Haley Fouts Ms. Waiz Honors English 10 September 13, 2017 Examining Rhetorical Appeals According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, rhetoric is defined as “the art of speaking as a means of communication or persuasion”. In other words, rhetoric is the way a speaker convinces an audience to approach a given issue from a preferred perspective. Speakers may utilize the following appeals to win the audience's favor: ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos refers to the speakers incorporation of the audience’s ethical responsibilities. A speaker also uses ethos to establish credibility. Logos is the speaker’s use of logic and reasoning by a way of factual evidence. Lastly, a speaker may use pathos to engage the audience's emotions. Dr. Martin Luther …show more content…
Overall, both Finch and King used ethos, but both interpreted it in different and similar ways. While King and Finch also use logos in some similar ways, but the speakers strategies do have some differences. King throughout his speech, mentions documents our nation is built upon. In the beginning of his speech, he gives some background information, “Five score ago, a great american, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation,” King continues, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice”(King, Paragraph 2). Not only does King use factual information, but he uses it to support his main point, King then says this, “But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free,” (King, Paragraph 3). Finch applies logos in a different way than king, he uses logos to jump right into his point. “To begin with, this case should have never come to trial. The state of Alabama has not produced one iota of medical evidence that shows that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place,”(Finch, Paragraph 1). Instead of using informational context to support his claim like King. Finch uses factual evidence to jump straight into the point of Tom Robinson's innocence. Although, both speeches use logos differently, they also use it similarly.
Rhetoric seems like a big word but the meaning is simple- persuasion. In the book Julius Caesar, Antony and Brutus, two major characters, are fantastic at persuading the Roman citizens. When one is reading the story, they might think that both have equal amounts but when you look closer, Antony has the better rhetoric strategies. In just a few short sentences, Antony convinced the people to believe that Caesar needed revenge even though he never came out and told them that. Just a couple of minutes ago, the citizens were on Brutus’s side and thought that Caesar needed to go.
Rhetoric gives you an avenue to tell a story from your perspective in a way that connects with the intended audience without having to be one hundred percent substantiated. This writing style is evident in almost everything we read from billboards to Internet ads and even political speeches.
For starters, they utilize factual U.S. history in each speech. In paragraph four of “To Kill a Mockingbird” it says, “Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal.” Here Finch is talking about the Declaration of Independence. Though Finch quotes from a U.S. document, King actually uses some in his speech. On page one of “I Have a Dream” it states, “Five score ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.” This is where King brings in the U.S. document to back up his cause even more. Also, it is evident that King had more logos throughout his speech than Finch did. On page one, paragraph 4, of “I Have a Dream” it says, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent word of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.” In the end, King had more information to back up his speech, unlike Finch. He still had a very supported and legitimate speech.
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) and Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird were both eloquent speakers who conveyed important messages to audiences that were lacking in knowledge of what is right and wrong at their time. Both MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Atticus’s closing argument from the Tom Robinson trial are strong examples of what the people of our country should have believed during the 1930’s and 1960’s, and what should have been done during this treacherous time. Both speakers used ethos, pathos, and logos to give factual and credible information that needed to be instilled into the minds of people. There are many ways these two speeches relate to events that happened in the past, and in today’s time.
In the long run, in the book, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is consistently doing his best to instill his children regarding life, what's right or wrong, and courage. Atticus influences not just his children, but everyone around him. He has worked very hard to set an example to his children. Atticus Finch has a colossal impact not just his children, but on everyone around
When you ask people what rhetoric means most people give negative answers. People who are deceived and lured by publicity are sometimes labeled as having "succumbed to the rhetoric." If politicians make promises they don't keep, those promises are likely to be criticized as "empty campaign rhetoric." The word rhetoric typically has negative connotations and rhetorical skills can be used to deceive people unethical. These conceptions of rhetoric are misleading and fail even to scratch the surface of what rhetoric is all about. Rhetoric is a language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience. Rhetoric situations are seen every day, in television, newspapers, books speeches, messaging, social media and countless more.
Rhetoric is the study of how one uses language, any form of literary work, media, and/or pictorial works and determining why, how, and whether or not the work is persuasive. It encompasses the relationship between language and persuasion.
Rhetoric is a form of communication that assists in improving the power of writers or speakers in connecting, persuading and informing their audience. Rhetoric which is commonly used within speeches, isn’t just empty words that completes a speech. It helps the speech acquire the power and persuasion needed, along with converting and compelling the audience by which the success of informing the audience will be judged not by the knowledge, but by what the audience receives. An example of a rhetoric is Yeonmi Park’s speech.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird the author draws a vivid picture of the character Atticus Finch as he responds to conflict. Atticus responds to conflict in many ways. Being genuine, empathetic and determinedness is not even half of the ways he shows it. Harper shows major factors through Atticus on her opinion about society. She revelas some of her ideas about social justice through Atticus. Her being like Scout shows how she felt about her father not just “old and boring” (Lee 8), but a great role model. Atticus feels that there needed to be a change in social justice and he made that change to the best of his
In English 101 my professor told us to remember that the meaning of rhetoric was to write and speak persuasively. In that class we really focused on how the authors used rhetoric to persuade their audiences. Personally, I think the word rhetoric has a few different meanings. When I think of rhetoric I think about being able to effectively influence or persuade an audience. In order to effectively persuade someone you have to support and back up so I also think about the different things you include in a paper or speech to help you get your point across. For example, all of the rhetorical devices and appeals come to mind. The ones that I immediately think about are ethos, pathos, and logos.
Rhetoric is using the language you are given to confuse your viewer but not entirely because the main point is to persuade the viewer to your thinking or even someone else’s thinking. Its seems to be personal conformity. “It’s false speech that doesn’t match reality”
Rhetoric is a word that when said many understand what you are talking about but not necessarily what the word truly means. Rhetoric is simply defined as the art of speech to persuade. Using the three fold process of rhetoric, you can easily sway someone to think something is right even though it may not be. As well, using rhetoric can cause people to act upon something you say. This three headed dragon is ethos, logos, and pathos. All ingeniously thought up by the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. William Shakespeare took Aristotle’s idea and put it in a form that today we can cipher through his famous play Julius Caesar. Shakespeare intelligently used the speeches of both Brutus and Mark Anthony to better explain ethos, logos, and pathos to the modern world.
Aristotle defines the word rhetoric as “the available means of persuasion”, that is rhetoric is the art of using language in order to persuade or influence others. Rhetoric exists everywhere within the world: in art, in movies, in books, and in conversation; and so surely rhetoric must be important in some way for it to be used so widely throughout different subject matters. Rhetoric is useful and needed to make any argument strong and valid.
To start with I would start explaining what is rhetoric and how I personally use it in real life. Rhetoric is a form of convincing people though gestures and speaking. Basically, rhetoric used to be used when we need something from another person. For example, this is basically the same what we used to do when we were young. We tried to ask our parents for new toy’s or some candy’s and saying them that for that we going to do everything. According to Kantz, people who are misled by rhetoric are because they misunderstand the difference between opinions and facts (437). So, rhetoric at the time of its origin in ancient times, rhetoric was understood only in the direct meaning of the term - as the art of an orator,
The word “rhetoric” has multiple origins, but it’s mainly from French and Latin. The definition of the word is meant to use to persuade or influence others. This was the study of principles and rules to be followed by a speaker or writer striving for eloquence. Formulated by the ancient Greek and Roman.