Emily Long
Mrs. Ward
English 11AS
August 26, 2014
11 AS Summer Reading Project
Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion is a title written by the not-so-famous, (but extremely well-versed) Jay Heinrichs. Although the title is indeed a mouthful, it serves its purpose in drawing the reader in. Also; the extremely long title is a little hint of what Heinrichs entails in his book, an endless supply of information on how to correctly and influentially utilize rhetoric, the art of persuasion.
The book is divided into five sections, each one being subdivided into different strategies on how to use rhetoric to your advantage, in any given situation.
The first section, Offense,
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She interprets that the tape is actually of a murder, because of the way he refers to it, thus scaring her into a panic. Although this wasn’t the way he envisioned for her mood to alter, it still did.
The next section is titled Defense. It goes over logical fallacies, their downfalls, how to spot them, and much more. Such as, the “Seven Deadly Sins” of rhetoric, and the defensive tools of practical wisdom.
A fallacy, by definition, is an argument that uses poor reasoning. Before one uses a fallacy, it’s important to have full understanding or else you risk losing your whole ethos aspect of your argument. Heinrichs gives three important parts to detecting fallacies. “All you have to do is look for a bad proof, the wrong number of choices, or a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion.” (Heinrichs 146)
The following two sins are Tautology and False Choice. Tautology just repeats the premise, or principle of the argument. The example given was "Fan: The Cowboys are favored to win since they are the better team." (Heinrichs 155) Fundamentally, tautology is the same thing that gets repeated in different words. Next, we have False Choice. False choice is the many questions fallacy, in which two or more issues are mixed into one. "A related fallacy, the false dilemma, offers the audience two choices when more actually exist." (Heinrichs 163). The objective with this sin is to not
-Some may disagree with me because banning larger drinks will just make people buy more smaller sized drinks allowing them to take in more sugar and calories.
B. “In an argument, they try to win over an audience – which can compromise the onlookers, television viewers, an electorate, or each other” (15)
Heinrichs recalls a time when he needed to utilize defense against the seduction of persuasion when buying a car that turned out to be a lemon; he said, “[The car dealer] sized me up and changed my mood; he seduced me, and to tell you the truth, I enjoyed it. I had some misgivings the next morning, but no regrets. It was a consensual act.” (Heinrichs, 9). By not realizing that he was being taken advantage of, Heinrichs was cheated out of $15,000; the same might happen to students who aren't properly taught the art of rhetoric from both sides: attack and defense. Rhetoric isn't always clean oration and persuasion, but can also be dirty and unfair. Heinrichs mentions this especially when discussing fallacies, or the seven deadly sins of rhetoric. “The seven sins show the beautiful variety of ways that people cheat, lie, and steal.” (Heinrichs, 139), people are more than willing to play dirty in order to persuade you to their cause, and this can happen anytime and anywhere, by politicians or friends. It is exceptionally important that students are taught how to defend against fouls such as fallacies so that they can skillfully navigate the world and analyze the rhetoric they are being presented with in many situations, such as election season or even purchasing a
2) Logos involves winning your audience over with facts and using your opponent’s argument to your own advantage
A fallacy is defined as a kind of error in reasoning. They can be persuasive and be created both unintentionally and intentionally in order to deceive others from the truth. Fallacies often indicate a false belief or cause of a false belief (dowden, 2006). An argument or situation commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. This defeats the purpose of the argument since its point is to give reason to support the conclusion. Fallacies affect the outcome of our everyday decision making process. There are three types of logical fallacies discussed in this paper along with the importance of utilizing critical thinking skills.
