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AN ARGUMENT
Ah, yes—kissing the Blarney Stone. Inquiring minds want to know: do they sanitize it between smooches? (Source)
Sorry to break it to you, but there are no shortcuts to becoming a good public speaker.
You can try to gain the gift of eloquence by kissing the Blarney Stone. You can slap on a pair of jeans and a black mock-turtleneck and hope people will listen to you with absolute reverence because you look like Steve Jobs.
But smooching stones and buying forty-five identical shirts isn't going to get the job done. Becoming a good public speaker is a bit more complicated than that. So what's a good first step? And what are we going to do in this unit?
These aren't just rhetorical questions. The answer to both is "master some rhetorical techniques."
So, let's do just that, shall we?
THANK YOU FOR ARGUING
In the last unit, you read Aristotle's definition of rhetoric, which was "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." Aristotle was, in the immortal words of Good Will Hunting, "wicked smart."
While we equate rhetoric with persuasion even today, some argue that in the last century or so, the concept of rhetoric has become broader. According to Purdue's OWL:
Instead of just persuasion, rhetoric is the set of methods people use to identify with each other—to encourage each other to understand things from one another's perspectives. (Source
This unit is all about learning different ways of accomplishing just that. Our tour guide to the modern world of rhetoric will be Jay Heinrichs' book Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion. (Make sure you've got your hands on the revised and updated edition from 2013.)
As the title suggests, Heinrichs frequently uses the word argument. But this isn't just the petty, bickering kind of argument. It's not even the aggro, let's-take-this-outside kind of argument. Argument can be, as Heinrichs says, "the most powerful of social forces." (Heinrichs, 4)
And here we thought the most powerful of social forces was the social media influencer.
Get a taste of what this book is all about by reading Chapter 1: Open Your Eyes (pages 3-11). As you read, pay attention to how Heinrichs defines argument and the roles it plays in our lives—without even getting punchy.
Ch 1.pdfBreaking Down Chapter One
Breaking Down Chapter One
Now that you've read the opening chapter, we're going to re-emphasize a few things.
First, you probably noticed that Heinrichs throws out lots of fancy-pants terms, like syncrisis and dirimens copulatio. You don't need to worry about memorizing these terms. We'll repeat the really important ones and make it clear which you need to be familiar with. (We'll even set them in bold font so you can't miss them. How helpful are we?)
One of the terms you definitely should have noticed in this chapter is seduction. After giving the used car salesman example, Heinrichs gives a useful definition of seduction in its broad form: "He sized me up and changed my mood; he seduced me." (Heinrichs, 9) Later he goes on to equate seduction with manipulation.
Time to close your eyes again and come up with an answer to this question from your own life: what's an example of a time you seduced someone into doing something you wanted?
(For the record, our answer is "when we convinced that barista to add a second shot of espresso at no extra charge" and the way we accomplished this was "by venturing out in in public with Venti-sized bags under our eyes.")
Another important concept Heinrichs brought up is what he calls "argument's grand prize: the consensus." (Heinrichs, 9)
In its most basic sense, a consensus is a general agreement. Think of the commencement speech you watched in the last unit. What consensus did that speaker want his audience to come to? He wanted the graduates to agree to live the rest of their lives in a certain way, right?
Since many of the examples for Thank You For Arguing have very little to do with public speaking, let's switch gears a bit and look specifically at seduction and consensus in a public speaking situation.
ASK NOT WHAT SEDUCTION CAN DO FOR YOU...
Heinrichs pointed out the pervasiveness of persuasion in our lives and gave some examples from his personal life. Most of his examples have nothing to do with public speaking, although he did bring up one very well known speech in this chapter—John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address.
We're sure you've heard the famous line from this speech, but have you ever actually listened to (or read) the whole thing? 'Cause that's exactly what you're about to do.
As Heinrichs pointed out, JFK's speech contains a very powerful example of the rhetorical technique called chiasmus. ("And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.")
But we want you to look at the rest of the speech and answer these two questions as you read and/or watch:
How does Kennedy employ seduction (manipulation through mood-setting)?
What consensus (general agreement) does Kennedy want his audience to arrive at?
Take a peek and/or a listen to the speech here.
It's definitely worth watching the video of the speech, if for no other reason than you can enjoy JFK's accent. Plus it's only four and a half minutes. However, it's probably easier to catch the persuasive language if you also read the transcript.)
Seduction
Seduction
Okay, sure—that sexy JFK accent is pretty seductive all by itself. But remember that the broader definition of seduction we're using in this course is "manipulation through mood-setting." The way we see it, JFK sets both an inspirational and an aspirational mood in his inaugural speech.
Inspirational:
We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom. (Woohoo! Freedom!)
United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. (We're all in this together!)
Aspirational:
So let us begin anew... (Let's do this, people.)
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. (You have the power!)
Consensus
Consensus
Why manipulate the audience into feeling a sense of inspiration and aspiration? What consensus did JFK want his audience to come to?
This is where those famous lines (which JFK saves for very close to the end of the speech) come in:
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
JFK wants his audience (basically, everyone in the entire world) to agree to do what they can to overcome the challenges that block the way of freedom.
Nicely done, Jack.
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