Communication is an extremely important factor in our lives and much of the time is spent trying to persuade others towards our views. Logic and argumentation are central to persuasive communication. This document will outline the purpose of persuasive communication and its structure. Persuasive communication will be defined in a way that the main objective of persuasion is to convince the audience of the thesis, the thesis being the conclusion of a discourse. An integral part of persuasive communication is argumentation and its format will be discussed. In order for a document to be persuasive it will be shown that it is necessary for it to contain a valid argument that lends support to the conclusion. The basic structure of an argument will be explained. It should be noted, however, that in the scope of this essay it is not appropriate to define all possible types of argumentation, so only the elements common to all arguments will be identified. The importance of logic will be shown with relevance to the way that it is used to identify valid arguments. Again it is necessary to limit the scope of the essay to defining logic within argumentation. Fallacies will be defined and it will be shown how arguments containing them fail t
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If, for example, we say, “elephants are the largest animals on land” by itself this does not comprise an argument, it is simply a statement. The essential part of an argument is not the fact that it is based on premises, it is that the premises are connected in a way that they lead to and support the conclusion. 1994, Critical Communication,
Prentice Hall, Sydney. From this paragraph we can see that in order to persuade another party of a thesis or conclusion it has to be proven to them.
Arguing involves developing a set of statements that support and lead to a conclusion. Convincing people of the veracity of an argument is the way to succeed in persuading them of the conclusion. ‘Few things bother perceptive readers more than apparent logical inconsistencies’ (Clark 1994, p. Valid arguments are central for constructing persuasive communication. You don't need to know logic to argue, of course; but if you know even a little, you'll find it easier to spot invalid arguments.
If others are to agree with our conclusions within a piece of communication, we must persuade them of the points we are making. 1994, The Macquarie Dictionary
Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, NSW.
Approximate Word count =
1775
Approximate Pages =
7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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