Concrete demonstration persuades where assertion does not, because the audience reaches the conclusion themselves.
Literary craft tradition. Its institutional form is the demonstration over the assurance: a working prototype settles arguments that a specification document cannot.
In practice
- A team argues for six weeks about whether search should be instant, builds a rough version in two days, and the argument ends in the demonstration.
- A safety case describing a component as highly reliable persuades nobody; the same component run to destruction in front of the committee persuades everybody.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- Rules for speaking, writing and disagreeing