Persuasion:

What’s All The Rhetoric About?

• A guide to understanding rhetorical strategies. Please take notes on the definitions and examples!

Methods of Persuasion: What is Rhetoric?

Rhetoric:

1)the art of persuasion through written, verbal or visual means

2)any written, verbal, or visual medium designed to elicit a particular response in its audience

Methods of Persuasion(Analyzing what word choices and techniques that are effective in

convincing someone to share your point of view. )

For instance, the phrases “music piracy” and “online sharing” have both been used in different accounts to refer to the same act.

What do each of these phrases suggest?

What associations do they create?

What might they reveal about an author’s subject position?

Aristotle, the famous philosopher, thought that every argument should have three main points.

The Rhetorical Triangle

(Logic)

(Ethics) (Emotion)

PATHOS is the appeal to emotion, which is inherent in every one of us (anger, fear, love, joy, envy, etc.).It’s been said that when emotion enters through

the door, reason departs.So while we must be passionate about expressing

our viewpoint, be careful not to overdo the emotional plea. (Otherwise we run the risk of seeming like a child or a lunatic).

Methods of Persuasion: Three Rhetorical Strategies

Pathos: is an appeal to the audiences’ emotions (ex., sympathy, empowerment, patriotism, fear, desire, tugging on your heart-strings)

“Stay in touch with your family with Verizon wireless”

“Jif peanut butter is just a simple reminder of just how much you care. Choosy moms choose Jif.”

“Every kiss begins with Kay Jewelers”

                      

Pathos

What emotions do you have with these images?

Pathos

What emotions do you have with these images?

LOGOS:appeal to logic

• Convincing someone that you are reasonable and logical.

• Supporting how your way is the best way with facts, evidence and statistics.

• Showing how reasonable you are by acknowledging the main opposing view(s)

We must use logic to establish credibility.

If logical fallacies creep in, the argument does not hold and falls through.

Methods of Persuasion: Three Rhetorical Strategies

Logos: an appeal to the audience’s sense of reason—emphasizes the logical advantages of the speaker’s position

“Folger’s new Aroma-seal canister keeps your coffee fresh and delicious.”

“H&R Block: the only financial management company with online service professionals 24 hours a day.”

“Dell computers will build a computer especially for your to meet your needs.”

A college degree is a wise investment in yourselfthat pays enormous dividends in personal satisfaction, professional confidence and career success.

Logos

Logos

Common Logical Fallacies

• Oversimplification: reducing a complex situation to a simple, inaccurate statement. • Many questions: posing a complex question and demanding a simple answer. • Faulty analogy: assuming either that properties shared between two situations or

existents will continue to be found indefinitely or that shared properties will be found in very disparate situations or existents.

• Vague similarities: asserting that two situations or existents are similar without specifying the properties they share.

• Diversion: attempting to support one proposition by arguing for a different one entirely.

• Slippery slope: arguing that if one event were to occur, other harmful events would result without showing how the events are linked.“You should never gamble. Once you start gambling you find it hard to stop. Soon you are spending all your money on gambling, and eventually you will turn to crime to support your earnings.” “If I make an exception for you then I have to make an exception for everyone.”

• Faulty Generalization: asserting a universal statement unsupported by evidence. “All teachers are communists” “All teenagers smoke dope.”

• Argument Ad Hominem ("To the man") means that the writer attacks the character of his or her opponent rather than the opponent's ideas or argument. This is what politicians and radio talk-show hosts excel at."State Secretary of Health Saunders recommends vegetarianism. But Saunders is the same guy who hands out condoms at high school assemblies and he has been arrested on drunk driving charges. I think it's pretty obvious we shouldn't listen to Joe Saunders's advice on diet."

• Circular Reasoning is similar to a definition that restates the subject in its predicate: a computer virus is a virus that infects a computer."Vegetarianism is not healthy because it is not healthy to cut meat out of your diet."

• Begging the Question"Why?"“Because!""Why because?""Because I said so!“

• Guilt by Association: "I read somewhere that most cults are made up of vegetarians. We know that cults are filled with kooks and weirdos. John

• and Mary are vegetarians so they must be weirdos."

Logical Fallacies

ETHOS deals with the appeal to character,

• the sense of right and wrong,

• the sense of justice and fair play

• the sense of what’s good for the universe

Methods of Persuasion

Ethos: an appeal to a speaker’s character, credibility, or authority about the subject matter.

“Four out of five dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.”

“This product carries the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”

“Honda Civic: Rated 1st in its Class by JD Power and Associates”

Celebrity testimonials for exercise equipment, weight loss programs, etc…

Forced Labor“The reasons for legal intervention in favor of

children apply no less strongly to the case of those unfortunate slaves…animals”

In the 1800s, children were forced to work as tailors and in factories and mines.

 In the profit-driven world of factory farming, the welfare of chickens is a low priority. To provide a cheap consumer product, hens spend their entire lives in wire cages with as many as seven other birds. These "battery cages" are stacked one on top of another. Stress and extremely crowded conditions cause the hens to peck at one another, so farmers cut off a portion of their beaks with a hot blade.

Ethos

Save Marine Life

Our oceans cover more than two thirds of the planet. They sustain a breathtaking array of marine life. Yet they are struggling to survive their greatest threat – human impact. Wherever they operate, industrial fishing fleets exceed the ocean’s ecological limits. They unravel the intricate web of marine biodiversity that makes the oceans vital to the earth's life support system.

Ethos