#jay heinrichs

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The Prophet Joan by Jay Heinrichs

The Prophet Joan by Jay Heinrichs

I’m not sure how I’d have received being told at the age of fourteen that I was a prophet but The Prophet Joan, our eponymous heroine handles it admirably and her quirky and original story is told with wit and humour by Jay Heinrichs. From the dramatic start where Joan relates “the Incident”, this book leads you into the world of Joan Mudgett (or as she prefers to be called, Jonah in honour of…

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[convivialdave]

Practical Speech Outline

Straight from “Thank You for Arguing” - If you really want to follow a classical outline, structure your speech like this:

(I) Introduction: The ethos part, which wins you “the interest and the good will of the audience,” as Cicero puts it. (He calls this section the exordium.)

(N) Narration, or statement of facts: Tell the history of the matter or list your facts and figures. If you have time, do both. This part should be brief, clear, and plausible. Don’t repeat yourself. State the facts in chronological order, but don’t begin at the beginning of time—just the part that is relevant to the immediate argument. Don’t startle the audience with “believe it or not” facts—this part should be predictable. What they hear should sound usual, expected, and natural.

(D) Division: List the points where you and your opponent agree and where you disagree. This is where you can get into definitions as well. It’s a biological issue. It’s an ethical issue. It’s a rights issue. It’s a practical issue (what benefits our society the most?). It’s a fairness issue.

(P) Proof: Here is where you get into your actual argument, setting out your argument packet (“We should do this because of that”) and your examples.

(R) Refutation: Destroy your opponent’s arguments here.

(C) Conclusion: Restate your best points and, if you want, get a little emotional.

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Aristotle’s “VIRTUE”: A state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean.

Why you should remember this:

‘state of character’ refers to the virtue of the speaker at that moment, concerned for the audience’s expectations, not his own.  That is the lesson of persuasion.  Don’t worry about what you want, worry about what others want.  Your audience’s desires always trump your own.

choice: a persuader always puts choices in front of his audience.

lying in a mean: in statistics a mean is an average.  Here is it meant to convey a middle ground, a middle choice.

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Spot these in your counterparts and become a better arguer and persuader:

Tautologies - concepts spoken over and over to beat the concept into the opponent.

1. False Comparisons

Appeal to Popularity

reductio ad absurdum - reducing arguments to the absurd

Fallacy of the Antecedent - just because something has or hasnt happened in the past is no true guarantee of it in the future

False Analogy - comparing experience in the past to its relevance in the future

2. Ignorance as proof - Just because something cannot be proven does not NECESSARILY mean it does not exist.

3. The False Choice -

4. Red Herrings

5. Straw Men

6. Wrong Endings (slippery slopes)

7. Chanticleer fallacy  (post hoc ergo propter hoc)  - under the banner of correlation does not infer causality (rooster believes his crowing causes the sun to rise)

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Framing Arguments and Labeling terms - TOOLBOX

LABELING: Term changing: Don’t accept the terms your opponent uses. Insert your own. Redefinition: Accept your opponent’s terms while changing their connotation. Definition jujitsu: If your opponent’s terms actually favor you, use them to attack.

Definition judo: Use terms that contrast with your opponent’s, creating a context that makes them look bad.

FRAMING:

COMMONPLACE WORDS that favor you.

DEFINE the issue in the broadest context—appeal to the widest audience. SPEAK: Deal with the issue as a choice in the future tense.

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Begin with a common value and using deliberative argument, offer the prize of choices and options in the future that reinforces your connection to those listening.

Advocates who give rhetoric its due—working the commonplaces, defining the issue in the broadest context, and switching from values to the future—increase their batting average.- Jay Heinrichs

[convivialdave]

While the decision is up to the audience, the burden of proof is on you - Aristotle

Your argument or speech is never about what you necessarily believe.  It is about what you want your audience to believe.

Your starting point is a commonplace value the audience shares.