Persuasion

Chapter two of Envision is all about elements of persuasion. I decided to write about this chapter, because I’m on the debate team and use persuasion constantly and know enough about it to write a little bit down. The beginning of the chapter looks specifically at adds and media and the different ways that they can get a consumer to buy a product of their choosing. The book shows how every ad is an argument that is trying to persuade you into doing a certain action. This was a neat concept to read about, because it applies directly to what we see everyday which is ads, ads, and more ads. Not only do we see ads a lot we see all of the different types of persuasion through ad companies and their clever tricks to make us think we need something. The next part of the chapter is what I use and identify with more often which are ethos, pathos, and logos. In my speech and debate career I have explicitly used two of these concepts very often. In debate I will find myself using logos over and over to explain to a judge why my train of thought makes more sense than that of the other team. On the other hand in speech I will find myself using pathos most of the time to allude to the judges emotions and tug at their heartstrings for a vote. Overall it is very interesting to see how often I see and use persuasion in and out of school.