rhetorically) what the “vision” is, and get them to decide to commit.

Control the Tense • If you want your audience to make a choice, focus on the future • Tools: Control the issue – do you want to fix blame? Define who meets or abuses your common values? Or get your audience to make a choice? The most productive arguments use choice as their central issue. Don’t let a debate swerve heedlessly into values or guilt. Keep it focused on choices that solve a problem to your audience’s (and your) advantage. • Control the clock. Keep your argument in the right tense. In a debate over choices, make sure it turns to the future.

Soften them Up • Logos – argument by logic – the first logical tactic covered was concession – using the opponent’s argument to your own advantage. • Pathos – Argument by emotion. The most important pathetic tactic is sympathy, registering concern for your audience’s emotions and then changing the mood to suit your argument. • Ethos – Argument by character. Aristotle called this the most important appeal of all.

Review pgs 47 -80

• • • Ethos is the art of _____. Decorum tells the audience, “Do as I say and as I do. ” What does decorum during an argument include? Deliberative argument is not about the truth, it is about choices and persuasive decorum changes to match the audience. When establishing ethos, what do people have to be able to trust? Ethos that fails to fit your actual personality is usually indecorous. What are the qualities of persuasive ethos? How does one get an audience to trust his/her commonsense insight? What are the characteristics of a benevolent persuader?

Review for pgs 80 -114

Control the Mood • Pathos means more than just feelings in the emotional sense. It also has to do with physical sensations– what a person feels or, more precisely, suffers. • Emotion comes from experience and expectation – what your audience believes happened, or will take place in the future. The more vividly you give the audience the sensations of an experience, the greater the emotion you can arouse.

• Don’t engage in name calling. Don’t rant. Aristotle said that one of the most effective mood changers is a detailed narrative. The more vivid you make your story, the more it seems like a real experience, and the more your audience will think it could happen again. You give them a vicarious experience, and an expectation that it could happen to them.

• A persuader who apparently struggles to hold back her/his emotions, will get better results than one who displays her/his emotions outright. • When you argue emotionally, speak simply. • The three emotions that Aristotle listed that can get an audience to do what you want are: anger, patriotism, and emulation. • Emulation makes sense in modern times when we view it as an emotional response to a role model.

. Know the definitions of the words on pgs 94 -95. Humor – it can pacify anger. Urbane humor relies on wordplay. Banter is a form of attack and defense consisting of clever insults and snappy comebacks. Passive Voice – If you want to direct the audience’s anger away from someone, imply that the action happened on its own – “The chair got broken. ” not “Pablo broke the chair. ” Comfort always helps counter or prevent anger.

Commonplace • To shift people’s point of view, start from their position, not yours. In rhetoric, we call this spot a commonplace – a viewpoint your audience holds in common.