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Premise Report COM 6504 – Persuasion

Introduction In constructing persuasive discourse, persuaders usually look for major premises, which audiences believe or accept: logical premises, psychological premises, cultural premises, and nonverbal premises. (Each of these major premises will be discussed in class by the professor. Use this information in guiding your research for the premise report.) • Logical Premises - are frequently based on the unique ability of people to analyze, to systematize,

and to think logically. These abilities enable people to connect the claims we want others to believe with the evidence we offer for support of those claims.

• Psychological premises - rely on the psychological or emotional needs experienced by most people. These felt needs, real or imagined, may become motivating facts for change, and thus are useful tools for the persuader.

• Cultural premises - rely on culturally held values and beliefs. These values and beliefs are often widely accepted and deeply felt and are therefore useful when appealed to by the persuader.

• Nonverbal premises – are similar to cultural premises in that both are taught by our culture. The difference between nonverbal premises and cultural premises is that nonverbal is seldom carefully analyzed and they occur at a very low level of awareness.

General Objective Your objective in this assignment is three fold: 1. To discover and apply some logical premises of persuasion. You may focus either on appropriate or

inappropriate uses of logical premises so long as adequate explanation is made. 2. To discover and apply psychological premises of persuasion that relate to needs, attitudes, and

consistency. 3. To discover cultural and nonverbal premises of persuasion.

Specific Task 1. Investigate and prepare the following:

a. For logical premises: i. Review various advertisements (at least five) for a single product (note: not

necessarily a single brand of a product) and compare the content premises utilized in the advertisements. This part of your report should attempt to 1) identify types of evidence used in the advertisements and 2) explain the enthymemes that may be supporting the advertisements.

ii. Review at least three editorials or similar text intended for persuasion. Explain the likely content premises of each of these by identifying and explaining the evidence and reasoning and relating it to an anticipated consumer. In this part of the report attempt to format syllogisms which capsulate the argument of the text.

b. For psychological premises:

i. Review various advertisements (at least five) for a single product (note: not necessarily a single brand of a product) and compare the process premises utilized in the advertisements.

ii. Review at least three advertisements for a single brand of product. Explain the likely process premises of each of these advertisements by identifying the appeal and relating it to an anticipated consumer. Your analysis should include a critique using concepts learned from the theoretical premises already discussed in the class.

c. For cultural & nonverbal premises: i. Select newspaper and magazine advertisements that demonstrate particular

appeals to the cultural premises. ii. Select enough advertisements so they reflect appeals to at least five different

cultural premises. iii. Next select advertisements, which reflect consideration of nonverbal elements of

persuasion. Select at least three different categories of nonverbal to analyze in these advertisements.

2. Record your findings in a paper (approximately 10-15 pages) along with the advertisement and text, to your instructor.

a. No abstract necessary. b. Must have a title page. c. Copies of the advertisements, editorials, etc. must be appended to the end of the paper. d. Paper must be submitted electronically via Moodle.

Evaluation The grade you receive on this assignment is determined from four items, each of which is separately evaluated:

• the sources of your reports-the advertisements 10% • the written report 70% • oral report 20% • total points 100%