Turn that Frown Upside Down

I feel that the main points of these chapters of Heinrichs were that in order to have a convincing argument you need to make your audience feel comfortable and almost anticipate what they are thinking, feeling, and especially how you think they are going to react or take what you are going to say. Heinrichs really focus on tense, saying that mainly an argument comes down to how you say the argument, he says that YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL THE TENSE, so take control and always turn the argument in your favor. He almost asks us to play a mind reader and read the other persons mind playing into the three methods of effective argument - logos, ethos, and pathos. He tells us that sometimes it is ok to hold your tongue and let the other person speak, then you can see what they want for the argument and use that trick to win your argument. He makes this point especially important for me in the example of talking how he named his son George. He really wanted to call him George, but his wife did not want to, so he gives all these other ridiculous names and finally his wife comes down to liking the name George. I think his method of argument can best be summed up in his three goals for persuading people: 

1. Stimulate your audience's emotions. 

2. Change its opinion.

3. Get it to act. 

We can win an argument all by in the way we say something. We can learn maybe ONE thing from George Bush and that is to say "I care..." It will mean the world to the person we are arguing with. We have the power to change people's emotions and turn their frown upside down into a smile!  Finally all this can be summed up in our decorum - which includes everything about us - the way we talk, look, dress, act, smile, etc. - we are in control and must make that presence known in order to win our argument!