1B. Explain how an argument demonstrates understanding of an audience's beliefs, values, or needs.
|
You can't do everything for yourself. Sooner or later, you will have to get someone else -- maybe several somebodies -- to do the work for you, whatever that work happens to be. Perhaps that work is a simple and uncomplicated task: Hey, hand me the remote, will you? or Would you mind putting your glass on the coaster? However, maybe you have a slightly harder job in mind: Hey, guys, there's no way you can survive this battle, but I want you to storm the castle anyway, or slightly less dramatically, Will you marry me?
There are many techniques we as human beings -- really, as thinking creatures -- have figured out to get other people to do tasks we want or need them to do for us. As babies, we learned the power of a good, persistent wail at inconvenient times. As toddlers, we learned the repetition-torture effect of repeatedly saying, "Pleasemompleasemompleasemompleasemom." There are other methods, of course: intimidation, brute force, or the power of threat, known in the classical world as the argument ad baculum, the argument of the club, a method known to most of us since the cruel appropriation of our first-grade lunch money at the hands (or clubs) of enterprising third-graders. However, many (if not most) of our arts of persuasion come through the power of words, and that is where the art of rhetoric comes in. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, the art of getting other people to accede to your requests, believe your beliefs, enact your directives, understand your insights, or see the world (if only for a moment) through your perception. In some crucially important ways, rhetoric is magic. In order to do that magic, you as a speaker need a keen understanding of your audiences's beliefs, values, and needs. |
The Three Classical Modes of Persuasion
In the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome, there were three primary methods of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos. This is the "how we get the job done" part.
|
Modern Modes of Persuasion
The modern modes of persuasion are basically the same as the classical ones, but they're more focused and specific. It's really a matter of terminology. Bear in mind that if used inappropriately or irrelevantly, some of these means of persuasion are fallacies (false arguments) . This is not an exhaustive list.
Note again that almost any mode of persuasion can be used fallaciously if it's not relevant to the issue at hand. Einstein may be an expert in physics, but if he's treated as an expert in other, unrelated fields, this appeal is inappropriate. |
Ethos Is a Direct Appeal to Your Audience's Beliefs, Values and Needs
Without ethos, you will lose. This is a bold statement. It's also a true one. It's a testament to the power of writing to a specific audience, but more than that, understanding that specific audience and the values it holds. In argument, you're MOSTLY going to persuade people whose values in some way differ from your own. Why? Well, if they agreed with your values, you'd probably think pretty much the same way already. There would be no need to persuade. Instead, you need to figure out what your audience's values are. What do they care about? What are they afraid of? What do they spend money on? What do they want in life? What do they hold as a high moral, personal, or spiritual value? Harder for Students For some students, this is a hard task. You have to get out of your own head and imagine yourself in the personality of someone literally different from you, someone whose values you do not share, and then imagine what it must be to care about those things. For example, if you want to get a nose piercing and your mom does not want you to, imagine why she doesn't. What does she care about? Maybe she's concerned that you're too young, in which case she values your happiness, not just for the moment, but for a long time. Unless you answer that concern, you'll lose. |
In this assignment, provide your students with some basic background, including especially the following:
The Assignment
|