Rhetoric in Everyday Life – Homework

This example of rhetoric actually just happened to me this morning.  I was walking to class and I got stopped by someone from the ASPCA.  She engaged me in a conversation and asked me about my day.  Then she went and showed me a video, which was one of those sad commercials with the depressing music you see all the time on tv and then gave me a speech (obviously been practiced before) that was supposed to make me feel bad and guilt me into donating the $18 a month.  She also told me some statistics.  Without sounding like a terrible person, I am not someone who likes being guilt tripped so I did not donate.  She chose the wrong approach when speaking with me which relates to what Socrates said that “he who would be an orator has to learn the differences of human souls…such and such persons, he will say, are affected by this or that kind of speech in this or that way.”  The ASPCA representative did not know me well enough to understand how I could be persuaded.