This is a guest post by Eric Philip. He is a fervent blogger with extensive expertise in education, travel, health, lifestyle, career and technology based writing. He is at present an academic consultant for Dissertation Heaven an organization helping students to find ease and peace of mind with better results.
What would you do if you want to hang out with friends past your curfew time? How do you make your parents allow you to go to a concert that they don’t approve of? Yeah, you can sneak out but let’s be a little more mature about this. You talk to them and try to convince them, right? This is your real life training in constructing persuasive arguments.
I am sure you want to be really good at this convincing so that your life can be easier and more fun. In order to do so, you need to learn about some fundamental ingredients of persuasion. The application of constructing persuasive arguments goes beyond convincing your parents. Whether it is writing a paper, engaging in a debate, convincing someone to loan you money or leading a team (got your attention now! Didn’t I?), these are your tools for convincing the audience.
Ethos, Pathos and Logos are the persuasion strategies developed by Aristotle, which help you to construct a strong argument as well as help you identify a weak argument so that you can counter it.
Using Ethos in an Argument
This means presenting the distinguishing characteristics and the guiding beliefs of your positions to establish your credibility. When arguing with someone, the first thing you want to do is to establish yourself as an intelligent and trustworthy person so that they pay attention to you. If you say, ‘trust me because I am trustworthy and hear me out because I am intelligent,’ do you think it will resonate with them? I think not. So, how do you do that?
- By presenting examples of similar situations that exhibit your intelligence and trustworthiness. What makes it really persuasive is to include the experience of a third party that endorses your assertions.
- By quoting relevant authoritative research so that it goes beyond a personal appeal.
- By choosing the correct and the most appropriate vocabulary that carries a balance of emotional appeal and persuasiveness.
- Garner the attention and some sympathy of the opposing side by finding a common ground but make sure that this doesn’t weaken your own argument;
Example: arguing about the effect of over consumption of fast food on health and supporting it with a quote from an experienced nutritionist.
Using Pathos in an Argument
This means garnering your audience’s sympathy by appealing to their emotions. In certain situations, this can be a very effective strategy; however, its application is relatively limited as compared to ethos and logos. The most common situations, where this strategy may be used are children trying to convince their parents, friends trying to convince each other. It does not fare well in situations that require more logical and ethical arguments. When using Pathos, make sure that you are not overdoing it; otherwise you will come off as an opportunist.
A very important aspect of using pathos is the choice of words, especially when different words are used to convey similar meanings. For example, which one of these words an unassuming person would use to describe herself, down-to-earth, demure or meek? As you can see, all of the choices have the same meaning but different ‘connotations’. Down-to-earth would probably be the choice of most people as it has the most positive connotation and has the strongest emotional appeal. So, using words with the right connotation is imperative to making a strong argument in this case.
Using Logos in an Argument
This is used in situations where reason must dominate and you have to appeal to the intelligence and critical reasoning of the audience. This is where you need an evidence based argument, which includes:
- Generally accepted facts;
- Authoritative evidence from a relevant, qualified and relatively undisputable figure or institution;
- Examples of events that would be relevant to your audience;
- Historical precedent expressed through examples from the past;
You might be scratching your head by now, thinking that deciding which strategy to use seems like such a cumbersome process. It is not that difficult. Much of it is actually programmed in us and the remaining requires some practice. So, practice them and be a dynamically persuasive person!
Persuasion have main point of Ethos, Pathos and Logos if those are unique and well then our Persuasion is perfect.