Make them believe!!

 The process of creating, reinforcing or changing of people’s beliefs or actions

 A psychological process  A result of informing  Strategic process

 Rhetoric is the art and study of persuasive speech and techniques.  Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, wrote the book on rhetoric, and thousands of years later, we still follow it today.

 Persuasion occurs or does not occur as a result of a mental dialogue that takes place consciously and sub- consciously between the speaker and the auditors

 The portion of the whole audience that the speaker has to persuade

Informative  Non-partisan  Strives to be objective  Gives equal time to all sides of issue Persuasive  Inherently partisan  Purposefully subjective  May TRY to SOUND objective  Slanted towards one side or perspective

Questions of Fact  Deals with whether someone or something is factually true or false  Uses facts and figures to prove a point  EX: Did Bill Clinton have sex with Monica Lewinsky? Questions of Value  Deals with the worth, rightness or morality of an action or idea  Speaker defines his/her own terms  Establishes standards for terms  EX: Was it wrong, or does it matter if Clinton had sex with Lewinsky.

Questions of policy  Questions whether a specific course of action should or should not be taken

 In his book Rhetoric, Aristotle defined three major types of appeals, or proofs that speakers can use to persuade their audiences.

 Logos is the logical appeal or proof.  Logos uses facts and figures to logically prove a point and persuade.  Logos is especially valuable for questions of fact.  In Greek, logos literally means “word.”  Just because an argument is logical doesn’t necessarily mean it is true.

 Remember syllogism from math class?  If A=B and B=C then A= C….  This might always work with numbers, but not always with facts and information

 A= Bill and Bob are men.  B= Bill is tall and Bob is short.  C= Tall men die younger than short men.  Can you deduce that Bill will die younger than Bob?  No!!! But speaker’s will try tricks like this

 Pathos is the emotional appeal.  A Latin term for pathos is “ad hominem” argument.  An emotional appeals plays upon the listener’s emotions and sense of morality.  Pathos is an effective way to argue a question of value.  “Pathos” means to feel.

 Use graphic imagery and image evoking words.  Appealing to a person’s pity, anger, love or prejudices.  Visual Aids can be very effective in creating pathos… especially photographs  Quotations and personal anecdotes from victims can also create pathos

 Ethos refers to the ethical appeal or proof.  You build your ethical appeal by appearing credible and knowledgeable.  There are 3 levels of credibility

 Initial Credibility  Derived Credibility  Terminal Credibilty

 Explain your competence  Establish common ground w/audience  Deliver your speech fluently, expressively and with conviction  Use excellent and compelling evidence

 Supporting materials Examples Statistics Testimony Information used to prove or disprove a position

 In every point consider what an argument against the point would be  Then, using a proof, either logos, pathos or ethos… dismantle and disprove that argument

 Be specific… no glittering generalities and vague statements  Use novel and unique evidence… you can rarely bore an audience into submission  Contextualize the evidence… keep relating it back to you position!!