‘Thank You For Arguing’ by Jay Heinrichs

1. Open Your Eyes
The first chapter introduced the reader to the art of rhetoric. He describes how rhetoric works through real life examples. He demonstrates ways that rhetoric persuades us like, argument from strength, and seduction. He tells the reader that the sole purpose of arguing is to persuade the audience. He showed that the chief purpose of arguing is to also achieve consensus, a shared faith in a choice. 2. Set Your Goals

This chapter distinguished the difference between a fight and an argument. In an example, he used a study based on married couples. The couples whose marriage succeeded argued, the marriages that didn’t last long, fought. The difference is that in a fight, you want to win. In an argument, you want to achieve a goal. For the persuader to do his job, he needs to set a goal. In order to achieve his goal, he needs to change audience’s mood, mind, and willingness. 3. Control The Tense

This chapter focused on the subject and the tenses. To argue, you need an issue. Blame, value, and choice are usually the main causes for an argument. Knowing the issue is important because your goal will not be met if you argue about the wrong core issue. To figure out the core issue, focus on the tense. Blaming is told in past tense, values are in the present, and choice is determined in the future. Control the issue and control the clock. In the present tense (demonstrative) it ends with people separating or bonding. Past tense (forensic) threatens punishment. And future tense (deliberative) argument promises something in the future. He also introduces the first rule of rhetoric, never debate the undebatable. 4. Soften Them Up

In every argument, you need a tool to use to help you persuade the audience. Argument by character (ethos), argument by logic (logos), and argument by emotion (ethos). Logos is used to determine what the audience is thinking. Ethos, reflects the persuader’s personality, reputation, and ability to look trustworthy. And pathos, the audiences emotions. The most important tactic of logos is concession, using your opponent’s argument to your own advantage. Sympathy for your audience’s issues and changing the mood to suit your argument is argument by emotion, or pathos. Ethos, argument by character or a good reputation was more important that logos in Aristotle’s book.

5. Get Them to Like You
This chapter focuses only on ethos. Its key word, decorum. Decorum “is the art of fitting in…” your audience can easily agree with the persuader if he meets their expectations of what he should look like, act like, and speak like. “To show proper decorum, act the way your audience expects you to act…” Decorum doesn’t always work for both opponents, the audience has to feel comfortable with one of the persuaders, not both. You earn the love of your audience through decorum. 6. Make Them Listen

Cicero said that you need your audience to be receptive, attentive, and they should like and trust you (ethos).The audience can think the persuader is wonderful, but won’t put anything into action if they think he will steer them in the wrong direction. Your audience has to believe that the persuader shares their values, knows the craft, and is not biased on an issue and only cares about the audience. Four ways to achieve this is to brag, get a witness to brag for you, reveal a tactical flaw, and switch your opinion of the argument when needed. 7. Use Your Craft

The second element of ethos is practical wisdom or craft. The audience should consider the persuader sensible, as well as sufficient. They should believe he knows his craft. In an argument, it is best to show your experience, bend the rules unless it’s against the audiences values, and make your opponents position seem like an extreme path. 8. Show You Care

The third of ethos combines the persuader’s likability with his selflessness. The persuader shows himself disinterested in any specific interest. His only interest is what will solve the issue for the audience. Make the audience believe that you are selfless. While arguing, act as if the conclusion happened upon. The persuader should express that what he is doing for the audience does harm to him. It also helps to show doubt in your own rhetorical ability, become the underdog. 9. Control The Mood

To rouse the audience, in anger or otherwise, you use pathos. Use what your audience expects to happen and their beliefs. Telling a story that the audience can relate to in the first person makes the persuader relatable, to pull the audience in, play with your volume to make your emotion seem real, speaking plainly makes your emotion more believable. Never belittle your audience’s opinion, it can start a riot. Patriotism works not only for a country but can create a sense of unity. Find your persuasion gaps and fill them with desire and lust. Make your audience lust after your cause. 10. Turn the Volume Down

The passive voice encourages passive behavior, and can help you describe a wrongdoing without identifying the wrongdoer. Comfort your audience with simple plans, empowering words, and get your audience to smile. Humor, all types of humor, can calm any audience although it can backfire if you overplay the emotion yourself.

11. Gain the High Ground
Before the argument begins, the persuader needs to know what his audience is thinking, their values, and their views. Before the persuader can change the point of view, he has to start from the commonplace, or the audience’s position. If an audience rejects you or starts to babble, the persuader should listen to the words used. The commonplace is always used in regular conversations, the persuader should apply a label to the commonplace of an idea. If his opponent disagrees, he can look like an outsider. The advantageous topic covers what is best for the audience, the persuader needs the audience to believe his leadership to be advantageous choice. 12. Persuade on Your Terms

Under an attack, the tools to use in your stance are facts, definition, quality, and relevance to the subject in that descending order. If your opponent’s facts don’t work for your cause or you don’t know them, then don’t use them. Change the terms your opponent uses and insert your own, close to the audiences commonplace. Define and redefine your terms while changing your connation. If your opponents terms favor you the use them to attack (jujitsu), if your opponent’s terms contrast with yours then create a context that his opinion looks bad (judo). When defining the commonplace issue, use the broadest context to the values of the widest audience. When dealing with a specific issue, always use the future tense. 13. Control the Argument

