Analysis Of Thank-You-For-Arguing By Jay Heinrichs

Rhetoric can be found almost everywhere in life, and is an important part of people’s interactions with each other. Specifically rhetoric has value in career settings and being able to make a sound argument can be especially important when dealing with employers and clients. Building a relationship with a boss is especially important, which Jay Heinrichs discusses in his book, Thank You for Arguing. Heinrichs recalls a job interview, and how one othe the

Rhetoric is an act of persuasion. Aristotle believes that the most persuasive technique is the truth. He taught others that rhetoric is to be used for persuasion and not manipulation and that it is to be done ethically. When using rhetoric for persuasion, it is important to recognize the rhetorical triangle. The rhetorical triangle includes the speaker, the subject, and the person being addressed. This triangle also demonstrates the three modes of persuasion, logos, ethos, and pathos. The author must embody all parts of the triangle. The speaker must exhibit ethos through their credibility. The subject must encompass logos by making logical sense. The appeal to the audience must use pathos to be persuasive. When these three parts come together, a persuasive speech can be delivered. Of the three sections of the rhetorical triangle, the audience is the most important. I will demonstrate my argument of the role of audience in the rhetorical triangle throughout the essay.

The book is divided into five sections, each one being subdivided into different strategies on how to use rhetoric to your advantage, in any given situation.

The next topic the author offered for an argument is, setting your goals of what you want to gain from your audience. The first and most simple step is to change the audiences mood. If you are able to change their mood, you make them more vulnerable to your argument and more willing to listen to you. The second step winning an argument is, changing the audiences mind and opinion. An example of this from the text is, convincing the light bulb that a replacement is the best way to get some light in the room. You want to promote yourself to them instead of coming off with the impression of a rival. The last and most difficult step to winning an argument is, getting to audience to take action. In order to get the audience to do this, you must be on a more emotional and personal level. As quoted from the text, you not only need to use desire to motivate but you need to convince them that taking this action is not a big deal; something they shouldn’t sweat about. Overall, chapter was very descriptive and informing in distinguishing the difference between an argument and a fight, and how to go about winning these

The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice.

The novel Thank You For Arguing written by Jay Heinrichs teaches us the persuasive tactics behind an effective argument. Heinrichs emphasizes the importance of rhetoric by adapting persuasive tools to modern day situations. A former journalist and now an advocate for rhetoric, Jay Heinrichs has aimed to restore the art of persuasion by teaching it to his audience.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade an audience. Writers and speakers often use rhetoric appeals. Aristotelian Rhetoric appeals are used in arguments to support claims and counter opposing arguments. Rhetoric used four different approaches to capture its audience’s attention: pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos bases its appeal on provoking strong emotion from an audience. Ethos builds its appeal based on good moral character of the writer or speaker and relies on good sense and good will to influence its audience. Logos persuades its audience through the use of deductive and inductive reasoning. The kiaros approach requires a combination of creating and recognizing the right time and right place for making the argument in the

What constitutes good rhetoric and argument? How do these factors affect writing? And, the aforementioned questions considered, what practices should then be regarded as bad, or the negation of good? Before these prompts can be adequately addressed, a brief survey on the nature of values is necessary, so as to enframe this discussion of good and bad practices in operationalized terms, localized for our usage. In the process, the prompts will be considered in full.

In Thank You for Arguing, written by Jay Heinrichs had introduces to the reader about the rhetoric concepts and strategies that give us to understand more about offense and defense in an argument. He is not just to explain the concepts to the readers for how to build up a stronger argument but to make the readers to know what purposes that argument puts in our lives. Although rhetoric tools is hard to fits in our everyday life, Heinrichs still would help us to gain more ability on utilizing the knowledges of the rhetoric concepts, and convinces us to influence on our behavior that act in the argument.

Aristotle contends that persuasive speech is composed of three elements: ethos, logos, and pathos. In debate, we use these to construct our arguments. The first principle, ethos, can be expressed as a claim. The claim is the core of the argument; everything else goes to support it. I will commence this essay with the following claim:

An argument is a two-sided claim that has facts and evidence to back up and justify each side of the argument. The purpose of any argument is to persuade the opponent and the audience to one side or the other. The goal of the speaker or writer is to use persuasive techniques that end with the audience’s vote. These techniques include pathos, logos, and ethos. Each one of these tactics plays an important role in producing a strong case in a debate or argument. Recently, in this composition class, I have put these techniques to use to create a strong argument with two other classmates. Our debate topic was whether or not the death penalty should continue to be legal in the United States. My team served as the proponents of the argument and tried to use each one of these three main persuasive techniques, pathos, logos, and ethos.

In chapter one, “Open Your Eyes,” Heinrichs states that argument is an important social element that surrounds everyday life. People who uses rhetoric, the art of argument, tends to succeed in persuading others to do their bidding. Many powerful politicians today mastered this tool. The most toughest arguments can be won with this art. Rhetoric has helped mankind develop complex societies, codes, and laws. “Every one of America’s founders studied rhetoric, and they used its

The study of rhetoric includes such topics as portraying virtue through emotion, logic, and character. With these tools in hand, the ability to display potential and worth to a workplace is emphasized, creating a greater chance for a successful employment. Rhetoric can provide the means to show success and even overcome mistakes, such as the experience Heinrichs describes after he misplaced a volcano in his publishing and then took advantage of emotion, playing the situation off as a light apology and a bonding experience. He says, “My boss was so happy with the result than when the volcano exploded some months later he sent me out to do a cover story.” (Heinrichs 250). Through rhetoric, Heinrichs not only fixed a problem, built his standing after a mistake, and made positive progress in his own career. He utilized the techniques of language and human nature to turn his error into a strength and portrayed himself as a hero. Through learning the art of rhetoric in school, students can learn how to correctly act in a tight position and build their standing for their future

Gerard A. Hauser covers a plethora of details on how to create a well-made persuasive argument in his book, an Introduction to Rhetorical Theory; however, he covered three specific essentials that are necessary for persuasion: the components logos, pathos and ethos; purposive discourse and rhetorical competence; identification. I will argue for each constituent, respectively, to prove that persuasion cannot thrive without the aforementioned essentials.

With the use of the short anecdote about the interaction between him and his son discussing about toothpaste, it sets up the rest of the book to provide examples of how he uses his arguing techniques in his daily life to get what he wants. Heinrichs states “by conceding [George’s] point, I persuaded him” (Heinrichs 1). In another example Jay Heinrichs and his daughter Dorothy Jr are discussing possible restaurants for dinner. He wants to go to an upscale Indian restaurant but his daughter prefers her usual place. She’s able to win the argument by using his guilt as her emotional goal. He states that she effectively uses rhetoric to disguise itself and she’s able to convince him to go to a lower price Indian restaurant. (Heinrichs 24). The purpose of this anecdote is to explain effective ways how people can disguise their argument and get what they want. He is persuaded to listen to his daughter and she avoids detection. In chapter 4, Jay Heinrichs recounts an attempt of persuasion to stop his son from wearing shorts in the middle of winter. He tries three tools of persuasion: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos, which all failed to stop his son from going to school with shorts on. The purpose of this anecdote is to reveal that George used the exact same tools as him but he did it instinctively and canceled his father’s attempts all out. (Heinrichs 39). This displays that Jay Heinrichs doing it on purpose does not have the same effect as George