Review Of The Book 'Offense' By Jay Heinrichs

Thank you for arguing is a book about the lost art of rhetoric and its effectiveness in persuasion. The author Jay Heinrichs uses numerous examples of the use of rhetoric whether it be from literature, out of modern day entertainment, or simply a personal experience. In the proceeding paragraphs we will briefly discuss the main points in this book, engage in a deeper understanding of chapter 19, and defend the books continued use in the educational system. In this book Heinrich attempts to takes us on a journey where we delve into rhetoric’s value to many aspects of life and effectiveness in the past to modern day speech. The first part of the book, ‘Offense”, the author explains the three steps of any argument: target the emotions of the audience, persuade their opinions, and ultimately make the audience decide something. Heinrichs goes further by explaining what Aristotle identifies as the three different types of persuasion. The three types distinctly differ in their use and target the first of which is logos, the argument by logic, ethos, the argument by character, and pathos, the argument by emotion. He then goes on to show the reader how to use each of these tactics to succeed in winning an argument. In part two, “Defense”, he not only expresses how to defend your own argument, but also how to …show more content…
Part three, “Advanced Offense”, discusses aspects in your argument such as figures of speech, how to effectively apologize, and kairos- the concept of right timing. The last part, “Advanced Agreement”, discusses a five step method of oration: