At Level

Chapters 7-9 of Thank You for Arguing deal with ethos, pathos, and logos. More specifically, these chapters deal with the manipulation of these elements to persuade an audience.

An important aspect of this is practical wisdom. Quite simply, practical wisdom is when the audience considers you a sensible and knowledgeable person, enough to handle the issue at hand. This is a fantastic persuasion tool, as it "entails the sort of common sense that can get things done" (page 67), which audiences love as they feel the candidate is capable of doing his job. Heinrichs then explains that to accomplish practical wisdom, one must "seem to take the middle course" (page 69). The middle course, in this case, is moderation. Heinrichs explains that "the ancient Greeks had far more respect for moderation than our culture does" (page 69). And the Greeks were the kings of rhetoric, so we should just listen to them! But seriously, the importance of moderation is often overlooked by people, yet it is extremely important in persuasion as it shows the audience that you are neither extremely conservative, nor extremely liberal, so to speak. Furthermore, he emphasizes the importance of being honest-- or more precisely, seeming honest. He presented Quintilian's thoughts on the matter to further this idea: "A speaker might choose to feign helplessness by pretending to be uncertain how to begin or proceed with his speech. This make him appear not so much a skilled master of rhetoric, but as an honest man" (page 75). And honesty is a virtue the world admires. It is because of its importance that it is so often mentioned in society, and so often criticized as well.

These chapters lend the idea that for someone to be a good persuader, he must be able to seem at level with his audience. This again goes back to the decorum topic, but the chapters focus on the specific ways to relate with an audience.