How does analogy persuade

Find ways in which the two things are not alike and decide if the differences detract from the analogy. Taking the first of the three ideas above, one difference is that being a government spy is not a short-term situation, like looking for a new job. With a job search, you either find a new job and move on, or decide to stay. But also the fact that being a spy is a job of sorts is an unhelpful similarity.

What about the second idea — arranging a surprise birthday party? Similar to looking for a new job, arranging a party is a short-term situation, so that could work. But unlike a job search, party planning is not about finding a replacement for an existing thing. Finally, what about the extramarital affair? You could argue that an affair is more like moonlighting rather than changing jobs — i. Also other interesting similarities exist. For instance, consider the consequences of getting caught sneaking around.

In the career scenario you could potentially lose your job. So this seems like the most promising analogy of the three. As you become more confident using analogies, consider using one of these methods to get even more power:. Clever analogies like the seagull manager and its close cousin the mushroom manager are tricky to construct, which is why this is an advanced technique for power users only.

But if you find you have a gift for them , people could be quoting you for years to come. Yes, they need careful handling, but if you follow the process above, finding the right analogy should be as simple as using a screwdriver or a saw. Thank you John. And well done for being the first to comment. Normally Andrew takes the top slot. You fill a niche and have great ideas and suggestions.

I just started my blog a few days ago and in the process of mapping my newly purchased karinapinella. Where would we be without food? Thanks again for serving a need. Awesome post here. Mainly for the fact that 1. But I can definitely see how using analogies can help you not only become better, but get your point across more concisely. You used the example of the seagull manager … so should we be trying to create analogies that are memorable like that?

OR … should we not try to be perfectionists at it and follow the formula that you presented and go with what works? Just wanted to know because like you said, if you create a memorable one, people will remember it for years to come. In practice those are really tough to come up with. But you can still use humor by making an analogy with an invented situation.

Ha, I read this post just because I was sure you were going to say the answer was alliteration! Powerful, Popular and Persuasive… Thanks for the tips, Glenn. A great morning read! If you found a typo in this post, would you tell? I would honestly rather just NOT point it out and avoid looking like a know-it-all.

What would Glen Long do? Reading your posts is like having all my important little bits bathed in warm oils and lovingly massaged in. Yes, my door hinges — unseen but important — once oiled now operate smoothly and silently.

Thanks and kindest regards. The strength of an analogy makes all the difference. Yes, analogies can be tricky in an actual real-life argument. Absolutely loved this post, Glen! Thank you for breaking it down and making the process of coming up with an analogy super simple. Thanks Jenna! You also get sucked into the whole analogy vs metaphor vs simile discussion, which I decided to artfully avoid. Before I got to his particular comment, I, too was wondering the difference between analogy and metaphor.

Your audience may not agree with you, but that is not necessary to get your point across. For example, you can define fruit salad as consisting of bananas, pineapples, and yellow apples ideally you would have a reason for this, too. Having done so, your audience will not object when you later state that fruit salad lacks the vital bits of red. Your definition of a fruit salad has supported this idea. Using a Dictionary : A dictionary is the most obvious place to find definitions, but other sources can be used as well.

In order to define the key terms, you first have to bluntly state what they are. Always include the key words included in the question. The number of definitions you include will depend on the length of your speech. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to think which terms are the central ones. This is time worth spending, because you can later use the concepts without giving any further qualifications or comments.

For this reason, you should also define the terms carefully. In fact, it will usually not be necessary to state what the other interpretations are, unless the distinction is a key aspect of the argument. In the context of another speech or presentation, these definitions may be too long or too short.

Social disadvantage, to start with, refers to a range of difficulties a person can be exposed to. According to McLanahan and Sandefur, social disadvantages include a lower expectancy in educational attainment, lower prospects at work, or lower status in society. Steinberg demonstrated that social and economic disadvantages in society often come together, leading some sociologists talking about underclasses.

Social disadvantage, however, does not necessarily have to be as extreme as that: it describes a relative difficulty in reaching a similar position in society than people not disadvantaged. Siblings, finally, in the context of this presentation, refer to brothers and sisters of the same birth family.

This means that siblings are biologically related, as well as living in the same family. It first helps to distinguish them from their close cousins, metaphor and simile. A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument. The structure of the argument leads to a new understanding for the audience.

The goal is to show that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well. Let me give you an example of a killer persuasive analogy. It comes from that master of sophisticated rhetoric, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger is an advocate for renewable energy, both for California and the world at large.

Given his celebrity status and prior political experience as Governor of California, he has quite the platform to share his views. First, Arnold says forget whatever you think about climate change. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car.

Both engines are running full blast. I want you to pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask. Until recently the only way to load a tanker was to climb up on top, where the openings to the compartments are located. You can easily picture this by visualizing six pop bottles lined up in single file on a table.

A man wants to fill up bottle three, so he takes the cap off. He then inserts a small hose into the neck of the bottle and turns on a faucet which is connected to the hose. A gasoline tanker is loaded in a similar way, but on a much larger scale. A man climbs on top of the tanker and opens a particular compartment by removing the cap. He then takes a hose with a four-foot metal pipe down into the "bottle" the compartment hole , which measures four inches in diameter.

A pump is then turned on, allowing the gasoline to flow into the compartment. Know your audience In the admittedly unlikely event her readers had no prior knowledge of pop bottles, however, this analogy might not be particularly informative. The writer chose this analogy based on the likely knowledge of her audience. When you construct an analogy, be certain that the familiar or known side of the analogy is really familiar and known to your reader. It is useless to explain a mineral's crystal-lattice structure by reference to analytic geometry if your reader knows nothing about analytic geometry.