Artistotle put his main emphasis on logic and the way language can be used to persuade. He made a science out of being an orator and a wordsmith. A major facet of his assertions has to do with his dissection of persuasion into ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos has to do with credibility of the speaker and his license to speak on the subject at hand. A mechanic would have more credibility from the audience to speak about cars then an astronaut. Logos is the appeal to reason and just the general us of logic to convince people. People just like common sense, people generally agree and it keeps everyone on the same page. And then there’s pathos which has to do with manipulating emotions in the audience as a way to almost undermine contradictory logos to your own persuasive use of logos. If a murderer is having a public debate with you and is making really good points you can strategically use pathos to direct anger from the audience towards said murderer by reiterating his crimes and slinging mud his way even if it’s off-topic.
However on another level there are aspects of persuasion and rhetoric that are outside of the way words are used. There’s a presentation aspect which Dr. Kevin O’Neill discussed in his lecture. Eunoia for example would be the need to look like you have good will and good intentions. The audience will not be moved by someone they do not trust. To burrow further into this, Aristotle believed that you had to understand what people desire, what brings them joy, and what makes them angry in order to effectively use Eunoia. There is style which is the tone of voice and dressing appropriately to your topic. Other things discussed were techniques such as syllogisms and enthymeme.
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