identify an audience about whom you can ‘invent,’ i.e., discover, some of the available means of persuasion.

Part 1: identify an audience about whom you can ‘invent,’ i.e., discover, some of the available means of persuasion. So, how can you start the process of invention? One approach that tends to be fairly useful is to begin with some geodemographic data. Claritas is a geodemographic marketing company that helps other marketing/advertising companies, politicians, and media companies pin-point the backgrounds of their users down to the zipcodes and even the neighborhoods in which they live. Claritas has a free tool to show off some of what they offer on their website, which they call a zip code lookup tool (https://claritas360.claritas.com/mybestsegments/#zipLookup). Use that tool to identify a specific audience with whom you’d like to work, and use the data that Claritas offers you as a jumping off point.

Part 2: You will identify an issue about which your audience would be concerned. It can be a national, regional, or local issue. Then, you will decide how you’d want your audience to respond to it, which is your claim. Then, having identified the issue and your response to it, think of 2-3 supporting arguments for it. Remember: this is NOT an academic argument. You are not writing a class paper for academic audience, which means that you shouldn’t myopically focus on the kinds of narrow, intellectual appeals to logos that tend to dominate academic writing. You are trying to appeal to the audience that you identified in Part 1. Think about your credibility as a speaker/writer (ethos). Think about the common sense reasoning, experiences, and beliefs (commonplaces) that define your audience (logos). And think about the ways in which your audience might react emotionally to an issue, so you can determine the best way in which to appeal to them via pathos.

You aren’t actually writing a speech here. You are still ‘inventing,’ so the focus is on drafting out some ideas. You are just sketching out some possible ways in which to appeal to your audience with a specific issue in mind; so, you are still inventing, i.e., trying to discover the best available means of persuasion.

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