Chp 17: Persuasive Speaking

BOOK: pgs. 255-268

PDF: pgs. 265-278

What you need to Know

• Define persuasion

• Questions of (Propositions of) fact, value or policy (call to action)

• Refutations

• Problem-solution organization pattern

• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence organization pattern (attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, and action)

• Aristotle’s 3 rhetorical strategies/appeals: ethos, pathos, logos

• Deductive reasoning

• Inductive reasoning (cause, example, sign, analogy)

• Logical Fallacies in Reasoning (false reasoning to avoid in persuasion): ad hominem, ad verecundiam, slippery slope, non sequitur, straw man, hasty generalization, either-or, false-cause, red herring, post hoc ergo propter hoc, appeal to tradition, bandwagon,

• How to engage in dialogic persuasion (be open to other ideas, suspend judgment (don’t prejudge), accept disagreement, etc.)

• Persuasion - attempts to change attitudes, actions, and beliefs

Types of Persuasion

• Questions (proposition) of fact - persuasive messages that attempt to change the audience’s beliefs about something

  • Refutations - persuasive speeches in which a speaker defends his or her own position on an issue while responding to the arguments of another person

• Questions (proposition) of value - persuasive messages that try to change the audience’s attitudes toward a topic by convincing the audience whether or not a belief, object, or an action is moral, ethical, important, or worthwhile

• Questions (proposition) of policy - persuasive messages that try to change the audience’s actions or convince the audience that something should be done

Organizing Persuasive Arguments

• Problem-solution: how solution solves problem

• Problem-cause-solution: explains causes for the problem

• Comparative advantages: compares alternative solutions and identifies best one

• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: persuades audience to adopt a plan of action

• Five steps

  • The speaker gains the attention of the audience and gets them to focus on the topic they plan to address

  • The speaker identifies the need for the problem that must be addressed

  • The third step presents the solution to the problem by fulfilling the need

  • The speaker visualizes the steps to the solution. This step uses vivid language to help the audience see themselves adopting the solution and satisfying the need using the speaker’s preferred solution.

  • Call to action! (or propose fact or value)

Using Emotion and Logic

• Aristotle argued for three means of persuasion

  • Artistic proofs: Aristotle’s category for credibility, emotion, and logic within a persuasive appeal; he called them artistic because the speaker creates them

  • Ethos: personal character or credibility

  • Pathos: generating emotions

  • Logos: using logic and evidence

Types of Reasoning

• Deductive reasoning - involves using general truths to reach a certain conclusion about a specific instance

  • Syllogism - sets up a series of claims that build upon each other to reach a conclusion

    • Major premise - a statement that is believed to be true by your entire audience,

    • Minor premise - connects the statement in your major premise to the specific instance about which you are trying to make a claim,

    • Conclusion - the logical result of both the major and minor premises and is the claim you are ultimately trying to make

    • Example:

      • Major premise: The chapter quizzes close on December 8th.

      • Minor premise: December the 8th is a Sunday.

      • Conclusion: The chapter quizzes close on a Sunday.

• Inductive reasoning - involves using several specific instances or pieces of evidence to draw probable conclusions about general truths

  • Reasoning by:

    • Cause - claiming that one event causes another to happen

    • Example - using several specific instances that's related to each other to draw an overall conclusion about them

    • Sign - concluding the presence of thing indicating the presence of another

    • Analogy - comparing two similar cases in order to argue what’s true in one case is also true in the other

      • Because they share similar features

Logical Fallacies-false reasoning

• Non sequitur - ‘it does not follow’ (lack of a logical connection); speaker makes an unjustified move from one topic to another

• Ad hominem - attack or praise; speaker tries to equate the quality of someone’s argument with the quality of his or her character by calling him or her something that would be perceived as negative by the audience

• Hasty generalization - speaker uses a small sample of evidence to draw unjustified conclusions about an entire group or category

• Straw man - speaker ignores the actual position of his or her opponent, misrepresents the opponent’s positions, and then attacks that made-up position instead of the actual position

• Post hoc ergo propter hoc - ‘after this, therefore because of this’ (lack of casual connection)

  • False cause - speaker assumes that one event caused another unrelated event to occur

• Either/Or - speaker claims there are only two alternatives when there are really many other options available

  • False dilemma -  ‘Either you agree with me or you hate me.’

• Slippery slope - speaker argues that once a course of action is taken, a series of other unavoidable and undesirable events will necessarily take place.

• Ad verecundiam - (appeal to authority/expert)

• Red herring - speaker introduces irrelevant ideas in order to distract attention away from the real issue

• Bandwagon - urges people to follow the same path everyone else is taking

Engaging in Dialogic Persuasion

• Be open to others

• Don’t prejudge speakers and audiences

• Understand a speaker’s perspectives

• Avoid inciting your audience

• Clarify your credentials

• Accept disagreement

Key Terms

1. Persuasion - attempting to change the attitudes, actions, or beliefs of another person

2. Reasoning by cause - used when you claim that one event causes another

3. Reasoning by example - using several specific instances that are related to each other to draw an overall conclusion about them

4. Reasoning by sign - occurs when you conclude that the presence of one thing indicates the presence of another

5. Reasoning by analogy - comparison of two similar cases in order to argue that what is true in one case is also true in the other because the two cases share similar features

6. Logical fallacies - errors in reasoning that lead to invalid conclusions

7. Begging the question - speaker uses a circular argument in which his or her evidence and conclusion are really saying the same thing and assume certain facts that have not yet been proven

8. Appeal to Pity - the attempt to influence an audience by exploiting their feelings of sympathy, guilt, or desire to ameliorate suffering.