persuading your audience
TRANSCRIPT
Persuading Your AudienceUsing Critical Thinking
D. Patricia LaRochelle, M.S.P.C.
SPH101
What is persuasion?
Persuasion is the process of trying to get others to change their beliefs or behavior
There are three purposes of persuasion
The First Purpose
Reinforce an
already held belief
The Second Purpose
Change an audience belief
The Third Purpose
motivate to action
State your purpose explicitly in your
proposition
A proposition must be:
Limited to one sentence
Meet an audience need
Reasonable and simple
Aristotle's Communication Model
Ethos is the ethical appeal or credibility of the speaker.
Pathos is the emotional appeal.
Persuading by appealing to your audience's imagination.
Logos is the logical appeal.
Persuading by the use of reasoning.
Ethos (Speaker Credibility)
Competence
Goodwill
Character
Pathos Speaks to The Listener's Needs
Use of vivid
language, emotional
language and
numerous sensory
details.
Example of Ethos
Thanks to the old Art of Rhetoric website @
Rensselaer (which does not exist any longer!) for
help with this part.
Example of Logos
Example of Pathos
Cesium-Based Reactor Kills!
A baby turtle breaks free from the leathery shell of its egg, catching its first glimpse of its
first sunrise. It pauses a moment to rest, unaware of the danger that lies so close to it. As
the tide comes in, approaching the nest, it also approaches a small pile of metal - cesium.
The water draws closer and closer, the turtle unsuspecting of the danger. Finally, the water
touches the cesium.
The nest is torn to bits in the resulting explosion, destroying even more of an endangered
species.
Why does this happen? One name: ACME.
ACME Gizmotronics is supporting a dihydro-cesium reactor, trying, in their anthrocentrism, to
squeeze energy out of such destructive explosions. And, they are dumping waste cesium onto the
shores of their island, threatening the environment. Studies have shown that the dihydro-cesium
reactor will destroy the island's ecosphere in less than four months!
How can they get away with this?
Costa Rica (where the island is near) has lax environmental laws, allowing ACME to do whatever
they want - including destroy endangered species.
What can you do about this?
Don't let them get away with it! Boycott ACME products! And
call your representatives, and tell them you support stricter
legislation to prevent things like this!
Reasoning is the process of drawing conclusions from evidence
Logos, the reasoning process presented by the speaker
Many people
distinguish between
two basic kinds of
argument:
and
Induction is usually described as
moving from the specific to the
general, while deduction begins
with the general and ends with the
specific.
Adam: I've noticed previously that every time I kick a ball
up, it comes back down, so I guess this next time when I
kick it up, it will come back down, too.
Rob: That's Newton's Law. Everything that goes up must come
down.
And so, if you kick the ball up, it must come down.
Syllogism vs. Enthymeme
Syllogism is a form of deductive
reasoning consisting of a major
premise, a minor premise, and a
conclusion.
When one of the premises is not
stated, we call this an enthymeme.
Examples Of Syllogism
Examples Of Enthymeme
