Prompt: What are the big takeaways from chapter 23-24?  In a full journal entry, help explain the significance of what you connected with and be prepared to discuss next class. (150 words/chapter words—300 words total).

Chapter 23: This chapter focused on the art of crafting a persuasive speech. It first discusses how persuasive speeches can take advantage of human psychology by utilizing strategies such as making your speech personally relevant to listeners, establishing credibility to establish an audience’s confidence in what you say, as well as using personal anecdotes as audiences tend to react positively to them. It then continues by explaining the concepts of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos and how each are useful at convincing an audience. Logos applies to the use of reason, Ethos refers to the credibility of a speaker, and Pathos represents the effective appeal to emotion. The chapter follows this up by discussing how an audience’s hierarchy of needs can be appealed to, how to encourage mental engagement from the audience to ensure a better likelihood of persuasion, and then finally finishes with a note on how an audience’s reaction can vary based on the culture they are from.

Chapter 24: While the previous chapter focused on the concept of a persuasive speech, this chapter prioritizes the construction of such a speech. It starts by explaining important components of any persuasive speech, including the claim, the evidence to support a claim, and the course of action that should be taken for such a claim. As for claims, there were various kinds demonstrated such as claims of fact that focus on whether something is or is not true, claims of value that focus on judging whether something is or is not worth a commitment, and claims of policy that are requests for actions to be taken. For evidence, the chapter discusses the various kinds of sources that could be used as effective evidence that appeals to the Pathos, Ethos, or Logos mentioned in the previous chapter before it moves on to the subject of warrants where it goes in depth on multiple examples. The chapter continues on to discuss avoiding fallacies in your speeches, addressing counterarguments, and more before finishing the chapter with an effective example of a persuasive speech.