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

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Examples of tropes include metaphor (when one thing stands for another) and synecdoche (when a part represents the whole). In storytelling, tropes might be recurring or familiar ideas used to make a connection with audience members; examples might include characterizations like the comic sidekick or plot devices like long lost family members. What are some popular tropes in books, film, and TV? When you read/watch a comedy, what plot and/or character tropes do you expect to see? How about when you read/watch a drama?

Teaching Suggestion: In getting your students to think about persuasion, this exercise may help them to reflect upon the common persuasive strategies deployed in their own everyday life. One of Heinrichs’ main themes in Thank You for Arguing is that Rhetoric Is Morally Ambiguous; however, when a persuader is trying to convince someone of their point, they often will deploy tropes in particular ways worth noting. For example, persuaders using tropes will often use individual characteristics to define entire groups. Group discussion of this short-answer question may help students to better understand how tropes in comedies versus dramas (versus horror and other genres) have “persuasive” effects in that they quickly telegraph to the audience a symbolic message about the kind of story they are about to read/see.

• The Nashville Film Institute’s “Movie Tropes: Everything You Need to Know” explains some common movie tropes, as well as why storytellers tend to use tropes in their books/movies/TV.
• Writer’s Digest answers the question “What Are Tropes in Writing?” and discusses the function of tropes in storytelling.

2. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived from 384 to 322 BC, during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. What do you know about Aristotle and the time period in which he lived? What were some of the main values in the Classical period? Why do you think that during this period there were so many important cultural contributions to philosophy, art, architecture, and theater?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may have general knowledge about Aristotle (that he invented the field of formal logic, that he was a polymath, etc.) as well as about Ancient Greece (that modern democracy was founded here, that Ancient Greeks were known for their painted pottery and sculptures, etc.). With this question and accompanying investigation and discussion, they might better understand the numerous contributions of Aristotle and other classical-era thinkers and how the Classical period was monumental in changing the course of civilization. The effects of this period, as evidenced in Thank You for Arguing, can still be seen today. Indeed, Heinrichs uses Aristotle’s concepts as the basis of his arguments in the book.

• This entry on Aristotle from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives a brief overview of Aristotle’s life and ideas.
• Culture Trip’s “6 Ways Ancient Greece Changed the World” describes how this period influenced many important developments in human civilization.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the book.

Consider the last thing you bought after seeing an advertisement. What was it about the advertisement that drew you in? Was the ad part of your Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook feed? Think deeply about what attracted you to the ad, and what ultimately made you decide to buy the item. Do you feel as though you were swayed by the ad? If yes, how?

Teaching Suggestion: This will help to promote thinking about Persuasion and provide focus on one of the book’s central themes: Persuasion Is Not About the Persuader. As Heinrichs writes, successful persuasion does not mean being true to yourself; it means “being true to your audience” (Chapter 5). Ads are the ultimate form of persuasion in that they are tailored to hook their viewers instantaneously.

• MasterClass’s “Persuasive Advertising: 7 Persuasive Techniques in Advertising”
• Martin Roll’s “5 Things Psychology Can Teach Marketing About Persuasion”