1. Persuasive Techniques and Rhetorical Devices
Speech is Power
Persuasive Techniques and
Rhetorical Devices

2. Types of Speeches
Political Speech: focuses on an issue relating to government or politics. Usually, the speaker tries to persuade people to think or act in a certain way. Address: a formal speech that is prepared for a special occasion (ex: “The Gettysburg Address”) Sermon: a speech that is usually based on scriptural text and is intended to provide religious instruction (“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”)

3. Ethos, pathos, logos Ethos: appeals to authority
Pathos: appeals to emotion
Logos: appeals to logic
Inductive reasoning: draws a conclusion from specific cases
Deductive reasoning: applies a principle to specific cases
Syllogisms: arguments made up of 2 premises and a conclusion
Analogy: show points of similarity between different topics (using something familiar to describe the unfamiliar)

4. Persuasion
Speech or writing that tries to get the audience to think or act in a certain way. Persuasive Techniques: the methods that a speaker or writer uses to sway an audience. Most effective speeches use a mixture of persuasive appeals.

5. Persuasive Techniques
Logical appeal: build a well-reasoned argument based on evidence, such as facts, statistics, or expert testimony Emotional Appeal: attempts to arouse the audience’s feelings, often by using loaded words. Loaded words: Words that convey strong emotion

6. Persuasive Techniques
Ethical Appeal: an appeal showing that an argument is just or fair Appeal to Authority: when an appeal shows that a higher power supports the idea presented (Barak Obama approves this message)

7. Rhetorical Devices:
Repetition: restating an idea using the same words (ex: “I have a Dream”) Restatement: expressing the same idea using different words (Lincoln: “we can not desecrate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground”) Parallelism: repeating a grammatical structure (She is a goddess in our minds; she is an angel in our hearts)

8. Rhetorical Devices:
Antithesis: using strongly contrasting words, images, or ideas (“ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”) Rhetorical questions: asking questions for effect, not to get actual answers Allusions: referring to well-known people, places, events, or stories.

9. Allusions:
Literary Allusions: refers to characters, authors, books of literature (She went down the rabbit hole when she asked her question.) Biblical Allusions: refers to people, places, events, stories from the Christian Bible (Hurt: “I wear this crown of thorns”) Historical Allusions: refers to people, places, events in History Greek Allusions: Refers to people, places, events, stories in Greek mythology (Iron Man: Trojan Horse)

10. Autobiography and Aphorisms
Autobiography: life history written by the person who actually experienced it
Auto: meaning “self”
Bio: meaning “life”
Graph: meaning “write”
Aphorisms: short saying with a message (an apple a day keeps the doctor away)

11. Negative Persuasive Techniques:
Logical Fallacies: types of reasoning that may seem convincing but contain inherent flaws
Ad hominem: attack on a person’s character
False causality: an assumption that because A happened before B, A caused B (war happened, gas prices went up=war caused high gas prices)
Red herring: distracting listeners from a more important issue (ISIS dropped more bombs, but Kim Kardashian and Kanye West get in a fight at the Oscars…more to come on their epic food fight)
Bandwagon: it is right because it is popular
Propaganda: presenting one side of an argument as correct (other side is not included)