Thank You for Arguing Chapter 28

                            Yay! Last chapter. I will be completely honest, I did not care for this book all that much. Not to say that I didn't find certain points to be very interesting and I learned quite a few enlightening things, but I wouldn't say that it was one of the most enjoyable experienced ever. However, I did absolutely love In Cold Blood, and I understand the need to have one book for enjoyment and one for education. So, with that in mind, here is my final blog post.

                            So many things in our life go uncredited to the rhetoric from a church's mass, the medical terms, to even the creation of America. That's right. Our hot dog crazed country has everything to be thankful for because of the ancient Greeks and Romans with their expert understandings of the rhetoric. Out forefathers understood the importance of having a good argument and why they are necessary to society. After all, how could we ever express and share our ideas with the world if not for debates, speeches, books, etc. This is why we have so many debates and conventions for presidential nominees. Because the people need to understand them in order to desire of they want to vote for them. The Greeks, knew it, the Romans, knew it, the great leaders of the world have known it, and hopefully, we know it.

Thank You for Arguing Chapter 27

                              In any type of fight, whether it is a sport, a battle, an argument, etc, has at least one thing in common: the use of offense and defense. Offense is the act of att king your opponent, while defense is the act of defending yourself from an opponent's attack. The way I like to think of it is like soccer. There is a horizontal line in the middle of a soccer field that divides the two teams. If you are on your side, then you are in the defense mode. If you are on the opponent's side, then you are in the offensive mode. The same applies for an argument. There is always a clear line dividing whether of not your are defending yourself or attacking the other side, and of course there are methods in hoe to be successful on each side. When you are in defense and you don't know what to say, conceding, and then try redefining your concession. For example, you were called out for calling a Red Vine a Twizler in your speech about the dangers of candy, and you are now in the defensive mode. You are not sure what to say to get out of this, so you try conceding and redefine your concession by saying that some people would call it Red Vines, and others would call it Twizlers. Then, you switch to the future tense and say that both of these candies are bad for you and we must work to educate young children about their harmful effects starting now. For offense, try thinking of your goal, set the tense, and know you audience's values and commonplaces. Then use ethos pathos and logos to attack your opponent using their values and commonplaces to your advantage.

Thank You for Arguing Chapter 26

                                  There is a classic method of creating a good and effective speech. This method was perfected by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This method requires putting your speech in the order of: introduction, narration, division, proof, refutation, and conclusion. To have a successful introduction, it is important to establish character right at the beginning of your speech. Allowing your audience to get a feel for who you are can lead to a nice segue to your narration. You should use your narration to tell your story, this can also include the stories of others who you would want the audience to link you too like hard working parents or your favorite role model. This leads us to the division. A good speech giver uses the division to represent both sides, her own in the most glowing terms, and her opponents'. However, you shouldn't be too obvious about it condemning the other side. It sounds much better to sound let down by the opponents wrongheadedness then to flat out say that they were wrong or stupid. Then, you need the proof of your argument. Using proof sets you aside as not just a good speech giver that sounds nice, but a good speech giver that sounds nice that knows what they are talking about. Now, here comes the fun part, full on att king you opponent. You can do this as classy or as nastily as you would like, but you need to use all of the traction that you have gained up to this point to destroy you opponent. After you are done, you can reach your conclusion. The end of a good speech should be both a summery of your speech and a call to action from your audience to band together with you. Add on a closing statement, and you have yourself one good speech.

Thank You for Arguing Chapter 25

                                        Thank of a well planned out argument like an essay ascertainment. It needs to be clean, clear, have a solid start, middle and end, be well thought out, and have a good delivery. Therefore, I have put these skills from the book into a step by step process. 

Step one: did up the materials for your speech so you can look professional.

Step two: start your introduction and make sure to use your ethos here to look important.

Step tree: do your narration, division, proof, and refuting with a lot of logos

Step four: reach your conclusion in which you can get emotional

                                           It should be noted that a good argument should be memorized. If you have to constantly look at note cards or consistently stumble, you will seem less credible. And don't forget to preform your argument,. Be even a touch theatrical. People enjoy watching people that are fun and happy, not stiff and boring. Anything can be cool if you work hard enough to sell it.

