Thank You for Arguing

A witty, pop-culture-infused primer on the art of getting your way, featuring tricks of the trade from such rhetorical masters as Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria, and Yoda--now fully revised and updated.

Whether you're an inveterate lover of language or you just want to win more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is the book for you. From Cicero's three-step strategy for inspiring action to Honest Abe's Shameless Trick for lowering an audience's expectations, this fascinating book is full of time-tested secrets to emerging victorious from any dispute. Jay Heinrichs' eye-opening assortment of persuasive tricks includes:The Chandler Bing Adjustment: Match your argument to your audience (i.e. Persuasion is not about you.).The Belushi Paradigm: Before people will follow you, they have to consider you worth following.The Yoda Technique: Transform a banal idiom by switching words around.

Now in its fourth edition, Thank You for Arguing also considers the dark arts of persuasion, such as politicians' use of coded language to appeal to specific groups, and has been updated to address our culture of "fake news" and political polarization. Warm, witty, erudite, and truly enlightening, Heinrichs's classic not only teaches you how to recognize a paralipsis when you hear it, but also how to tap into simple yet effective rhetorical tools the next time you really, really need to get what you want.