The Thesis: Putting your Idea Into Words

The Thesis: Putting your Idea Into Words

The most  important part of your arguments is its substance that is, the idea you are trying to communicate or the point you are trying to prove. This can usually be summed up in a Thesis:  the statement of your argument in a single, declarative sentence. The first step in composing a piece of persuasive speech or writing is to compose this sentence. For example, you might wish to argue the following:

 Democracy is the ideal from of government

Once you can state your idea in its simplest terms, you are ready to build an argument around it.

The Modes of Appeal

Since Aristotle, rhetoricians have identified three primary modes of appeal that we may use to persuade an audience. Aristotle called them the "artistic" proofs, because they require art or skill.

The first such as appeal is logos, which is the "appeal to reason"; it uses logical reasoning to convince an audience. For example, you might say the following:

Democracy always promotes the best interests of the majority of people in any decision because everyone in the group can advocate for their interests, and decisions are made by majority consensus.

This kind of statement is an example of what we call deductive reasoning. It makes one or more prepositions and then works through their logical implication. We can understand deductive reasoning by putting it in the form of a syllogism, which is a series of statement that make each proposition explicit:

In a democracy, decisions are made by majority consensus.

While a consensus is being worked out, each person will be able to advocate for his or her own interests.

Therefore, decisions in a democracy will reflect the interests of the majority of the people

By contrast, inductive reasoning makes probable conclusions from examples or pieces of evidence.

Democracy is good for the overall success of a country; many of the most powerful and prosperous nations in the world are ruled by democratic governments.

Such reasoning is always conclusive in proportion to how representative the examples is. In this case, our statement would be much more compelling if we could say that all of the most powerful and prosperous nations in the world were democracies. If we only reason from the example of one particularly country, or if we reason from many examples but must admit exceptions, then our argument is weaker.

The second artistic mode of appeal is ethos, the "ethical appeal," which is based on establishing the credibility of the speaker or write (to include both, we may speak of the "rhetor"). Ethos is often deployed indirectly:

In fifty years of studying the governments of nations on every continent, I have found that the more democratic the government, the happier the people.

At face value, this is an example of logos: an inductive claim about happiness based on examples from every continent. It also, however, serves subtly to remind the audience of the rhetor's expertise. A rhetor may establish ethos through actions as simple as using technical terms from a particular field to imply his or her knowledge of it.

The third mode of appeal is pathos, the appeal to the audience's emotions. These can be positive emotions, like pride or hope, or negative ones, like fear or hatred.

What is the alternative to democracy? Every man, woman, and child cowering in terror under the brutal rule of another Hitler, another Stalin! Not one home will be safe from the power of the State!

These modes of appeal are artistic in the sense that they involve an art that can be learned; "non-artistic" means of persuasion, by contrast, include things that do not rely on the skill of the rhetor, like cited sources, statistics, testimony, and proverbial wisdom. Of course, you'll probably need to mix in a little of the artistic modes in the process of using these, too; you'll need a little logos in framing and interpreting facts, and maybe a little pathos in how you present moving testimony from a witness.

The nature of the thesis will suggest the nature of your composition and the kinds of persuasion it should employ.