Chapter 18

Methods of
Persuasion
 Methods of Persuasion:
Introduction
To influence your audiences attitudes,
values, beliefs, and behaviors, you should
focus on three persuasive tools in your
presentation:
Ethos (establishing credibility as a speaker)
Logos (presenting sound reasoning behind
your claims)
Pathos (using emotional appeals)
 Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker
Credible and moral speakers win
audience trust, as they are seen as:
Knowledgeable
Honest
Genuinely interested in doing the right thing
 Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker (cont.)
Understanding the Elements of Credibility
Competence
Practical wisdom
Trustworthiness
Virtue characterized by being honest and fair
Goodwill
Understanding listeners needs and feelings
Empathizing with the audiences views
Responding quickly to others communication
Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker (cont.)
 Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker (cont.)
Building Your Credibility
Share you qualifications to speak on the topic.
Present strong evidence from reputable
sources.
Highlight common ground with the audience.
Choose your words carefully.
Show respect for conflicting opinions.
Practice your speech until your delivery is
fluent.
Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker (cont.)
 Ethos: Your Credibility as a
Speaker (cont.)
Avoiding Loss of Your Credibility
Get your facts right.
Pronounce words correctly.
Acknowledge potential conflicts of interest.
Avoid stretching to find a connection with the
audience.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message
Logos
Involves the effective use of trustworthy facts
to back your claims and clearly show how
those facts have led you to those claims
Includes providing evidence, or proof, of your
claim
Avoids fallacious (faulty) reasoning that twists
or distorts the facts in your favor
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Using Evidence
Identify your sources and their qualifications.
Give listeners new evidence.
Provide precise evidence.
Look for compelling evidence.
Characterize your evidence accurately.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Using Reasoning
Persuasive speakers typically use inductive
reasoning.
Generalize from facts, instances, or examples, and
then make a claim based on that generalization.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Example reasoning
Present specific instances to support a general
claim.
Your goal is to persuade the audience that your
examples supply sufficient proof of your claim.
You may need to choose representative
examplesexamples that are typical of the class
they represent.
Also think about counterexamples that your
audience may consider.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Comparison reasoning
Argue that two instances are similar, so that what
you know is true for one instance is likely to be true
for the other.
Audience must agree (or be persuaded) that the
two instances are comparable.
Make sure your audience accepts the known
facts as true.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Sign reasoning
Claim that a fact is true because indirect indicators
(signs) are consistent with that fact
Most effective if you can cite multiple consistent
signs of the fact that you are claiming
Also look for signs inconsistent with your argument
that might make it more difficult for listeners to
accept your claim.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Causal reasoning
Argue that one event has caused another.
Explain the link between cause and effect.
Support the cause-effect link with evidence from
credible sources.
Show a correlation between the cause and effect.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Avoiding Logical Fallacies
Reasoning is fallacious (faulty) when the link
between your claim and supporting material is
weak.
Hasty generalization
Occurs when a speaker bases a conclusion on
limited or unrepresentative examples
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Causal reasoning errors
The post hoc fallacy lies in the assumption that
just because one event followed another, the first
event caused the second.
With reversed causality, speakers miss the fact
that the effect is actually the cause.
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Ad populum (bandwagon) fallacy
Occurs when you assume that a statement is true
or false simply because a large number of people
say it is
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Ad hominem fallacy
Occurs when you attack an opponent rather than
address the issue in question
Straw person fallacy
Occurs when you replace your opponents real
claim with a weaker claim that you can more easily
rebut
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Slippery slope fallacy
Occurs when you argue against a policy because
you assume (without proof) that it will lead to some
second policy that is undesirable
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
False dilemma fallacy
Occurs when you claim that there are only two
possible choices to address a problem, that one of
the choices is wrong, and that therefore your
listeners must embrace the other choice
Logos: The Evidence and Reasoning
Behind Your Message (cont.)
Appeal to tradition
fallacy
Occurs when you
argue that an idea or
policy is good simply
because people
have accepted or
followed it for a long
time
 Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions
Emotional appeals help you to put a
human face on a problem youre
addressing.
Stirring your listeners feelings enhances your
persuasive power.
These kinds of appeals can also be abused,
so it is important to use them responsibly.
 Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Using Emotional Appeals
Humans have a wide range of emotions,
including empathy, anger, shame, fear, and
pity.
Each of these feelings provides an opportunity to
enhance your use of pathos.
Should be accompanied by sound reasoning
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Fear appeal: Argument that arouses fear in
the minds of audience members
Must demonstrate a serious threat to listeners
well-being
To be ethical, it must be based on accurate
information and not exaggerated specifically to
make your argument sound more persuasive.
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
A fear appeal is also more likely to succeed if
audience members believe they have the power to
remedy the problem.
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Effective word choice can strengthen the
power of an emotional appeal.
Persuasive impact of a message is enhanced
when the speakers language connects with the
values and passions of audience members.
Selection of metaphors has a significant influence
in framing how listeners perceive an issue.
Use your audience analysis to inform the language
you select.
 Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Ensuring Ethical Use of Pathos
If you fail to establish a sound connection
between your point and the emotion you are
invoking, you may succeed in persuading
some listeners, but your appeal will be neither
logical nor ethical.
To present a convincing fear appeal and
preserve your own ethos, you must
substantiate the harmful consequence you
predict with credible evidence.
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Pathos: Evoking Your Listeners
Emotions (cont.)
Ethical speakers must ensure that the
language they select accurately describes the
ideas they are discussing.
Loaded language fallacy is committed when
emotionally charged words convey meaning that
cannot be supported by facts presented by the
speaker.
 Sample Persuasive Speech
Read the sample speech Extra Credit You
Can Live Without in your textbook.
The speechs three main points deal with:
Problems created by students credit card debt
Causes of the problem
Steps to becoming a more careful credit card
consumer