The Art and Craft of Persuasion Based upon: Moser, Joyce, and Ann Watters, ed. Creating America: Reading and Writing Arguments, 3 rd Ed. New Jersey:Prentice Hall, 2002.

Types of Appeals Ethos Based upon shared values and beliefs Ex. FDR, Pearl Harbor, and “fair play” Pathos Manipulates audience emotions Empathy Logos Logic and reason Induction and Deduction

Inductive Reasoning Generalize truth from number of observations MLK: “boy,” motel, playground Faults Inadequate evidence Faulty conclusion “leap of faith”

Deductive Reasoning Begins with general principle and makes assertion based upon it Syllogism Enthymeme

Syllogism Major Premise + Minor Premise = Conclusion Major Premise: All men are mortal Minor Premise: Socrates is a man Conclusion: Socrates is mortal

Enthymeme Assumes common knowledge Compresses syllogism “Socrates, being a man, is mortal.”

Errors in Logic Hasty Generalization Conclusion based upon too few example Two senators are millionaires, therefore all public officials are rich. Biased Sampling Examples drawn from a pool guaranteed to produce a certain conclusion

Errors in Logic continued Straw Man False Target Misstates opponents views False Analogy Suggests that two people/events are identical rather than similar Attacks the analogy rather than the issue

Errors in Logic continued Ad Hominem Attacks against individual holding the position rather than the position itself “If I am young and right, what does age matter.” –Sophocles Antigone Post hoc ergo propter hoc “After this, therefore because of this” Correlation equals causation

Errors in Logic continued False Dilemma Either-or situation Boils down to only two choices Slippery Slope First step inevitably leads to disaster Begging the question Assuming something as a given that hasn’t been proven

Errors in Logic continued Non Sequitor Placing two things next to each other to imply connection without providing any logical backing