Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What rhetorical tool did St. Augustine use in his sermons to successfully convert hundreds of pagans to Christianity?

A) Logic

B) Tropes

C) Emotion

D) Poetry

2. Which of the following best describes the ethos tool of “decorum”?

A) A persuader is as polite as possible, using deference to make their point.

B) A persuader’s appearance, tone, and manners match the audience’s expectations.

C) A persuader adorns or “decorates” their speech with persuasive facts about a given topic.

D) A persuader relies upon the receiver of the argument having good taste.

3. In what way is dubitation (“doubt”) important in creating ethos in a persuasive argument?

A) It strips the listener of any dubitation in themselves, thus allowing them to believe fully in the persuader.

B) It makes the persuader avoid seeming manipulative to the listener.

C) It causes the listener to doubt that any other arguments could possibly be true.

D) It makes the listener feel doubt within themselves; they need someone like the persuader to come and explain to them what they should believe.

4. Why is the passive voice—a rhetorical strategy related to pathos—not typically as effective in the face of rage?

A) Rage tends to engage System One of the brain (autopilot), which makes the listener immune to rhetorical persuasion tactics.

B) Rage tends to engage System One of the brain (autopilot), and that means the listener will purposefully ignore information presented in the passive voice.

C) Rage tends to engage System Two of the brain (the part of the brain that processes difficult problems), and when this part of the brain is active, rhetorical persuasion is less likely to work on the listener in general.

D) Rage tends to engage System Two of the brain (the part of the brain that processes difficult problems), and when this part of the brain is active, the listener just wants to act with physical aggression.

5. When it comes to reframing an argument, of the numerous reframing tactics, why does trying to prove irrelevance carry the most risk?

A) Because it’s extremely difficult to prove irrelevance

B) Because you risk offending your audience

C) Because it’s hard to hold an audience’s attention long enough to demonstrate it

D) Because it’s the most esoteric of all the reframing strategies

6. As described in Chapter 15, which of the “seven deadly logical sins” is the one most used by political candidates?

A) Bad example

B) Ignorance as proof

C) Tautology

D) False comparison

7. Why does Heinrichs recommend persuaders saying to themselves “I love these people” before walking into a room full of strangers?

A) Expressed love is the single best decorum tool for when you do not know the audience.

B) Expressed love is the single best virtue tool for when you do not know the audience.

C) Expressed love is the single best phronesis tool for when you do not know the audience.

D) Expressed love is the single best disinterest tool for when you do not know the audience.

8. When it comes to staying fair in rhetorical arguments, Heinrichs defines eight different tactics that are “out-of-bounds.” When an attack relies on debasing the opponent, what is this “out-of-bound” called?

A) Truthiness

B) Inflexibility

C) Stubbornness

D) Humiliation

9. Which of the following best describes why “truthiness” is an extremely dangerous part of rhetoric?

A) When people simply “feel” that certain facts are true (even when they aren’t), they are more likely to believe those facts, which drives extreme partisanship.

B) It’s a bullet-proof technique, which is why—in the wrong hands—it can be used for nefarious purposes.

C) It is detrimental to the American public to popularize terms that are based on inane popular culture like “The Colbert Report.”

D) Too much truth will scare the general public; they need their truths to be “watered down.”

10. The phrases “break bread,” “Greek to me,” and “foggiest notion” are all examples of what figure of speech?

A) Metaphor

B) Simile

C) Trope

D) Idiom

11. Which of the following is not one of the five steps to help persuaders recover from mistakes and let their ethos shine, per Chapter 22?

A) Be first with the news.

B) Switch immediately to the future.

C) Avoid belittling or lashing out at others.

D) Focus on apologizing profusely.

12. As Heinrichs writes in Chapter 24, each persuasion tool corresponds to a physical sense. Sight is primarily associated with what tools?

A) Logos and ethos

B) Only pathos

C) Pathos and ethos

D) Only ethos

13. What is Heinrichs’ opinion on apologies?

A) He thinks they are useful but should not be deployed often.

B) He is ambivalent toward apologies, seeing as they are not guaranteed to be effective.

C) He is eager to offer up an apology, as it increases the audience’s perception of the persuader as humble, thus strengthening ethos.

D) He thinks they are unnecessary and ultimately weaken a persuader’s ethos in an audience’s eyes.

14. In essay writing, Heinrichs recommends using a “hero’s arc” in telling your story. Which of the following best describes a “hero’s arc”?

A) A character development technique that shows the primary character going from detested to beloved.

B) A storytelling technique in which a character meets a series of obstacles, commits to their goal, and ultimately wins the day.

C) A mood-setting tool in which the hero goes on journey in which they begin at an emotionally low point and end at a high one.

D) A scene-setting device in which the hero traverses a path that resembles the shape of an arc.

15. According to Heinrichs in the closing chapter of the book, America’s founding fathers believed that rhetoric was the key to a healthy government; however, unfortunately, those same leaders laid the groundwork for what issue that plagues modern America?

A) Anti-intellectualism

B) Factionalism

C) Patriotism

D) Despotism

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What are some of the ways in which Heinrichs makes it clear that rhetoric is morally ambiguous? Cite at least 1 example directly from the text.

2. In Chapter 19, Heinrichs writes that “Rhetoric is about swaying, not blowing away.” What does he mean by this?