Rhetorical Definition and Examples of Persuasion

Persuasion is the use of appeals to reasons, values, beliefs, and emotions to convince a listener or reader to think or act in a particular way. Adjective: persuasive.  Aristotle defined rhetoric as the ability to discover the available means of persuasion in each of the three kinds of oratory: deliberative, judicial, and epideictic. Persuasive Writing Techniques 30 Topics for a Persuasive Essay or Speech40 Writing Topics: Argument and Persuasion ApologiaAppealArgument Artistic Proofs and Inartistic Proofs The Art of Persuasion, by John Quincy AdamsConfirmation BiasDefinitions of RhetoricDramatismExhortationHortatory DiscourseHow to Write an Effective Ad, by Ulysses G. ManningIdentificationKairosLogical ProofMotivated SequencePathos and Persuasion: The Validity of Emotional AppealsPhronesisPropagandaPropositionRhetorical MoveRogerian ArgumentSpin EtymologyFrom the Latin, to persuade The Art of Literary Persuasion Character [ethos] may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.(Aristotle, Rhetoric)Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe he has been converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced; the majority allow themselves to be persuaded.(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)[F]or the purposes of persuasion the art of speaking relies wholly on three things: the proof of our allegations, the winning of our hearers favors, and the rousing of their feelings to whatever impulse our case may require. (Cicero, De Oratore)There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory. (Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg. Harpers Monthly, Dec. 1899)He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense. (Jo seph Conrad, A Familiar Preface. The Collected Works of Joseph Conrad)The best way to persuade people is with your ears--by listening to them. (attributed to Dean Rusk) The Persuasive Process   When we try to persuade, we use the arguments, images, and emotions most likely to appeal to the particular  audience  in front of us.  Rhetoricians  who teach the art of persuasion have always instructed their students to treat different audiences differently, to study their distinctive and peculiar commitments, sentiments, and beliefs. (Bryan Garsten,  Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment. Harvard University Press, 2006)  All language can in a sense be regarded as persuasive (cf., e.g., Miller 1980). However, in this context we limit the definition of persuasion to all linguistic behavior that attempts to either change the thinking or behavior of an audience, or to strengthen its beliefs, should the audience already agree. Yet the audiences--visible and invisible, actual and implied, interlocutors and onlookers--also contribute to the process of persuasion. (Tuija Virtanen and  Helena Halmari, Persuasion Across Genres: Emerging Perspectives.  Pe rsuasion Across Genres: A Linguistic Approach. John Benjamins, 2005)     Technology has made the audience a prominent feature in the persuasive process. Audiences play an active role in the co-creation of meaning. Persuaders use audience analysis to understand their audiences and adapt their messages. At the same time, technology makes it possible for audiences to circumvent the messages of persuaders and communicate directly with other audience members. In short, the audience for todays media is potentially large, anonymous, and able to circumvent the persuasive messages of producers. (Timothy A. Borchers, Persuasion the Media Age, 3rd ed. Waveland Press, 2013) Persuasion in Advertising The real  persuaders  are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders. (attributed to Eric Hoffer)If youre trying to  persuade  people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the  vernacular. (David Ogilvy,  Confessions of an Advertising Man, 1963)â€Å"VVs NoCoat campaign . . . did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.†Ã‚  (David Foster Wallace,  Infinite Jest. Little Brown, 1996) Persuasion in Government [I]n a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and  persuasion, and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance. (Thomas Jefferson, 1824. Quoted by James L. Golden and Alan L. Golden in  Thomas Jefferson and the Rhetoric of Virtue. Rowman Littlefield, 2002) Men are not governed by justice, but by law or  persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both. (Lord Summerhays in  Misalliance  by George Bernard Shaw, 1910) The Lighter Side of Persuasion A man in  Phoenix calls his son in New York the day before Thanksgiving and says, I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough. Pop, what are you talking about? the son screams.We cant stand the sight of each other any longer, the old man says. Were sick of each other, and Im sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her..Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. Like heck theyre getting divorced, she shouts. Ill take care of this.She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at her father, You are NOT getting divorced. Dont do a single thing until I get there. Im calling my brother back, and well both be there tomorrow. Until then, dont do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME? and hangs up.The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. Okay, he says, theyre coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way.(Charles Smith, Just Plain Funny. RoseDog Books, 2012) Pronunciation: pur-ZWAY-shun