“Thank You For Arguing” Ch By: Matt Phillips, Austin Meszaros, Emmilee Wyatt, and Evan Klinkenberger 1 st period

Ch.8 -“Disinterested Goodwill” combines selflessness and likability. Being disinterested simply means that someone is not biased by own opinions or were not forced into their decisions. -Many early politicians used selflessness to get elected, due to the fact that being selfless determined your electoral status. They pretended to not have gone to any congress events, even though they were in favor to the new constitution. Some politicians went as far as purposely going bankrupt, for having more money meant more interest. This pattern continued into the nineteenth century, when certain politicians claimed to being raised impoverished in a log cabin without being obligated to anyone.

Ch. 8 cont’d -Make the audience believe in your selflessness. Make it sound as if you have reached your opinions by gaining evidence, or that you have come to your decision not because you wanted to, but because you believed it had to be done. Claim to have been in your opponent’s position. For example, if your opponent says he is against capital punishment, you can say that you were against it too. To gain trust from your adversary, act as if the choice you defend hurts you personally. -An argument can be made on what the audience believes, not on what it true. For example, Marie Antoinette didn’t actually say “Let them eat cake”. Her enemies made it sound as if she did, and it is believed to be true due to her lousy character.

Ch. 8 cont’d -You audience needs to be trusting, attentive, and willing to be persuaded, and they will be more likely to be persuaded if they believe you are worth their time. So, you must have good character and make the audience believe in you. - Make it seem like you have no tricks up your sleeve. If you start out your speech as if you do not know where to begin, it will seem more believable because you will seem more honest and less likely to exaggerate. This technique is called Dubitatio.

Ch. 8 cont’d -when you speak to a group, use your nerves to your advantage. Gradually speak louder as you gain confidence. It is not necessary to grab the audience’s attention right away, but when you are ready to make the main point, be confident and grab their attention. Summary: -Act as if your decision or conclusion was only made because it was what was best, not because you believed it to be best. -Claim to have made your decision to help your audience and not yourself. -Show doubt in yourself and use Dubitatio, this will make you more believable.

Ch. 9 Emotion comes from experience and expectation. When you want to change someones mood, tell a story. Pathos affects an audiences judgement. When you argue emotionally, speak simply. Pathos depends on self-control. Use anger, patriotism, and emulation. Unannounced emotion. Volume control.

Passive Voice (Ch.10) Passive voice is a great pathos trick used to calm the audience in an argument. Passive voice is used when you are trying to direct an audience’s anger away from someone. To use this successfully, imply that an action happened on its own and didn’t occur because of someone else’s mistake. Ex. Say the chair was broken instead of Pablo broke the chair. This calms the audience’s anger because if the chair just broke itself, then there isn’t anyone to be angry at. This tactic should not be used if you are the one the audience is angry at. If the audience sees that you are just trying to get yourself out of trouble, rather than defending a friend, they will become more angry.

Backfire If the audience has already become very angry at you and passive voice doesn’t sound like the best option, try setting a backfire. A backfire inspires sympathy and exaggerates the audience’s emotions. It makes the audience think that you have realized that what you have done was wrong and you feel bad about it. This makes the audience feel sympathy instead of anger. Ex. You step on someone’s foot, and instead of just ignoring them and having them get angry at you, you reply with “sorry,” and they realize you didn’t mean to do it and they won’t be angry. However, this is risky because if you do something more extreme, like wreck your friend’s car, a simple “my bad” isn’t going to keep your friend from getting angry.

Humor Humor is a much safer tactic when used the right way. Humor relieves anxiety and is the most common device for most emotions, except anger. It enhances your ethos when used properly. Urbane humor – depends on an educated audience and relies on wordplay. Wit – drier than urbane humor and instead of wordplay, it plays off the situation. Facetious humor – covers most jokes and the sole purpose of it is to make you laugh Banter – a form of attack and defense consisting of clever insults and snappy comebacks. The object is to out insult your opponent.