Over forty years ago, drifting through my undergraduate years in my ratty easy chair, I came across three words that lifted the veil from my eyes.\u00a0 Ethos, Pathos, <\/em>and <\/a>Logos<\/a>, <\/em>the Three Musketeers of rhetoric, seemed to me to be so comprehensive, so simple yet so profound, that I literally had a physical sensation as though the top of my head was coming off.<\/p>\n Sam Leith has written a timely book with a nifty title on the subject of rhetoric.\u00a0 Words like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama <\/em><\/a>is an accessible and engaging book on one of the oldest and most important disciplines in the world, namely how to use language to get people to do or think\u00a0what you want them to do or think.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n It starts\u00a0by\u00a0demonstrating that,\u00a0far from being\u00a0a creature from cloud-cuckoo land, rhetoric is in the very air that we breathe.\u00a0 Here is a snippet from\u00a0The Simpsons<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Marge [sings].\u00a0 How many roads must a man walk down, before you can call him a man?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Homer:\u00a0 Seven<\/p>\n Lisa:\u00a0 No, Dad, it\u2019s a rhetorical question.<\/p>\n Homer:\u00a0 Okay, eight.<\/p>\n Lisa:\u00a0 Dad, do you even know what \u201crhetorical\u201d means?<\/p>\n Homer:\u00a0 Do I<\/em> know what \u201crhetorical\u201d means?<\/p>\n The point is, if Homer (the Simpson<\/em>, not the author of The Iliad<\/em> and\u00a0The Odyssey<\/em>)\u00a0is learning about rhetoric, then we can too.\u00a0 Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, the attempt of one human being to influence another in words.\u00a0 As the subtitle of the book suggests, rhetoric has been around since the ancient Greeks, who used the art of influence<\/a> to create the first democracy\u00a0 (you can\u2019t use force in rhetoric.\u00a0 Only words.)\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s also used by priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, pastors, and reverends to get us to give up our evil ways and walk the straight and narrow.\u00a0 And every advertisement you see, essay you read, or speech you listen to is almost certainly designed and built according to the ancient principles and practices of rhetoric.<\/p>\n Did you know, for instance, that there are three kinds of rhetoric?\u00a0 Forensic, Deliberative, and Epideictic.\u00a0 <\/em>Before you gag on those words, let me put you at ease.\u00a0 Forensic <\/em>rhetoric is what lawyers do at a murder trial: they argue about what happened in the past.\u00a0 Deliberative <\/em>rhetoric is what politicians use:\u00a0 they argue about what they can do for you in the future.\u00a0 And Epideictic <\/em>rhetoric attempts to delight and educate the audience in the present, as in after-dinner speaking, commencement addresses, and other ceremonial forms of speaking.<\/p>\n The five parts of any ancient speech are consistent with our own methods:\u00a0 invention (you think up what you want to say), arrangement (put your content in order), style (are you speaking in a locker room or at a funeral?), memory (get it into your head), and delivery (let it rip.)<\/p>\n Aristotle identified three lines of argument that help make you persuasive, and he put them in the Invention <\/em>part of the rhetorical system.\u00a0 Ethos <\/em>is your ethical appeal, and it needs to come at the start of the speech.\u00a0 You need to establish your credentials, your credibility, and your character, so that you can be seen as a reliable, trustworthy source of information.\u00a0 Who wants to take a ski lesson from someone who\u2019s never worn a parka?<\/p>\n Pathos <\/em>is your emotional appeal.\u00a0 A speaker has to convince an audience that the topic is meaningful to them, that they will gain something by listening, or lose something if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n And Logos<\/em> is your intellectual appeal, your facts and figures<\/a>, and the reasoning you deploy to make sense of those facts.<\/p>\n The author supplies a simple encapsulation.\u00a0 Ethos: \u201cBuy my old car because I\u2019m an ex-NFL star.\u201d\u00a0 Logos: \u201cBuy my old car because yours is broken and mine is the only one on sale.\u201d\u00a0 Pathos:\u00a0 \u201cBuy my old car because this cute little kitty will expire from a rare degenerative disease if I don\u2019t sell my car and get the money to pay for kitty\u2019s medical treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n The book will also give you a chance to understand what you may be doing on your own\u2014using certain forms of speech to make your message POP!\u00a0 For instance, chiasmus,<\/em> which puts\u00a0 four terms in a crisscrossed relation to each other.\u00a0 \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you.\u00a0 Ask what you can do for your country,\u201d said JFK.\u00a0 \u201cYour manuscript is both good and original, but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good,\u201d Dr. Johnson told an aspiring author.\u00a0 And Theodore Roosevelt characterized as the central condition of human progress \u201cconflict between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who have earned more than they possess.\u201d<\/p>\n The book is Words like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama <\/em>by Sam Leith, published by Basic Books.\u00a0 Reading it, you will comprehend how rhetoric is everywhere\u2014in our ears on the radio, in our eyes on TV, and in our minds constantly through print and electronic media.\u00a0 You would be wise to learn how it works on you, and how you can make it work on others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hire<\/em> Sims Wyeth & Co.<\/em><\/a> to improve your team’s <\/em><\/em>leadership skills<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>presentation skills<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>voice,\u00a0speech<\/em>, and <\/em>speech writing<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 We’ll help with stage fright, body language, presentation structure & strategy, persuasive speaking, and PowerPoint so you’ll look and sound your best.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"