WRITING AND COMMUNICATION

SESSION 4: ARGUMENTATION & PERSUASION (CONTINUED)

TOULMIN MODEL EXERCISE

 Escalate their levels of violence until humans become their prey.

 Due to the public’s lack of empathy for other living creatures.
 On account of their predisposition for violence.
 Unless their violent tendencies are harshly punished.
 Since animal abusers frequently.
 Animal abuse should require mandatory jail time.
 Due to the public's lack of empathy for other living creatures (support), animal abuse
should require mandatory jail time (claim) since animal abusers frequently (qualifier)
escalate their levels of violence until humans become their prey (warrant) on account
of their predisposition for violence (backing) unless their violent tendencies are
harshly punished (reservation).
METHODS OF PERSUASION
 ART OF RHETORIC

• Ethos – Speaker, Writer

• Pathos – Audience, Listener, Reader
• Logos – Context, Subject, Topic
LOGOS: APPEAL TO FACT AND REASON
 HOW TO CREATE LOGOS

 Arguments based on facts, reason and common sense

 What are the sources of these facts?

 Are the statistics, surveys and polls relevant for that audience?

 Evaluating human experience: testimonies and narratives

 Read p.90 - 108

ARTISTIC VS INARTISTIC PROOFS
CONSTRUCTING THE ‘LOGICAL’ ARGUMENT

 Degree: how valid are comparative evaluations? (p.109)

“Better a conventional war now than a nuclear confrontation later.”

 Analogies: is it a logical or fair comparison of similar things?

If motorists in most other states can pump their own gas safely, surely the state of Oregon can

trust its own drivers to be as capable. It’s time for Oregon to permit self-service gas stations.

 Precedent: Comparison as Implication (p. 111-112)

“When we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t
blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated
benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the
results aren’t there, we blame the planners. . . . No one contemplates blaming
the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant
recognition. And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way
our students score on inter- national standardized tests, we blame the
teachers. “
—Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari, “The High Cost of Low Teacher
Salaries” (p.111)
PATHOS: APPEAL TO BELIEFS AND
EMOTIONS
HOW TO CREATE PATHOS

 Appeal to the audience/reader/listener’s sense of sense of identity, their self ‐interest, and their
emotions.
 Example of emotions that may be appealed to in case :
 Love
 Pity
 Fear
 Anger

Reflection Question: Is Pathos always justified?

 Read p.76 – p.80

 CREATING ETHOS

 Greek meaning of ‘ethos’: moral character, habit or custom

 Ethos: ethical
 Appealing to the credibility of the speaker
 Demonstrating knowledge and expertise about issue
 Showing empathy with other points of view
 Emphasizing shared values and assumptions with your audience
 Professionalism
KAIROS
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV06e-t048k

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhLFQzG_6MY

 Read p.80 – p.82

GROUP PRESENTATION: ADVERTISEMENT

 Create a print advertisement for the a product.

 The advertisement should contain text as well as visuals, it should make a logical claim & have an attention-
gripping tag line and use a blend of ethos, logos and pathos to sell the product or service. However, one of the
persuasive appeals should be more dominant to the other 2.
 Present this advertisement on multi-media (1 slide) (6 minutes per group) and explain why you think this is a
persuasive ad - where you have used 'the 3 appeals - highlight the dominant appeal and explain why you
selected it as the dominant one.
 Discuss the important of the claim and the tag line in increasing the persuasiveness of the advert.
 BE CREATIVE
 To be presented in Session 8.