Aristotle: Greek teacher/scientist (384-322 B.C.)
Student of Plato; Teacher of Alexander the Great; Author of over 170 works; 30 of which survived.

His work, the Rhetoric, is widely regarded as the most important work on persuasion ever published.
Aristotle tackled the question: how do we come to believe something or to believe we should act in a certain way in the absence of knowing “the truth”?

Aristotle details three major modes of proof.  Think of it as three ways that people are persuaded or that we come to believe things or to act upon things.

• Ethos--”ethical,” credibility appeal.  Sometimes we come to believe something or to act upon something simply because someone we trusted told us it was so.  Aristotle suggests that the source of the material--the perception of the person the persuasive appeal comes from--is the most powerful mode of persuasion. 
  

• Pathos--”pathetic,” emotional appeal.  Sometimes we come to believe something or to act upon something simply because of a gut feeling or an appeal to our emotions.  We act out of fear and greed and also out of love and compassion.  We even act in certain ways because we are concerned about what others will think of us.
  

• Logos--”logical,” rational appeal.  Sometimes we come to believe something or to act upon something simply because someone gave us what we considered to be a "good reason."  Here is where we consider evidence and reasoning as parts of the persuasive process. 
  

Use of support material constitutes offering "good reasons" to accept a claim.

Three Types of Support Material

• Examples
• Statistics
• Testimony

• make accurate use
• evaluate and identify the source (beware bias)
• consider recency
• consider strength

1. Do not use them alone to support an important claim.
2. Examples are useful in clarifying, reinforcing, or personalizing ideas.
3 Ethical use demands that you consider the source, age, and representativeness of the example.

1. Combine statistics with examples.
2. Don't use too many at a time.
3. Identify the source of the statistics.
4. Translate your statistics.
5. Round off your statistics.
6. Use visual aids.

1. Quote accurately.
2. Paraphrase fairly.
3. Use qualified sources.
4. Use reluctant testimony.
5. Always identify the source and the source's credentials.

• Analyzing what you need.
• Finding what you need.
• Judging what you find.
• Selecting what you will use.
• Using what you select.

You are encouraged to go the the SpCm 212 website under Undergraduate Commons through the library website. Good databases to use for this speech include:

        Expanded Academic Index (on-line)
         Lexix-Nexis (on-line)  has some full-text articles from regional newspapers
        Des Moines Register Index  ( good for local issues).
        Editorials on File  (in reference section) - good for seeing how issue is argued by different
            people, possibility for some expert testimony.
        Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (easier to use in print version) - good source for general
            numbers about US population.

We then looked at quality web accessible resources.  Don't rely on simple search engines like Yahoo to automatically take you to good sources.  You need to be a good judge of sources quality. It was recommended that you try Google as a search engine.

For more info on research for SpCm 212 go to the Undergrad Commons.