Thank You for Arguing Chapter 24

                                             One thing that people don't tend to know is that our senses can are pathos, ethos, and logos a well the rest of our bodies. This can make a lot of sense if you just think about it. Sound is our most logical, or logos, sense. If we here something that sounds logical an/or true, it is much easier for us to blindly believe it. An example of this can be the thousands of religions now and in the past. People need and needed a simple answer that could answer all of life's issues and will usually choose whichever one sounds the best to them. Smell, taste, and touch are all purely emotional, or pathos. When you eat a really good piece of fruit, you enjoy it. You can't eat a fruit and have it taste 'logical'. We eat things to give us joy. Same with touch. Would you rather touch a slimy dirty dish or a puppy? Obviously you would choose the dog because it sounds more fun and appealing. And lastly, sight is both ethos and pathos, but slightly more pathos. This is because we are basically trained to judge things and a bid part of judging is by examining someone's personal appearance and to assume their status as a person. This would be our automatic ethos setting in, but even with that at play, our emotions can usually get the better of us. Would you rather talk to this petty woman or feed a homeless man? Let's hope you said homeless man.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 23

                                  The term "patience is a virtue" couldn't be more true in arguing. They say that the formula for comedy is time plus suffering, so what would be the proper formula for a good argument? Well, i guess it is safe to say that there isn't one, but there is one way to use time to make a good argument, almost exactly how it is used in comedy. The ancients had a word for it: kairos, the art of seizing the perfect instant for persuasion. Just like parents have their "parenting moment"-an opportunity to make a point-persuaders have their persuasive moment. A person with kairos knows how to spot when an audience is most vulnerable to her point of view, and then exploit the opportunity as much as possible. Say you wanted to convince an enemy of yours to come to school in a clown suit. First of all, that is pure evil. Second of all, this is not something that would be easy to convince someone of. So, you use your sneaky skills to find out that your enemy works for student counsel and recently got in trouble for not reading the school's emails and missing meetings. Now you know that if you send this person an email with a similar address as the school, they will most likely do whatever that email says to save their booties. You are using kairos by seizing the perfect instant for persuasion. You send that fake email and your enemy is at school the next day dressed like a clown. You then have yourself an evil laugh and go about your day.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 22

                                               You know all that stuff we were taught when we were kids about admitting when we've made mistakes and apologizing? Well, we are going to take the Donald Trump route because we will have none of that. Never apologize. If you screw up, just respond with something that makes you look even better right after, but don't do it in a way that talks down to your audience. Of course, we need some humility when we are arguing, so if you make a mistake, simply express your feelings of not living up to your own standards. Ex: say you were trying to sell a car and you accidentally get one of your statistics wrong. Instead of apologizing for giving out the wrong information, say something like, "Oh my goodness i cannot believe that i got that statistic wrong. You see, our dealership puts us workers in a six week long training course to learn everything about our cars. It really shows our dedication to giving our clients the best possible experience." Now, you have made up for your mistake, have avoided apologizing, haven't talked down to your audience, and have actually helped your case on why you audience should buy your car.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 21

                                            If i asked you who your favorite president is, who would you say? Probably one that you thought was kind, shared your views, and, most importantly, one that you could identify with. So why is this? Well, evolution-wise we as a species feel safer when we are around people that we can see ourselves in. This can be used in your favor in an argument. If you can get your audience to identify with you, they will feel as if they have to agree with you because you both are so alike. To do this, you need to get people to describe themselves. Usually, the first thing they mention reveals their best sense of who they are. And most people will do anything to live up to their identity, including agree with you in the right conditions. Also, make sure to sum up the issues in a few words. Really stress the values to your audience. Now, find a representative or piece of the issue that can symbolize those values.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 20

                                  "Ideology" once meant the study of ideas, however, now it means a shared belief. Examples of modern day ideology are: religion, philosophies, etc. Ideas become beliefs when people identify with them and create groups based off of those ideas. When something is an ideology, it becomes very difficult to describe its followers without describing their ideology. It would be very hard to explain a Muslim woman wearing a hijab without explaining its spiritual significance in their religion. The point is, you can turn an idea into a belief in an argument if you can get your audience to truly believe in what you are saying. This can make your audience sympathize with you and really understand your point, as well as want to be accepted by you. There are may arguments in which each party is trying to get the other side to join their ideology because if you can get the audience on your side, you win. Hands down. An example of this would be socialism verses capitalism debates. Each side will attempt to make strong points on their cases to sway the other side into seeing eye to eye with them. One method of getting your audience to share your ideology is using an identity strategy. This strategy states that the surest way to commit an audience to an action is to get them to identify with it, or to see the choice that helps define them as a group. Basically, just make your audience really want to join the bandwagon.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 19

                                 In a perfect world, we could have perfectly rational people having perfectly rational arguments about perfectly rational topics, using perfectly rational speech. Well guess what? But, this is America, and we will have absolutely none of that, thank you very much. In fact, perfectly rational speech can not only be a turn off to many audiences, but can actually distract them from the point that you were trying to make. This is one reason why Aristotle said that logos works better in an intimate setting than in a large crowd. So, to avoid making too much sense, try to focus on the individual value that could bring the group together and identify with you. And while we are on the topic of not being too logical, let us also talk about making your argument as simple as humanly possible for your audience. After all, this is America and we will have none of those pesky big words to justify our free education, thank you very much. One way to do this is by using reverse words. If your opponent says something, odds are they know the antonym to it. So, instead of sounding too smart, just use that. If they say up, you say down. Do not even think of saying downward, declining, descending, dropping, earthward, falling, sinking, sagging, sinking, etc. Nope, down will be much easier to covey, and won't run the risk of boring your audience with its superior intellect. 

