Editing Public Speaking (Summer 2019)/Primer on Rhetoric (section)

==== Logos: ====
We convince people through our use of logic. So, I can argue that it rained last night by pointing to the puddles on the ground. I use the evidence of rain puddles to make a claim about something that I didn’t see, relying on the basic logical premise that “puddles generally indicate recent rain.” This isn’t the most contentious of arguments, you say. Very true, but the principle is the same. We use appeals to logic to help support our arguments. Economists make logical arguments all the time. They have evidence about current trends, but they argue about where to invest money based on logic—they don’t know 100% what the market will do, but they can try to figure out where to invest based on historical precedent, prevailing wisdom, and informal logic.