The Unbounded Reach of Rhetoric
In the year of 1938, during the Nuremburg Conference, a man stands up to deliver the closing speech. This speech is not particularly as well known or as significant as many of his other speeches, but the words of this thin and paunchy man are strong and resolute. He states, “When the question is still put to us why National Socialism fights with such fanaticism against the Jewish element in Germany, why it pressed and still presses for its removal then the answer can only be: Because National Socialism desires to establish a true community of the people…. Because we are National Socialists, we can never suffer an alien race which has nothing to do with us to claim the leadership of our working people
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In Book One of the Persian Expedition, Clearchus, a general of Cyrus, handles a potential mutiny from the Greek mercenary soldiers when they become suspicious of Cyrus’s motives. “At first Clearchus tried to force his own soldiers to go forward, but they threw stones at him and at his baggage animals as soon as they attempted to make a start. Clearchus was very nearly stoned to death on this occasion (Warner 65).” Realizing that force was not going to work, he appeals to the method of rhetoric by making a speech and having two of his men deliver a pre-constructed speech. He coyly feigns loyalty to the soldiers while he simultaneously makes it seem that going against Cyrus would be impossible. Although still suspicious, the soldiers reluctantly decide to go with and fight for Cyrus. This scene depicts rhetoric overcoming brute force in the promotion of violence. Rhetoric is a form of action and without it many of the events in the novel would have either never occurred or gone quite differently. In the PanHellenic dialogues by Xenophon, the army is not only motivated to continue on in their endeavors but he also clears their conscious about committing barbaric acts. This can been seen when he addresses the army and says, “But when we come to a place where we are given no opportunities to buy food, then, whether it is native country or Greek country, we take our own supplies and do this not out of wanton aggression, but from necessity (Warner 240).”
In On
How many times have you dropped those swimming classes? When was last time you put off in getting that enrollment for the gym? “Unlimited” ads campaign by Nike, appeals to its audience by showing people who even having certain difficulties, go after what they want and push their limits as much as they can, which is not a little. The ads feature a grown Sister competing in a triathlon, a transgender who runs with the National men’s team and a climber with no extremities. Nike didn’t choose these actors for its ads by accident, they are source of inspiration for all those athletes that always put the best of themselves in whichever the activity that passionate them is. People who would be the main target for this campaign.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a government website that provides information about various diseases, disabilities, disorders, etc.. The CDC provides multiple webpages about Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that list and provide information about causes, treatments, variations, and signs/symptoms of the disorder. On their informative pages, they use rhetorical devices to better portray their message. The CDC effectively uses the three rhetorical devices, pathos, ethos, and logos, to reach their goal of informing their target audience and providing a clear perspective on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott, is a hilarious must read for junior high school students and any other aspiring writers. Her essay inspires comfort and confidence in writing a first draft. It concretes that all writers experience the “shitty” first draft. Anne Lamott wrote this instructional information in 1995, but it is timeless information. She blows the idea of writing an immaculate first draft out of the water. Anne supports the idea that bad first drafts will almost always lead to better second, third and final drafts. She symbolizes the first draft to be like a child. Where you put all your thoughts and emotions out there in words on paper, you go all over the place, you say all kinds of ridiculous things, and all with the
A college education is valuable and its quality is of the highest importance to most Americans. In his essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students,” Mark Edmundson utilizes ethos, pathos, and logos to effectively deliver his argument that the current educational system, especially in college, revolves around consumerism which in turn has negatively impacted students, teachers, and universities in general. However, although Edmundson presents an overall logically sound argument, there are few instances throughout the article that may hinder the reliability of his claims to the audience.
Throughout The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell explains to his reader his ideas about drastic changes in society, and how they seem to occur so rapidly. In this particular selection, Gladwell emphasizes the purpose of “connectors”, saying that they have a “special gift for bringing the world together (page 38)”. Gladwell states that part of the reason information or trends spread like wildfire is the presence of a specific group of people. They are called “connecters”, and they are people who know, or are connected to, people of “different worlds (page 51)”, and bring them together. In his book, The Tipping Point, Gladwell uses different forms of persuasion, rhetorical questions, and organization to
This postcard builds suspense in the reader’s mind. Alex saying that this adventure could kill him makes the reader interested in finding out more. “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man.” (Krakauer 3).
