On the Art of Persuasion

1. Unless you have established your credibility as a speaker and made yourself personally attractive to your listeners, you are not likely to keep their attention, much less to persuade them to do what you wish. Only after your audience has been persuaded to trust you, can they be persuaded by what you have to say about anything else. (This is the ethos of your argument, how you establish trust.)

2. Watch how you move from point to point. Use transitions. You're writing a long paper so you must help your readers follow your logic. (This is the logos of your argument--your thread.)

 

3. If you want to get people angry at some injustice, don't model anger. They will think you already have it covered and will do nothing. Just calmly tell them the facts and let them create their own anger. (Managing the pathos in your argument is a key feature of its success.)

 

4. Lead with non-controversial statements. Any attempts to shock or surprise will often result in unintended consequences.

 

5. Express your own doubts about anything you say. The more middle-of-the-road you are in any controversy, the more weight you have as a wise, unbiased judge.

 

 

 

 

From a website at the University of Arkansas law school:

Advice to lawyers: Don't try to bluff the court; you have to understand the argument yourself before you can explain it someone else. Judges have a keen sense of the law, and they can quickly detect a bogus (i.e., fake, foggy, far-fetched) argument. While some lawyers may make deliberately bogus arguments, I think that lawyers more often do so because they don't really understand their cases, the law, or the law's application to their facts. They try to hide their ignorance in their writing. But it shows every time. Your argument will strike the judge as bogus if it displays too many of the following characteristics: