The Art of Persuasion

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The Art of Persuasion Used since the times of the ancient Greeks, the art of persuasion has

become an integral part of our everyday language. From its inception,

it was used to elect a government to rule a state, used to boost a

person's spirit, and used to win a crowd's favour. There are many

different types of persuasive techniques, such as the general ethos, pathos

and logos, repetition, list of three and rhetoric, which was used in

ancient Greek. By viewing how these techniques have been applied in

J.F. Kennedy's Berlin speech, George Bush's speech on the 911

incident, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech,

it will become apparent how these techniques are used to "position" an

audience and persuade them to agree with the speaker.

By utilising statistics, facts, examples, findings and analogies in an

attempt to appeal to the audience's intellect, logos is a persuasive

technique that involves reasoning. Using logos encourages the audience

to accept a fact as it is proven, thus enabling the speaker to secure

and persuade the audience in that particular point. Evidence that is

statistically and/or scientifically proven cannot be disputed, and can

be seen in Bush's "911 speech". The President states that:

"Our military is powerful, and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are

working in New York City and Washington D.C...

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...e examples without sounding short. Since list of three add to the

rhythm of the speech, it will allow examples to be remembered by the

audience for a long time.

Of course, every persuasive speech should have a strong, powerful

ending. This helps the speech end effectively. This can be seen in

Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God alight, we are free at last!"

Such a strong ending will definitely leave a strong impression and a

lasting effect on the audience; it also helps sum up the whole speech

without sounding weak.

There are many different kinds of persuasive techniques, and although

writing a persuasive speech using only one technique can be done, it

will not be a very good speech. The best speeches always use a range

of persuasive techniques and integrate them together.

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