Transcript Persuasion
Persuasion UNDERSTANDING THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION What is persuasion? What is rhetoric? Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively Choosing the best way to get your point across. To be considered in persuasion Purpose: What is the speaker trying to persuade his/her audience to do? Audience: To whom is he/she speaking? Context: Why? When? Where? Persuasion begins with a claim Claim: the main point or argument. The central idea that the speaker wants to persuade the audience to agree with. The Elements of Persuasion The basics of a classical argument are the three types of appeals. Aristotle held that there were three ways to go about persuading an audience These three appeals are the appeal to reason (logos), the appeal to the speaker’s character (ethos), and the appeal to the audience’s emotions (pathos). Logos (appeal to reason) Logos is the appeal to reason (logic…logos…get it?): the writer shows why the argument is logical or makes the most “sense” in light of the evidence Numbers, facts, statistics, data, etc. Ethos (appeal to the speaker’s character) Ethos, the appeal to the speaker’s character is the attempt to gain the audience’s support for their argument through portraying him or herself as the type of person the audience would be likely to listen to and believe. It is the appeal that says, “Look at me, I’m a good person” or “I’m just like you” and “so you should listen to me” or “Look at what I have accomplished.” Ethos (appeal to the speaker’s character) Using an authority- persuading not by giving evidence, but by appealing to the respect people have for the famous, for those who are well-respected in a certain community, or for those who may be perceived as experts in a certain field. Pathos (appeal to emotion) In using this appeal, the writer tries to persuade the audience by making them either feel good about accepting the argument or feel bad about not accepting the argument-or both. Pathos (appeal to emotion) This type of appeal works well when persuading the audience to take some sort of action: think of the TV ads asking you to send money to support impoverished children in a foreign country. These ads try to make you feel bad for these children since you are more fortunate than they are; then they give you a way out of that sadness and guilt: you can donate money to help one of these poor children get healthcare and education. Fallacies Logical fallacies are errors that occur in arguments. Authors use fallacies as a “trick” when writing persuasively. Bias Sometimes an authors own thoughts, feelings or beliefs can cause him or her to ignore evidence. Strong emotions can make an author see things from only one side rather than think carefully about the facts. Exaggeration An overstatement or stretching of the truth Categorical Claim An author may say something about one group or thing and imply that it pertains to or represents all of those people or things. Stereotype An oversimplified idea that usually implies a prejudiced attitude about particular group of people. Ad Hominem An attack on a persons character in order to sway peoples opinions about him or her.