The Art and Craft of Persuasion

Based upon:Moser, Joyce, and Ann Watters, ed. Creating America: Reading and Writing Arguments, 3rd Ed. New Jersey:Prentice Hall, 2002.

Types of Appeals

Ethos Based upon shared values and beliefs Ex. FDR, Pearl Harbor, and “fair play”

Pathos Manipulates audience emotions Empathy

Logos Logic and reason Induction and Deduction

Inductive Reasoning

Generalize truth from number of observations MLK: “boy,” motel, playground Faults

Inadequate evidence Faulty conclusion “leap of faith”

Deductive Reasoning

Begins with general principle and makes assertion based upon it

Syllogism Enthymeme

Syllogism

Major Premise + Minor Premise = Conclusion Major Premise: All men are mortal Minor Premise: Socrates is a man Conclusion: Socrates is mortal

Enthymeme

Assumes common knowledge Compresses syllogism “Socrates, being a man, is mortal.”

Errors in Logic

Hasty Generalization Conclusion based upon too few example Two senators are millionaires, therefore all

public officials are rich. Biased Sampling

Examples drawn from a pool guaranteed to produce a certain conclusion

Errors in Logic continued

Straw Man False Target Misstates opponents views

False Analogy Suggests that two people/events are identical

rather than similar Attacks the analogy rather than the issue

Errors in Logic continued

Ad Hominem Attacks against individual holding the position

rather than the position itself “If I am young and right, what does age

matter.” –Sophocles Antigone Post hoc ergo propter hoc

“After this, therefore because of this” Correlation equals causation

Errors in Logic continued

False Dilemma Either-or situation Boils down to only two choices

Slippery Slope First step inevitably leads to disaster

Begging the question Assuming something as a given that hasn’t

been proven

Errors in Logic continued

Non Sequitor Placing two things next to each other to imply

connection without providing any logical backing