Thank You For Arguing, Revised and Updated Edition: What Aristotle, Lincoln, And Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

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Crown/Archetype, Aug 6, 2013 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 432 pages
For when you really have to get your point across…          
 
*Expanded and Revised: Including new chapters on leadership, Obama’s oratorical mastery, the pitfalls of apologies—and an “Argument Lab” section to put your new skills to the test.*
 
Thank You for Arguing is your master class in the art of persuasion, taught by professors ranging from Bart Simpson to Winston Churchill.
 
The time-tested secrets this book discloses include Cicero’s three-step strategy for moving an audience to action—as well as Honest Abe’s Shameless Trick of lowering an audience’s expectations by pretending to be unpolished. But it’s also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians’ use of “code” language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of popular-culture dodges—including The Yoda Technique, The Belushi Paradigm, and The Eddie Haskell Ploy.

Whether you’re an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is for you. Written by one of today’s most popular language mavens, it’s warm, witty, erudite, and truly enlightening. It not only teaches you how to recognize a paralipsis and a chiasmus when you hear them, but also how to wield such handy and persuasive weapons the next time you really, really want to get your own way.
 

Contents

Set Your Goals
15
Soften Them Up
38
Make Them Listen
57
Control the Mood
81
1O Turn the Volume Down
96
Gain the High Ground
105
Persuade on Your Terms
115
Control the Argument
128
Speak Your Audiences Language
220
2O Make Them dentify with Your Choice
229
Avoid Apologizing
249
23 Seize the OCCasion
260
Use the Right Medium
271
ADVANCED AGREEMENT
281
Capture Your Audience
294
Use the Right Tools
305

Spot Fallacies
145
Calla Foulº
164
Know Whom to Trust
181
Find the Sweet Spot
191
ADVANCED OFFENSE
201
Run an Agreeable Country
318
APPENDICES
335
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
397
Copyright

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About the author (2013)

JAY HEINRICHS spent 25 years as a journalist and publishing executive before becoming a fulltime advocate for the lost art of rhetoric. Since then he’s taught persuasion to Fortune 500 companies, Ivy League universities, NASA, and the Pentagon. He is also the author of Word Hero: A Fiendishly Clever Guide to Crafting the Lines that Get Laughs, Go Viral, and Live Forever.

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