Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs is an important work which instructs people in the fine art of articulating issues and winning arguments. The Cicero argument approach is the classic model presented by Heinrichs.
The Cicero approach is a five-step process beginning with the development of a basic premise formulated by extensive research. The arrangement of the argument follows the basic premise.
The speaker needs to set goals and persuade by stimulating the audience on terms set forth at the commencement of the speech. Expert speakers sometimes relate stories to change the mood of the audience or to get a complex message across to them.
Ultimately, the speaker needs to bond with an audience to develop the requisite trust to bring things to the next level. Heinrichs labels this process of bonding with the audience as The Rhetorical Ape.
The arrangement consists of an introduction, the proof and conclusion of the argument. Next, the speaker selects a style for presenting the argument.The main ideas are committed to memory. Finally, the argument is practiced by the speaker.
Heinrichs explains how the art of persuasion requires that the speaker be versed thoroughly in the subject matter from extensive research, experience or a combination of elements. At times, an argument can be reduced to an absurdity in order to entertain or challenge the audience to view things in more than a singular or an analytical dimension.
Another approach is for the speaker to set up a straw man analogy which is easy to attack logically. Sometimes, speakers engage in ignoratio elenchi which is aimed at proving something not at issue. A related logical error is the fallacy of ignorance which sets up a concept which cannot be proven either true or false.
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