The Rhetoric Toolbox

This reading by Heinrichs was fantastic! I love that at the end of each chapter he gives a little overview of what he discussed to sort of wrap it all up in an easy to remember way. These tools are worth remembering:

• Belief: stirs up emotions to make the audience believe they experienced and expect what will happen

• Storytelling: sharing a story gives audiences a more visual experience and can draw up more emotion, especially when they are told in first person

• Volume control: most people start off quiet and get louder but by starting louder and getting quieter, like you are having trouble containing your emotions, you will be much more effective

• Simple speech: when getting emotional use simple speech, rather than large, fancy words. This works because simple speech is more pathetic

• Anger: one of the quickest ways to get someone to act is through anger, or a "crime of passion". You can get your audience angry easily by belittling them, making them feel as though the target does not care about them

• Patriotism: plays off of a group sense of identity which attaches itself with choices and actions

• Emulation: following the example of a role model. Be a role model to your audience and they will want to follow you

• Unannounced emotion: if you tell the audience the intended emotion beforehand, they will resist the emotion. Don't let your audience know what emotion you're going for beforehand

If you are trying to calm your audience, these tools are important to remember:

• Passive voice: do not target a person as the cause of something gone wrong, make it sound as though it is no one's fault, an "act of God"

• Backfire: when you screw up, avoid the anger of your authority by confessing before they have the chance to get angry. Overplay the screw up by making it a big deal and play with emotions by emphasizing that it was your fault
• Humor: There are four different types of humor - urbane humor, wit, facetious humor and banter
  

1. Urbane humor - depends on word play and an educated audience, it is usually in the form of puns and has fallen out of favor though it is the only kind of humor that you can teach yourself
2. Wit - is drier than urbane and plays off the situation rather than wordplay, it is not very lol funny however it is clever and slightly amusing
3. Facetious humor - jokes that are intended to make their audience laugh, it is the most frowned upon sense of humor by rhetoricians
4. Banter - back and forth attack and defense using other forms of humor for clever insults and comebacks usually very quickly

Personally I found the humor part of the reading to be the most interesting, especially since it's cool to know what type of humor I use, urbane and wit.

These general rules are helpful in nearly every situation and if ever in doubt, always remember your rhetoric toolbox and you'll always find the perfect tool.