Many people wish they can drop everything important to them and isolate themselves from society; very few people will even attempt this, but Chris McCandless breaks societal norms to accomplish this goal. In Into the Wild, John Krakauer tells the story of this young man’s life to inspire the audience to chase their dreams through the use of logos, involved sentence, and anecdotes.
In his article “If Technology Is Making Us Stupid, It’s Not Technology’s Fault,” David Theo Goldberg effectively informs the reader about the effects that computers in the home and school environment could have on the future education of the coming generations. Goldberg achieves this by executing defined organization and adding unique comparisons about the potentially crippling effects technology can have on a society when put into the wrong hands.
In the essay, “What You Eat is Your Business”, Radley Balko writes to tell his audience about how the government is trying to control people’s health and eating habits by restricting food, taxing high calorie food, and considering menu labeling. Balko includes in his essay that government restricting diets and having socialist insurance is not helping the obesity problem, but it is only making it worse because it not allowing people to take their health in to their own hands so they have no drive to lose weight or eat healthy. In his essay, Balko is targeting society, including those who may be obese, he is trying to show them that the laws our
Many people in today’s society tend to believe that a good education is the fastest way to move up the ladder in their chosen. People believe that those who seek further education at a college or university are more intelligent. Indeed, a college education is a basic requirement for many white collar, and some blue collar, jobs. In an effort to persuade his audience that intelligence cannot be measured by the amount of education a person has Mike Rose wrote an article entitled “Blue Collar Brilliance”. The article that appeared in the American Scholar, a quarterly literary magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, established in 1932. The American Scholar audience includes, Company’s , Employees,
Award winning journalist and author, Jon Krakauer, in his book, Into the Wild, analyzes the life of Chris McCandless as well as the events that ensued his death. Krakauer’s purpose is to inform the reader about how and why Chris McCandless decided to embark on a journey into the wilderness of Alaska. He adopts an empathetic tone in order to impart to his readers that Chris McCandless was a very misunderstood young adult.
In David Brooks’ “People Like Us” passage on the issue of diversity, Brooks takes a personally emotional perspective of the way in which Americans don’t appreciate how diverse our nation is while “relatively homogeneous” (Brooks 136). His argument is weakened, however, through a bias and hypocrisy that his diction conveys. He claims that grouping ourselves with those who we are most alike is in our nature to, and in doing so, we separate ourselves from those who are different. Using certain statistics as evidence, Brooks points out that the social segmentation created by society will always exist.
In ‘Here’s Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense’, Alex Newhouse, a lawyer who resides in the area of Sunnyside, Washington addresses the controversial issue of the legalization of cannabis. The sole purpose of Newhouse’s article is to persuade readers and voters that marijuana should be legalized. Throughout his article, Newhouse focuses on the use of ethos and logos, while also slightly focusing on the use of pathos, to help persuade his audience. The incorporation of such rhetoric strategies allows Newhouse to change the opinions of individuals with views opposing the opinions he, himself, holds.
Logos: It is an appeal to the mind with the use of logic, rationality and critical reasoning to persuade the audience. The author uses logos in his article to make a logical connection with the topic. For example, the author uses the explanation of ideas in the article and employs lots of diagrams in each parts of the topic to show the visualization to support his evidence which is very informative because the visuals give lots of information about what the article is about and that to get attention of the audience.
In, “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson talk about his displeasure about how societal curriculum replicated person after another, in order to clarify that there are more efficient way to become a successful scholar. In this essay, Emerson has made distinctions between the 'old world thinking' of Europe and America. Emerson also thinks the American way should be new and different from old word thinking. Along with this main point, Emerson believes an American Scholar should be "Man Thinking,” which means being more independent, and students should get knowledge by their first hand experience through things such as nature, action, and books. In the speech at Harvard University, Emerson’s audience were a group of students from Harvard