Over the last few months, I have read and annotated Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can teach us about the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs. After being a journalist and publishing executive for 25 years, Heinrichs is now the professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Middlebury College in Vermont and travels the world as a presenter and persuasion expert. Published in 12 languages and 3 editions, Thank You For Arguing is a New York Times bestseller, along with being one of the top ten books assigned at Harvard. My analysis of Thank You For Arguing made me uncover the lost art of rhetoric, the steps in creating an excellent persuasive speech, and identifying the three methods of persuasion in everyday arguments.…