Persuasion and Rhetoric

The Arrangement of a Classical Persuasion

• Introduction: Make contact with audience, indicate one’s subject, and try to dispose the audience favorably to what one is going to say.

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• Narration and Explication: Facts are set forth, key terms and issues defined
• In a legal case, narrating events judge and jury will evaluate
• In politics, describing the present situation

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The Arrangement of a Classical Persuasion, cont.

• Proposition and Partition: the thesis is explicitly stated here. Prepares audience for what will follow by mentioning, in order, the various parts of the argument.
• Proofs: Here, proofs are offered for the proposition.
• Defense attorney offers arguments supporting the proposition that the defendant couldn’t have committed the crime.
• Politician offers arguments to support a certain course of action

The Arrangement of a Classical Persuasion, cont.

• Refutation: Other viewpoints are criticized and their flaws demonstrated.
• Defense pokes holes in the prosecution’s case
• Politician points out disadvantages of alternate policies
• Conclusion: Serves to emphasize what the speaker wants the audience to remember and to do.

Approaches to Persuasion: Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is the effort on the part of the speaker or writer to take full advantage of the communication process in order to bring about a change of thinking or acting on the part of the listener or reader.

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Rhetorical Appeals

Appeals to Logos (logic)

• Inductive reasoning – deriving a conclusion or theory from specific examples or small observations

Rhetorical Appeals

• Deductive reasoning – starts with a general hypothesis or known fact and draws a specific conclusion from that generalization

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• The basic idea is that if something is true of a class of things in general, it is true for all members of that class.

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Faulty deductive reasoning

• All ripe apples are sweet.
• This apple is ripe.
• Therefore, this apple is sweet.
• First premise is not true; therefore, conclusion is not true.
• Red apples are ripe.
• This apple is green.
• Therefore, this apple is not ripe.
• Major premise ignores a major fact – some green apples are ripe.

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Faulty deductive reasoning

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• All sweet apples are ripe
• This apple is ripe.
• Therefore, this apple is sweet.
• Conclusion doesn’t follow logically
• Communists believe in government-run healthcare
• President Obama believes in government-run healthcare
• Therefore, President Obama is a communist
• What fallacy is committed here?

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http://www.elearningpost.com/blog/deductive_vs_inductive_argumentsv

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Rhetorical Appeals

• Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

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• Well-educated
• Sincere
• Just plain-folks
• Well-organized
• Concerned citizen (patriotic)
• Common sense
• Humorous / witty
• altruistic

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• Although few speakers will intentionally communicate a negative self-image, some may do so by default. For example, a strained effort t appear sincere may backfire and communicate an image of phoniness
• http://kesslersdiamonds.com/meet-richard-kessler.html
• Analyze not only what is said, but how it is said and also what is implied or left unsaid to determine image.

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Rhetorical Appeals

• Appeal to Pathos (emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions.
• Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

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ARGUMENT BY EMOTIVE LANGUAGE

(also known as: loaded words, loaded language, euphemisms)

Description: Substituting facts and evidence with words that stir up emotion, with the attempt to manipulate others into accepting the truth of the argument.

Logical Form:

Person A claims that X is true.

Person A uses very powerful and emotive language in the claim.

Therefore, X is true.

Example #1:

By rejecting God, you are rejecting goodness, kindness, and love itself.

Explanation: Instead of just “not believing” in God, we are “rejecting” God, which is a much stronger term—especially when God is associated with “goodness.”

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Example #2:

The Bible is filled with stories of God's magic.

Explanation: Instead of using the more accepted term “miracles,” the word “magic” is used that connotes powers associated with fantasy and make-believe in an attempt to make the stories in the Bible seem foolish.

Example #3:

I don’t see what’s wrong with engaging the services of a professional escort.

Explanation: That’s another way of saying, “soliciting a hooker.” This phrasing actually attempts to take the emotion out of the statement.

Exception: Language is powerful and should be used to draw in emotions, but never at the expense of valid reasoning and evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc1TrKIzAJM

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Rhetorical Techniques

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a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)

Rhetorical questions

questions the speaker asks the audience. However, the audience internalizes the answer. Nothing is answered orally.

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Restatement & Repetition

• Restatement is stating the same idea in different words
• Repetition is repeating the exact same words over again.

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Parallelism

Parallelism is recurrent syntactical similarities. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

Antithesis

Antithesis establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them, often in parallel structure. Can convey some sense of complexity in a person or idea by admitting opposite or nearly opposite truths.

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To err is human; to forgive, divine.�Success makes men proud; failure makes them wise. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is the arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or character development.

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Charles Dickens uses the technique of juxtaposition in the opening line of his novel “A Tale of Two Cities”:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

In order to give us an idea of the factors responsible for the French Revolution, Dickens uses Juxtaposition throughout the novel in which the have not’s and the haves are put side by side to highlight the presence of severe disparity and discord in the then French society that paved the way for the revolution.

