Thank You For Arguing, Revised and Updated Edition: What Aristotle, Lincoln, And Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion Paperback – August 6, 2013

Good book but seems slimmer then the one my man has and he has had it for a long time.

As a current high school junior in AP Language and Composition, this book is so incredibly helpful. My class uses the book as a substitute textbook, which we read chapters from to tie into our lesson that day. The book is quite humorous, so it is never boring to read and draws readers in to keep them reading and reading and reading! This book is perfect for the classroom, but it is also a book that I would have loved to read without classroom instruction. "Thank you for Arguing" is wonderful because it goes in great depth about different concepts, but uses simple wording and humorous examples to break down the concepts.

First off, the content of the book is first-rate; there is a plethora of good advise and tips in it to make you more persuasive if you heed them.It is, however, disappointingly delivered in more ways than one; the physical form is substandard (highlighters end up highlighting both sides of the page, binding isn't durable, covers are flimsy even for a paperback), but more annoyingly, the layout and organization is difficult. There are so many side-topic boxes (half a dozen per spread) that uninterrupted reading becomes impossible.Appendices come in handy; good for a book such as this one that introduces a huge number of potentially new terms to include a thorough review + glossary.

I use this for a text book in a Critical Thinking writing course. The students love it, it is easy to teach and use and they really see another side of arguing. They start to apply the information in their relationships right away and they "feel" the essence of argument. Nothing I have ever taught in this area has given students such an intuitive understanding of the art of argument. Other books rely so much on logic and IMHO students today just cannot relate to that left brain perspective. They are more in touch with their feelings, more aware of human interactions and needs; the humor, videos and extra sources provided give them a real personal involvement in the topic. This is real learning. Love it.

I really liked this book! It is very well organized, with small and very rich chapters and very clear tips and examples. The author starts with simple techniques at the beginning, and improves the details and more techniques in the following chapters. Smaller chapters are a nice touch, because it allows you to read an important point, get the main idea and think about it every day. That's the plan I use and it works quite well. Even when referring the "formal" names of the techniques, the language it is not too scientific, it just proves the point but returns to a language that anyone can understand. Has a lot of tips for personal, social and professional life. It is improving my life!I am a very exigent person before buying a book, I research a lot, and I bought this one and I am very happy with it!

This is a fascinating book I didn't expect to enjoy reading. As soon as I started it, I moved to a quiet area of the house because I realized that I will be learning a lot from Jay and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. Besides the depth of the topic, I enjoy Jay's banter and sense of humor and the family background that I found interesting.This is a book about communications. If you are selling, negotiating, relating your ideas to others or in general have opinions that you enjoy sharing, the techniques presented in this book will provide you with options. The more options you have to convince another to see your point of view, the better chance you have of watching them nod their head YES as you speak. Shifting the perspective of the conversation may be one of the most valuable tools I've obtained from the program. I am not yet done reading the book, but I've already reread the sections I read to really absorb the material.In short, if you are a conversationalist, an avid communicator, an extrovert with a point of view, then you will love reading this book.

For being a book about argument, this book is quite uneven and wildly unfocused. The author seems to have a haphazard approach to explaining various points of argument and rhetoric and jumps all around in his discussion. Just when he is coming to a point, he ventures off and gets sidetracked on something else. For that reason, it was really hard to get into this book.Additionally, the examples and analogies he uses for appeals or persuasive strategies are either repetitive or overly simplistic in nature. He basically tries to use his family as a way to illustrate means of being persuasive, but goes to that well way too often. And sometimes the logic is a bit head-scratching as well.It also didn’t help that the author’s tone is a mixture of smart allecky and slightly annoying. His own sense of audience is way off kilter or something, and I think I put the book down several times just because of that. One minute he is using “nefarious” in a sentence, and the next minute trying to crack a joke.Complaints aside, there a few nuggets of rhetorical wisdom contained in Thank You For Arguing. Some of the bits on capturing your audience’s attention, for example, were helpful. However, you have to wade through quite a bit to find many of those said nuggets.I would call this rhetoric light, as in half the depth of a book about rhetoric, and not as insightful. While there are some points of insight, there are far better books about argument and rhetoric out there.

This book is about rhetoric - the art of verbal persuasion - a subtle skill that I wish more people mastered, especially myself. Of course, to acquire those skills there is some learning to do, but this author makes it as easy as it can be to learn. Highly recommended.

Takes time to practice the tools mentioned here. Be prepared for the long ride. Extremely useful stuff.

Ich habe mir dieses Buch für das nächste Schuljahr bestellt, um einen Einblick in die Materie des Unterrichtsstoffes zu bekommen. Ich muss sagen dass dieses Buch auch interessant ist obwohl es für mich als Schulbuch fungiert, denn es ist mit gewitztem Humor, überzeugenden Fakten und interessanten Theorien gefüllt. Ich bin mir sicher dass jeder der Interesse an dem Englischen Sprachgebrauch und insbesondere an der "Kunst der Überzeugung" interessiert ist, viel Freude an dieser Lektüre haben wird.

Jay writes with a really engaging style that draws upon some of his personal situations, as well more infamous examples. His amusing asides poke fun at his own life in one sentence, while gently mocking you as the reader in the next. A well constructed, thought-provoking, comprehensive breakdown of rhetorical techniques and ideas, that I know I'll be returning to for inspiration in years to come.

Exactly as described, love the book!