The next topic the author offered for an argument is, setting your goals of what you want to gain from your audience. The first and most simple step is to change the audiences mood. If you are able to change their mood, you make them more vulnerable to your argument and more willing to listen to you. The second step winning an argument is, changing the audiences mind and opinion. An example of this from the text is, convincing the light bulb that a replacement is the best way to get some light in the room. You want to promote yourself to them instead of coming off with the impression of a rival. The last and most difficult step to winning an argument is, getting to audience to take action. In order to get the audience to do this, you must be on a more emotional and personal level. As quoted from the text, you not only need to use desire to motivate but you need to convince them that taking this action is not a big deal; something they shouldn’t sweat about. Overall, chapter was very descriptive and informing in distinguishing the difference between an argument and a fight, and how to go about winning these
The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.
Logical Fallacies can be found in many forms of persuasions, in infomercials, political debates, common discussion, everywhere. Although Logical Fallacies are very common, they mar our arguments and should be avoided. In order to avoid them we must first learn to recognize them. To fully understand Logical Fallacies, we will look at the definition of Logical Fallacies, some examples of Logical Fallacies, classifications of Logical Fallacies, and finally why we should, and how we can, avoid them.
Rhetoric can push users farther than the normal argument, and past the habits of the natural human mind. When one comes to understand the theory of words, argument and how opposition thinks, then can the situation fully be revolved for their favor and their future. Rhetoric is a valuable skill that should be taught in schools in order to assist in high school environments, and help prepare for a future in the workplace.
After reading and comparing, Issue 4 of Understanding Rhetoric and Chapter 2 of The Call to Write, I find that I prefer the comic book chapter over the traditional chapter. For while, both chapter styles seek to explain the topics and concepts of rhetoric via examples; the type of examples used and how they are presented to the audience vary greatly between the two chapter styles.
Rhetoric is a course in which students are taught the values of persuasion. And yet, behind this course is the utmost power to corrupt the world, changing it into a world of our own policies. This power, even though seldom discussed, has lead to many intriguing discoveries. One such discovery is how people are able to shape the world they live in simply by choosing the right words. Therefore those who would want the world to be a better place must protect this power. If in the wrong hands this power could cause serious damage. Several authors have striven to protect rhetoric and its power. Few agree on the matter of defining rhetoric, but they know that they must protect rhetoric from dark souls. A single definition of rhetoric must maintain a simplistic nature while incorporating every aspect of rhetoric. However, I argue that rhetoric is a means of persuading audiences of a situation and a particular reality through language and personal appeal. In order to prove this definition I will discuss how rhetoric creates a situation, the shaping of a different reality, the audience, the use of language, and the personal appeal. Finally, I will demonstrate the absolute need for rhetoric.
Fallacies are bad arguments, and they are used when someone is unable to provide good arguments. Fallacies are used to convince people to change their beliefs. A common case of using fallacies is when someone presents an exaggerated version of someone else’s view. Also, this person is presenting a distorted view or presenting an irrelevant opinion to state a claim. Furthermore, an example of a fallacy is when a person claims something is true because everyone else believes it to be true. Another example of a fallacy is when people express their opinions to convince others as to why a person should be a registered democrat or a republican. Additionally, another example of a fallacy is when someone begins stating fallacies in the workplace
It is human instinct to try and convince others that you are right and to do that you support your opinions with facts, you use logic, and sometimes, when appropriate, you bring emotion into the conversation. Even though rhetorical use in our speech is instinctive, it is a skill we can develop and some people must study it more than others. Through practice, we are able to strengthen our skills of persuasion.
Students, parents, teachers, administrators and other interested parties all seem to have strong and different feelings towards homework. Students complain that they have too much homework to complete outside of the hours they already attended classes. Students feel that they have personal lives to live and blow off homework while some parents and teachers believe that homework is the key to passing classes and preparation for college. This leads to teachers feeling pressured to push their students to succeed and this can easily get carried away. Parents and school systems still often discuss the topic of homework today. Should homework in school systems be stopped?
Building an argument requires a destination that will persuade the reader to believe the assertion from the writer. Therefore, the writer will use different logics fallacies to reach the point home. For instance, Kang (2017) uses the argument from authority. She believes that the government is behind the growth of the Amazon Company because the