Anaphora

• The repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, commonly in conjunction with climax (arranging ideas in increasing order of importance) and with parallelism
• I saw, I came, I conquered.�Not time, not money, not laws, but willing diligence will get this done.

Literary Techniques

• Allusion
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Hyperbole
• Striking imagery

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Selecting, Slanting, and Charged Language

Example #2:

The Bible is filled with stories of God's magic.

Explanation: Instead of using the more accepted term “miracles,” the word “magic” is used that connotes powers associated with fantasy and make-believe in an attempt to make the stories in the Bible seem foolish.

Example #3:

I don’t see what’s wrong with engaging the services of a professional escort.

Explanation: That’s another way of saying, “soliciting a hooker.” This phrasing actually attempts to take the emotion out of the statement.

Exception: Language is powerful and should be used to draw in emotions, but never at the expense of valid reasoning and evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc1TrKIzAJM

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The Principle of Selection

• Lumberjack, Artist, and Tree surgeon observe a tree
• Detailed reports would differ
• Facts depend on his particular principle of selection
• Student embarrassed in class
• Remembers nothing of next 10 minutes of lecture
• Remembers sensation of blood mounting
• Before one person passes on knowledge to another (including news writers) that knowledge has already been selected and shaped, intentionally or unintentionally, by the mind of the communicator

The Principle of Slanting

• Just as there is a principle of selection that chooses for us what we will notice and what will then become our knowledge,
• there is also a principle (with or without our awareness) to choose the words and the emphasis that we shall use to communicate this knowledge. This selection is known as slanting
• Thomas Paine uses “fable” and “myth” rather than “story” or “scripture” when speaking of Biblical stories. These choices slant the information even though these words are considered synonyms.

Slanting through emphasis

Emphasis can be achieved through word order, use of connectors, use of punctuation

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More Favorable Slanting

• He is awkward and strong.
• He is awkward but strong.
• Although he is somewhat awkward, he is strong.
• He is old but wise.

Less Favorable Slanting

• He is strong and awkward.
• He is strong but awkward.
• He may be strong, but he’s very awkward
• He is wise but old.

Consider the effects of punctuation:

He called the Senator an honest man?

He called the Senator an honest man?

He called the Senator an honest man!

He called the Senator an “honest” man.

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Slanting by selection of fact

• Our dog, Toddy, produces various reactions in various people. Those who come to the back door she usually growls and barks at [. . .]; those who come to the front door, she whines at and paws; also she tries to lick people’s faces unless we have forestalled her by putting a newspaper in her mouth. (Some of our friends encourage these actions; others discourage them. Mrs. Firmly, one friend, slaps the dog with a newspaper and says, “I know how hard dogs are to train.”) Toddy knows and responds to a number of words and phrases, and guests sometimes remark that she is a “very intelligent dog.” She sheds. Her color and her large brown eyes frequently produce favorable comment. An expert on cockers would say that her ears are too short and set too high and that she is at least six pounds too heavy.

• That dog put her paws on my white dress as soon as I came in the door, and she made so much noise that it was two minutes before she had quieted down enough for us to talk and hear each other. Then the gas man came and she did a great deal of barking. Her hairs are on the rug and on the furniture. If you wear a dark dress they stick to it like lint. When Mrs. Firmly came in, she actually hit the dog with a newspaper to make it stay down, and she made some remark about training dogs. I wish the Birks would take the hint or get rid of that noisy, short-eared, overweight “cocker” of theirs.

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• What a lively and responsive dog! When I walked in the door, there she was with a newspaper in her mouth, whining and standing on her hind legs and wagging her tail all at the same time. And what an intelligent dog. If you suggest going for a walk, she will get her collar from the kitchen and hand it to you, and she brings Mrs. Birk’s slippers whenever Mrs. Birk says she is “tired” or mentions slippers. [. . .] She sits up and balances a piece of bread on her nose until she is told to take it; then she tosses it up and catches it. If you are eating something, she sits up in front of you and “begs” with those big dark brown eyes set in that light, buff-colored face of hers. When I got up to go and told her I was leaving, she rolled her eyes at me and sat up like a squirrel. She certainly is a lively and intelligent dog.�

Logical Fallacies

Logical Fallacy Definitions and Examples

Works Cited

Center for Learning. “Approaches to Persuasion.” Advanced Placement Writing.

Birk, Newman P. and Genevieve B. Birk. “Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language.” Speaking of Words: A Language Reader 2nd Ed. James MacKillop & Donna Woolfolk Cross, Ed. New York: Rinehart Winston, 1982. �Letinsky, Amy. “Logical Fallacies.” Champlain College. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. <http://cosmos.champlain.edu/people/aletinsky/Hando uts/CREW II/critique handouts/Fallacy.ppt>