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 18

                                             If you wanted to know where many of our well known argument strategies com from, just look at William Shakespeare. He didn't like the traditional strategies of his time, therefore in his writings, he flat out invented absurd ways to win an argument that surprisingly work and are now common staples of any good arguer. Strategy number one: twist a cliche. Cliches are found everywhere, from the knight saving the princess to the villain having no moral compasses. Your job is to throw these cliches out of their orbit to undermine them and make them seem foolish. Why can't the princess save herself? She has the means to and has all the time in the world to hatch a plan. It would be just silly that she would wait for what could possibly be forever just on the hope that a random stranger would come an save her without and fear of sexual harassment. Now this cliche has been lifted and my point is much stronger. Strategy number two: weigh both sides. If you present both sides of an argument to your audience, you are offering them a choice, one that can be shifted in your favor. If you make you side of an argument comparatively better sounding, then it become an obvious choice to your audience which side to choose. Strategy number three: edit yourself out loud. People feel safer around someone that they feel is honest. By correcting your own mistakes out loud, you come off as a much more honest person, and you seem much more educated on your topic, so much so that you even know when you yourself mess up. Strategy four: control your volume. Just like they do in the movies, you can raise and lower your voice to create a certain mood. For example, a loud voice excites and demands attention, while a low one draws your audience in and makes them focus more intently. And lastly, just go full Shakespeare and make up words like there is no tomorrow. Shakespeare was notorious for doing this and it is one of he reasons that his works have lasted so long.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 17

                              Practical wisdom is a common re-occurring theme in this book. Like virtue, it also lies in the mean, or really, the persuader's apparent ability to find the sweet spot.While you do want to know how virtuous the persuader is, you also want to access their ability to make a good choice that will fit your situation (aka: find their sweet spot). This is phronesis, or recognizing the that the sweet spot changes for each audience, and altering it to suit their needs. If you want to sell a couch to a poorer family, you can hit their sweet spot by dropping the price in a way that looks like a major saving. If you are trying to sell that same couch to a family that already has a couch, you can bring up how their old couch can carry bugs and germs that are bad for the children, therefore using their good parenting intuition to urge them to buy your new and clean house. You hit their sweet spot.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 16

                                     As stated in a previous chapter summary, disinterest and virtue, can be a powerful persuasion tools, and they are all ethos. To combat this, simply look for the disconnects. When someone tries to manipulate you through disinterest, look for the short circuits between their needs and yours. The second characteristic of ethos, virtue, also has disconnects. Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying n a mean. This definition makes more sense when you break it down into fragments. "A state of character" means rhetorical virtue that only exists during the argument itself. It adapts the audience's expectations. A woman could be a great mother, but if you believe that she is a bad one, then she is temporarily n that argument. For a moment, it becomes her state of character. "Concerned with choice" is virtue that comes out of the choices that the persuader makes. A persuader lacks rhetorical virtue if they try to prevent a choice from  happening. And lastly, "lying in a mean" is the sweet spot of every question that lies in the middle of extremes. A virtuous teacher would neither be an idiot or self absorbed in their own smartness.

Thank You For Arguing Chapter 15

                             There is one very debatable fallacy known as the fallacy of power. The fallacy of power means believe that if the person at the top wants something, then it must be right. This type of argument can be very easily undermined by simply asking, "but how could one person's opinion always be right?", or, "are you just listening to your boss because you are sucking up to them?". However, there are some flaws to the second argument too, such as, "was that argument really fair?", "what if the boss is smart and knows the business better than anyone else?", "would it be such a bad idea to trust their opinion?" The appeal of authority can be a logical fallacy, but it can also be an important ethos tool. This is where pure logic and rhetorical logos separate. In most situations, there are no right or wrong answers, just what is most likely and what is least likely. All of the sudden, our black and white world has become a rainbow of probability. If your boss demands something, then you have good reason to believe it is legitimate, but your audience can use that against you because they are trying to persuade you, not your boss.