What is is How to define the issue in your favor Persuade on Your Terms Mr Burns Oh meltdown Its one of those annoying buzzwords We prefer to call it unrequested fission surplus ID: 604004
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Persuade on Your Terms" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Persuade on Your Terms
What “is” is
How to define the issue in your favorSlide2
Persuade on Your Terms
Mr. Burns: Oh, meltdown. It’s one of those annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it unrequested fission surplus. -THE SIMPSONSSlide3
Persuade on Your Terms
The author relates an anecdote about arm wrestling with his son.His son was stronger than he was long before he first beat him, however.It was the grip, or technique that gave the author the advantage.Slide4
Persuade on Your Terms
Definition—a rhetorical method of getting a favorable grip on an argument. How you define your terms can either work for you…or against you.Slide5
Persuade on Your Terms
**Stance—The technical name is “status theory.” Status is Latin for “stance.” It comes from the stance wrestlers would take at the beginning of a match. The technique is a fallback strategy: fact, definition, quality, relevance. If the first won’t work, fall back on the second, and so on.Slide6
Persuade on Your Terms
If facts work in your favor, use them. If they don’t (or you don’t know them), them…Redefine the terms instead. If that won’t work, accept your opponent’s facts and terms but…Argue that your opponent’s argument is less important than it seems. And if even that isn’t to your advantage…Claim the discussion is irrelevantSlide7
Persuade on Your Terms
Getting a handle on the argument…Fact—Definition—Quality—RelevanceSlide8
Persuade on Your Terms
Caught red-handed smuggling a candy bar…You can’t argue facts; you are clearly guilty.Redefine the issue by saying it wasn’t exactly ‘smuggling’.Quality—I’m guilty, but there were intervening circumstancesRelevance—who are you to judge?Slide9
Persuade on Your Terms
One of the best ways to define the terms is to redefine them.**Redefinition—Don’t automatically accept the meaning your opponent attaches to a word. Redefine it in your favor.Slide10
Persuade on Your Terms
For most lawyers, redefining is a matter of instinct.Bill Clinton and the meaning of “is”…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P8IYKxpqG0Slide11
Persuade Them on Your Terms
In politics, candidates try to pin labels on each other…‘…tax-and-spend liberal…’‘…fat-cat republican…’Slide12
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Argument jujitsu—Accept your opponent’s term and its connotation, then defend it as if it was a positive thing.Sibling: You’re just talking like an egghead.You: Yes, I’m talking like an egghead. I am an egghead.Slide13
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Or…You: If talking like an egghead means knowing what I’m talking about, then I’m talking like an egghead.Slide14
Persuade Them on Your Terms
At the office…Coworker: Your idea is unoriginal.You: Sure. Unoriginal in the sense that it’s been used successfully.‘Sure’ trumps ‘It’s not’.Slide15
Persuade Them on Your Terms
You: You’re just talking like an egghead—using fancy jargon to show everybody how educated you are.Sibling: So I’m educated. If you’re insecure about your own lack of knowledge, don’t go attacking me.Slide16
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Oh no! What went wrong?“You” introduced a term (educated) without defining it. You have left a door open to a new attack…Slide17
Persuade Them on Your Terms
It’s better just to stick with…You: You’re just talking like an egghead—showing off with your fancy jargon.Sibling: I’m not showing off! I’m using words that any educated person would know.Slide18
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Now the “sibling” on the defensive, rather than you.You can take control of the new word in play…You: Using obscure words doesn’t show that you’re educated.Or…You: So let’s talk in simple terms how we’re going to pay for Mom’s insurance.Slide19
Persuade Them on Your Terms
**periphrasis—swaps a description for a name—good for labeling a person on an issue. A more general word for this is ‘circumlocution’.For example…‘frivolous law suits’ and ‘welfare cheats’ became names to tag and frame the issue.Slide20
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Make your opponents most positive words look like negatives…In the negotiations for the in-flight magazine…“Professional” vs. “Fun”Slide21
Persuade Them on Your Terms
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony calls Brutus ‘an honorable man’ so many times and with such connotations as to render the term sour.Anthony wants to convince the audience that Brutus is an assassin, a murderer, and a traitor (while at the same time building up his own ethos.)Slide22
Persuade Them on Your Terms
**Commonplace Words**Mr. Burns is faced with the commonplace word ‘meltdown’, which is heavy with negative connotations. He swaps it for jargon that never shows up in any commonplace.Slide23
Persuade Them on Your Terms
**metastasis**The technique of skipping over awkward subjects.(The author handles negatively charged words gingerly; such as ‘defining’ and ‘labeling’.)Slide24
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Your job as a persuader is to find the commonplace words that appeal most to your audience—or, if you are on the attack, repel them.Politicians use focus groups to test terms like ‘reform’ and ‘protection’ to see which resonate best.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOaCD_JNgkASlide25
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Tip—Spot the key words and use them to define an issueSlide26
Persuade Them on Your Terms
For example…A baby’s right to live, or a woman’s right to her own body.“Pro-Life” vs. “Pro-Choice”Slide27
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Political consultants—and just about everybody else these days—call this “framing.”Find the audience’s persuadable commonplaces. Define the issue in the broadest possible context. Then deal with the problem at hand, using the future tense.Slide28
Persuade Them on Your Terms
“An Egg is Not a Chicken.”“Make Abortions Safe and Rare.”“Abortion is Murder.”“Equal Rights for All Human Beings.”Slide29
Persuade Them on Your Terms
After you choose your commonplaces and define the issue in a way that directly concerns the largest audience, switch the tense.To make a decision, your audience has to turn to the future.Slide30
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Advocates who give rhetoric its due—working the commonplaces, defining the issue in the broadest context, and switching from values to the future—increase their batting average.Slide31
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Aristotle praised the middle path…the “Golden Mean”.Slide32
Persuade Them on Your Terms
The author suggests that the rhetorical process that gives rise to moderate positions is good for society.How so? Explain.Slide33
Persuade Them on Your Terms
The Tools—You want to attach favorable connotations—labelingWhen you which to label an entire issue—framingTerm changing—don’t just accept terms, use your own.Redefinition—Accept terms; adjust connotationDefinition Jujitsu—Use opponents’ terms against themDefinition Judo—Cast negative connotations on your opponents’ positives.Slide34
Persuade Them on Your Terms
Framing Techniques—7) Find commonplace words that favor you8) Deal with the issue in the broadest context that appeals to the widest audience.9) Then, deal with the specific problem; switch to the future tense.Slide35
Persuade Them on Your Terms
The definition tools fall under the strategy of stance, the position you take at the beginning of an argument. If the facts don’t work for you, define (or redefine) the issue. It that won’t work, belittle the importance of what’s being debated. If that fails, claim that the whole argument is irrelevant.FACTS / DEFINITION / QUALITY / RELEVANCE