Now we introduce the basic tools of logic. Deductive logic applies a general rule to a particular matter, while rhetorical deduction uses a commonplace to reach a conclusion. An enthymeme contains deductive logic based on a commonplace, “We should (choice), because of (commonplace). An induction starts with the specific and moves to the general. Inductive reasoning creates a belief instead of being based on one; facts, comparison, and story are the three kinds of examples to use during inductive logic. 14. Spot Fallacies

There are seven deadly fallacy sins that are used in everyday life. False comparison, two things are similar, so they must be the same thing. Bad example, the example that your opponent uses that is irrelevant or wrongly interpreted. Ignorance as proof, the lack of examples proves that something doesn’t exist or because something has never been proven wrong it must be true. Tautology, logical redundancy, the proof and conclusion is the same thing. False choice, more choices are available then the ones you received. Red herring, distracts the audience to make it forget the main issue. Wrong ending, the proof fails to lead to the conclusion. 15. Call a Foul

The difference between a fallacy and a rhetorical foul is that fouls aren’t “wrong”, they just make the argument impossible. There are also seven rhetorical fouls. Switching tenses away from the future. Inflexibility, refusing to hear the other side of the argument. Humiliation, an argument set out to make fun of your opponent, not to make a choice. Innuendo, threats, nasty language, and utter stupidity.

16. Know Whom to Trust
“Virtue is a state of character, concerned with choice, lying in a mean.” To detect a liar the audience should be aware of his disinterest, and virtue. Does the persuaders needs match your own? Whose needs is he meeting? Is the persuader convinced that the opposing opinion is extreme? Are his values close to yours? Both virtue and interest fall under ethos. 17. Find the Sweet Spot

The persuader can have all the right properties in ethos, but to determine if he can actually change something. To assess their practical wisdom listen for their “that depends” filter, are they trying to help your specific case or spout general information. Can you compare their experience to what they are saying they can do? Can the persuader cut to the main core of the issue? 18. Get Instant Cleverness

In an argument, you need to be equipped with all the rhetorical offensive strategies you can have. You can twist a cliché to undermine your opponent’s theory. Change word order; weight both sides to sum up the argument on your own terms. Edit out loud, you can amplify your argument with this technique. Turn the volume down, make you seem cool: turn up the volume emphasize your words. Invent new words, turning a noun into a verb or vice versa. 19. Speak Your Audience’s Language

To express present-tense demonstrative rhetoric, use the codes your audience uses, called code grooming. Logic free values, focus on individual value words to bring a group together. Repeated code words, use the specific commonplace terms that form a bond over and over again. Reverse words, avoid repeating your opponent’s words, especially if you have already denied them. 20. Make Them Identify with Your Choice

It isn’t easy to turn an idea into a belief especially when dealing with a group. The tools to turn an idea into a belief are the identity strategy and the code inoculation. In the identity strategy, the persuader needs the audience to identify with the cause, to see his choice as one that defines the group. Being careful of the words used when the persuader is describing your group is code inoculation. 21. Lead Your Tribe

Demonstrative rhetoric isn’t only about making a glorious speech and getting the credit it for it. Demonstrative rhetoric is a way to identify yourself with a tribe. Get a group of people to describe themselves, most people will do anything to live up to that identity. Sum up the issue in a few words and find a piece of the issue that can symbolize the audience’s values. 22. Avoid Apologizing

To avoid apologizing, you have to avoid making a mistake. If you do make a mistake, set your goals right after you mess up, be the first person to say you messed up, switch to future tense immediately, avoid belittling the victim, and do not apologize. 23. Seize the Occasion

Kairos, the art of seizing the occasion and timing is only half of the occasion. To create a persuadable moment, change or pinpoint your audience, changing circumstances or moods can signal a persuadable moment. 24. Use the Right Medium

The senses and there persuasive appeal helps you use more than your voice to persuade a group of people. When seizing the moment emphasize the proper medium, sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Sight and sound are pathos and ethos. Sound is the most logical of the senses. Smell, taste, and touch are only emotional. 25. Give a Persuasive Talk

In every speech, an orator needs to use five canons to keep an audience’s attention for a long period of time. Invention, find new material to use that has never been heard. Arrangement, the introduction comes from ethos. Narration, division, proof, and refutation is for logos. Finally, conclusion is where you get emotional, pathos. Style, proper language, clearness, vividness, decorum, and ornament. Memory, create an inventory of all your thoughts. Delivery, deliver what you are saying, body language and eye contact are the chief secrets of actio. 26. Capture Your Audience

Anytime someone is giving a speech, it is for a specific cause. When giving a speech, use Cicero’s outline, introduction, narration, division, proof, refutation, and conclusion. Identify your audience and distinguish them from outsiders. Make them desire to do what you want to do. Envision your choice, taking your audience with you in your dream. Use figures of speech to emphasize a point. Make something possible seem impossible by it being followed by a stream of impossible acts. Channels your audiences heroes, don’t just praise them, become their hero. 27. Use the Right Tools

For offense, set your goal, tense, and know who your audience is and what they represent. For defense, if you aren’t sure what to say, try conceding, then try redefining, then switch the tense to the future for change and change of subject. 28. Run an Agreeable Country

Rhetoric is not only used in a debate, it can be used to lead us out of political issues internationally if we could reach concession. If we used rhetoric’s in everyday politics then we probably wouldn’t be in the state we’re in, after all arguing is reaching a concession.