Summary Of Jay Heinrichs's Thank You For Arguing

Improved Essays
Everything One Needs to Know about Winning an Argument Jay Heinrichs is the author of Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can Teach us About The Art of Persuasion. He has written several books throughout his writing career. In particular, Thank You for Arguing is a New York Times Bestseller. Heinrichs uses certain tools to help the audience win arguments successfully and forces different techniques on how to win them. In some chapters, he gives real life advice/stories about arguments, and throughout the entire book, he uses ethos, logos, and pathos techniques to really engage the audience. This book would be a smart investment if one wanted to learn how to win an argument successfully. This book informs and …show more content…
However, eventually his wife won the dispute efficiently using guilt as her main weapon. He also talks about how to be rhetorical and gives many examples of rhetorical arguments. One in particular is when “if you [the audience] ask a rhetorical question and then answer it” it is called a “self-answering question.” (205) Asking a self-answering question uses rhetoric and smarts because it lets the audience think they have a say in the matter but in reality they don’t; it’s a mind game. Also, throughout the book, he uses manipulation in almost all of his arguments and most of them are guaranteed to be successful. Some would say chapter two is the most informative chapter. It talks about how to set goals during an argument. In chapter two, Heinrichs helped “distinguish between an argument and a fight” (15) and he helps you “choose what you want to get out of an argument.” (15) This is interesting because he explains how fights and arguments are two totally different things, “You fight to win; you argue to achieve agreement.” (17) This is meaningful to the audience because it is frustrating when one is trying to get a point across while someone is just flat out angry and just wants to hear themselves talk. However, on the other hand, it is much easier when two people are just voicing their opinions until they eventually come to a mutual conclusion or

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    In this passage, Schlosser sheds some light on the good in the fast food industry. One is a franchisee, named Dave Feamster. Feamster was once a NHL hockey player who was drafted in 1978 to the Chicago Blackhawks. After getting an injury that was incapable of being healed, he was forced to retire in 1985. He now owns five Little Caesars pizzerias in Pueblo, Colorado.…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the April of 1992, Chris McCandless set out from South Dakota to Fairbanks Alaska. Five months later, McCandless's body was found rotting inside an abandoned bus. Chris McCandless had run away from his family and had hoped to survive in the wild with only the bare necessities. McCandless was a fool for what he did, he was a hard working, and vigilant man, yet he embarked without a backup plan, nor the proper supplies to survive out in the wild.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Evidence of rhetorical strategy is apparent throughout the text, and implemented to…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In everyday conversations, people communicate using rhetorical strategies without knowing it. It is a natural communication skill everyone develops throughout their lives. For example, they may successfully lie to their bosses that they’re sick or tell their parents why they came home late. Similarly, written works contain rhetorical strategies to make convincing arguments. For example, William Zinsser wants to tell parents, professors, and college administrators what they may not know about the conditions of students.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Energy independency has now become an international subject, spreading with radical pioneers who seek independence from the local power grid. Henk Rogers reiterates, through his campaign to run his house on solar electricity and amicable quest to ensure Hawaii's electrical independency by 2045, that energy independency is accomplished when an individual or even a community can successfully supply their own energy needs without assistance from the power grid. Through his tenacious aspiration to encourage residents to go off grid, Rogers has inspired countless residents to become energy independent. In doing so, he has prioritized it as his ‘number one’ objective, insistent to reduce carbon emission from combustible fuels. The key factor that lead him to partake of the clean energy movement was perturbing fact that Hawaii’s hallmark coral reefs are perishing in the increasingly acidic ocean.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    An argument by emotion (pathos) is using the audience’s emotions to make them take action for your side of the argument. It appeals to the audience’s heart. Concession is the most powerful tool of logos because it allows one to shift the issues where one has a better argument by taking advantage of things from the opponent’s argument. Essentially, one allows the opponent to talk their way into giving you the advantage in an argument.…

    • 206 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nancy Wood’s published her book, Perspective on Argument, in 1995. Throughout the text, Wood refers to a variety of books that help further the reader’s understanding. She cites these sources with footnotes, as they are located at the bottom of each page. She uses small sections of a variety of sources. Also, Wood uses sources published in the 1990’s.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a child, I worshipped the invincible heroes in movies who got whatever they wanted, and I aspired to be like them. Although in real life, their clever and well thought out schemes would not be easy to implement or even devise, simply presenting an effective argument may be enough to manipulate an audience. To do so, the author must consider maintaining a connection with the audience, who may potentially disapprove of the argument or even find it offensive. To begin an argument, one can use a humble and frank tone towards the audience to state his purpose. He should take care not to use extreme or harsh diction or immediately present radical ideas.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Case For Rhetoric Debate and argument are a pinnacle foundation of speech in the world. Jay Heinrichs Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion, is like the bible of rhetoric and argument. Heinrichs is a former editor of many different publishers including: Rodale Inc., and Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. His book, is the leading book in the introduction to rhetoric, and is used in thousands of classrooms every year.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ethos, Pathos and Logos Whenever you read an argument you must ask yourself, "is this persuasive? And if so, to whom?" There are seveal ways to appeal to an audience. Among them are appealing to logos, ethos and pathos.…

    • 2061 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Undeniably, when giving a speech the character of the speaker, logical arguments are needed to but, the most important one should be the emotional connection to the audience and that would make the effective argument passionate. For instance, if someone wants to give a speech or write an essay on the value of educating young girls in a developing country, they must convince the audience by triggering their emotions such as giving first-hand experience, having the audience imagine what it would be like if they were facing hardships and misfortune and cannot do much about it. While logos may provide the statistics of the benefits of educating girls in third-world countries, and ethos would certainly appeal to the ethics and morals of the situation, it is only by making the audience feel the pain and suffering of a small girl through intricately emotion filled arguments that the writer could convince readers of the horridness and urgency of the matter. The more an author is able to create a personal connection torture, the stronger the arguments become. Strong emotions create a more appealing argument for an…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thank You For Arguing Analysis Essay In the book Thank You For Arguing , author and narrator , Jay Heinrichs lives his everyday life through a rhetoric standpoint. Rhetoric is the study of argument and persuasion. Heinrichs uses rhetoric as a way of helping himself , those around him , and also for him to better understand what goes on in the argumentative world. Heinrichs feels that rhetoric is the tool people should use to help them succeed and improve their everyday lives in a situation, no matter what the circumstance may be.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everything he writes is by the use of reasoning; therefore, he strategically persuades his message to the…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My experience in COMM 2367 this semester was an important one for not only my educational career but for my life after the classroom. It helped me reconnect with the task of group work, helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and much more that I will be discussing through this reflection paper. This communication class did not only help me complete a second writing course but also helped me learn how to use persuasion tactics in a writing and a speaking fashion. I have learned that persuasion is used in multiple different forms.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order to make his argument resonate with the readers, his choice of persuasive writing tactics such as comparison, amplifications, personifications, and allusions, does the trick. Without these persuasive tactics, the connection he has made between the readers and his writing would be lost. The connections…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays