Chapter 14

Chapter 14 seems to be one of the self-help sections of the book. It introduces the classically way to argue on an issue. Probably the most interesting argument to me is the five stages of developing an argument. The 1st level is the personal opinion or basically a circle stage. It seems to me that broad ranges of people fall into this range today. The 2nd step is argument by one or more reasons. This step I feel is where I’m just beginning to get to throughout most of my writing. The 3rd step is truth seeking. This step is my most challenging because of my strong conservative ideology. I stand by my views even though there may be fundamental reasons why I’m wrong. The 4th stage is articulating the assumptions within an argument. This step is an expansion of truth seeking into forming a new opinion on an issue. Stage 5 is the ability to link the argument to the values and beliefs of the intended audience. Adapt the structure of the argument to the audience at hand. I commonly think of this as the salesmen’s approach.
This entire chapter seems to be about developing yourself into more of a salesmen approach. I don’t really this concept because it can commonly make the person seem more ignorant than knowledgeable. They create a blind ideology of how to make a person believe what you believe when I feel that most peoples’ ideals are not the problem at hand. This is why the country is a democracy; everyone can have a different opinion but all still hold up evenly. Even with the mistakes a speaker can commonly make, it enhances my view that this is about more of a speaking pitch than a writing pitch. I know a speech is merely a paper spoken but its mindset can create fundamental problems with how to make it better so that you can convince others to follow blindly at first. With enough information in one’s presentation, anyone can follow a very thought out speech and think he’s right.
This chapter is definitely going to help me improve in the persuasion caption of dealing with communication. I will though have to say it is not my biggest sense of my mind because I have major differences within most ideologies that I have never seen people take before. Many people would call the views complete arrogance of everything but I take it as I see it.