Chapter 3. Golden Rule 3: What you say and how you say it

In an ideal world all arguments would be decided on their merits and not their presentation. But we aren’t in an ideal world. There’s no getting away from the fact that presentation of an argument is crucial. Advertising is all based on persuading you to buy a product that you would not otherwise buy, and most advertising is the triumph of spin over substance. Many people have won arguments, based on bad grounds, because they’ve made their points well. And many people with good points have lost their argument because they failed to make their case attractively.

To regard an argument as simply an intellectual battle would be a serious error. Many arguments involve emotional matters as much ...

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