On April 21st, 2010, an American golfer whose achievements made him a legend found himself behind a podium, defending his actions in front of a crowd of family, friends, and a public whom he had shocked. In 2009, Tiger Woods experienced the biggest blow to his career in the form of a car crash and infidelity scandal. Not only was he married with two kids, but he was easily identifiable as a positive role model for children across the world. His actions challenged the core of American morals and raised feelings of contempt among the public. These next 14 minutes of speaking in defense would be Tiger’s only chance to set things straight, his only chance to rebuild his life. Over the course of his speech, Tiger utilized the four rhetorical techniques for self-defense as cited by Ware and Linkugel in the article, “They Spoke In Defense Of Themselves: On The Generic Criticism Of Apologia”. By expressing denial, bolstering, differentiation, and transcendence, Tiger made a plea for forgiveness in his Apologia speech. Tiger does not once deny that he was unfaithful to his wife, or that he betrayed his friends, fans, and family. Although he took full responsibility of his actions, he denied claims made by the media concerning his involvement with performance enhancing drugs, and his wife’s actions. It seemed kind of off-base for Tiger to address allegations involving the use of steroids in a speech focused on apologizing for his actions as this was a blatant distraction from the issue at hand. In addition to this, Tiger also denied any rumors in circulation that his wife had hit him. He claimed that there had never been “an episode of domestic violence” in their marriage. By stating this, Tiger was successful in creating a sense of no... ... middle of paper ... ...ch. Tiger employed denial in response to media accusations claiming that he and his wife were involved in domestic violence. Bolstering was made apparent when he spoke of his virtues through the charity he and his late father founded and the values Buddhism instilled in him as a child. Differentiation wasn’t quite as emphasized as the other 3 “modes of resolution” (275). Instead of attempting to explain the meaning behind his actions, he took on an apologetic and understanding approach. Tiger’s use of transcendence shifted the issue from his own actions onto a larger plateau regarding the corruption that wealth brings. Works Cited Ware, B.L., and Wil A. Linkugel. “They Spoke in Defense of Themselves: On the Generic Criticism of Apologia.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 1973: 273-283. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/19/tiger-woods-speech-press_n_468880.html
The speech I chose was Cal Ripken Jr.’s it was given at the Orioles home ball park, Camden Yards at his last home game before retiring. It is a special occasion speech and was given in front of over 48,000 fans. He used a tried and true opening sentence that although a little altered had a very familiar ring. He opened with “As a kid, I had this dream” a very loose but familiar take on MLK’s “I have a dream”. This was a great attention getter and probably had people on their feet immediately. This audience was already motivate to hear his speech so that was not an issue. Most of the fans were there for the purpose of hearing his retirement speech. He did not preview his points in the introduction he addressed those in the body of his speech one at a time. He did not try to establish credibility as he was speaking about himself so who knows more about him than himself.
Lebron James is a well known professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lebron is often referred to as one of the greatest to ever pick up a basketball. Lebron makes money from playing basketball but a substantial amount of his income comes from sponsorships and endorsement deals with outside brands. This is where his social media plays a huge part of his life.
Advertisements are constructed to be compelling; nonetheless, not all of them reach their objective and are efficient. It is not always easy to sway your audience unless your ad has a reliable appeal. Ads often use rhetoric to form an appeal, but the appeals can be either strong or weak. When you say an ad has a strong rhetorical appeal, it consists of ethos, pathos, logos, and Kairos. Advertisers use these appeals to cohere with their audience. Nike is known to be one of the leading brands of the sports shoes and apparel. It holds a very wide sector of followers around the world. In the Nike ad, Nike uses a little boy watching other basketball players play, and as the kid keeps growing, his love for basketball keeps growing. Eventually, he
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
In December 2009, the world was shocked by Tiger Woods. News was released to the public of a scandal regarding Woods cheating on his wife with numerous women. As a well-known and respectful individual in the golfing world, it was important for him to take responsibility for his actions. More importantly, in order for Woods to keep his sponsors and save his reputation, he needed to apologize to his sponsors and family. His apologetic speech exemplifies his remorseful attitude through diction, or word choice, and the use of ethos, or credibility, and pathos, an emotional appeal, to the audience.
6 Geoffrey C Ward, Not For Ourselves Alone. (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1999) : 65.
Yu, Han. “Memorial on Buddhism”. Making of the Modern World 12: Classical & Medieval Tradition. Trans. Richard F. Burton. Ed. Janet Smarr. La Jolla: University Readers, 2012. 111-112. Print.
Hanh, T. N. (2008). The World We Have : A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. Berkeley: Parallax Press.
Although the two stories "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "The Nicklaus" by Guy De Maupassant were both written in the same period (The Victorian) the ancient years to the middle of the19thcentury, they have some differences and some similarities in many ways and aspects. A close examination in the two women characters in The Nicklaus and in The Story of an Hour show that they both shared the same experience in marriage, how society views women, and finally, freedom in both characters views.
The wars, the victories, the defeats and deaths arose from the warrior’s duty to the Buddhist Law. These warriors lived their duty and this is reflected through the tales that illustrate actions that include loyalty and respect towards other warriors.
Thesis: Professional golfer Tiger Woods is a modern-day tragic hero because his flaw of excessive pride directly led to the destruction of both his personal relationships and his professional career. Tiger took complete responsibility for his actions, but it came too late and by then he ended up suffering consequences that were excessive compared to his errors.
Women’s rights pioneer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, in her speech, The Destructive Male, expresses her feelings about Women's suffrage in 1868, and brought to light the misconception that women are not equal to man and imply that men bring more destruction than restoration.
Kennerly, K., Olds, S., Olsen, T., Sontag, S., Vonnegut, K. (October 24, 1985). “The case of
Scott lady D. Everyman revived: the common sense of Michael Polanyi. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985. Print.
Wetlaufer, Suzy. AA Question of Character.@ Harvard Business Review, September/October 1999, Volume 77 Issue 5, p30, 4p, 1c.