In the article “ The Beauty of the Platitude” by Laurie Fendrich, Fendrich explains to readers how she feels about the use of platitudes in writing and when speaking. Her choices of techniques were very effective as far as making her point. She also provides a sufficient amount of evidence to support her claim. Fendrich explains that platitudes are overused and should not be used in conversation. She describes them as “meaningless clumps of words”. Laurie Fendrich uses examples that appeal to readers and strong metaphors to illustrate her stance on the use of platitudes. Fendrich uses many examples of platitudes to help readers understand what a platitude is and why they shouldn’t be used. In paragraph one, line 8, she says “ Just as greetings like “Hello” are conversations starters, platitudes like “Life is a process of change,” or the one that’s particularly grating to me as an artist- “ Art is a form of communication”- are conversation stoppers.” In paragraph 2, line 1, Fendrich even goes on to say, “ For the educated who are on call 24/7 to be as clever and quick-witted as possible to be caught using a platitude is as embarrassing as making a grammatical error.” Fendrich uses these examples to convince readers that using platitudes in writing or speakers can make readers come …show more content…
She uses strong metaphors in the first paragraph when trying to express how meaningless and bare platitudes are now. In paragraph 1, line 8, she says “ Platitudes assert everything –and nothing- all at once. Because they’ve been uttered so many times previously, and in so many trivial conversations, they tend to arrive stillborn, no more than a clump of meaningless words.” Fendrich states that platitudes are as lifeless as a stillborn baby. She goes further and says, “Their form stiff and unbendable by nature, permits little if any wiggle room for play.” She makes it clear that platitudes are lifeless, boring, and
Heinrichs had previously worked as a journalist before becoming a full time writer and advocate for rhetoric. He utilizes illustrative examples to convey rhetorical concepts. Furthermore, chapter four reveals the most valuable logos and pathos tactic. Lastly, this book’s use should be continued in this course.
“Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay” by Marie Foley demonstrates how a five paragraph essay formula disturbs the thought process of the students and limits what they can write. A five paragraph essay is an introduction with the main idea, with three supporting topics showing the relationship to the main idea, and a conclusion summarizing the entire essay. Foley argues that this formula forces students to fill in the blank and meet a certain a word limit. She noted that this formula was intended for teachers in the education system to teach an overcrowded class how to write. While it is beneficial for the first-time students learning how to write. In the long run, this standard destroys any free style writing, new connections between a topic,
An article that uses a lot of rhetorical devices is Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott. The speaker of this article is obviously Anne Lamott; the reader gets to understand her more after she shares some personal experiences. Lamott wants people to know that their first drafts are supposed to be shitty. This article is meant for college students who just finished their first draft and is looking for improvement. The purpose of this whole article is to inform you that your first draft is supposed to be horrible because no one can just pull an amazing paper from no where, not even the people who write for a living. The whole subject is telling you that your first drafts are going to be bad, so make sure to write multiple drafts before you
Have you ever wondered how influential people write great speeches that grab people's attention? They use a literary device called, rhetorical appeals. As supported in Hillary Clinton’s November 03, 2016 speech, uniting the American Public, will lead to an advantageous country. In her speech for the Democratic National Convention it states that, as elected for president, she will get everyone saying “We” instead of “I”. To reach out to the American Citizens and grab their attention, Clinton uses many rhetorical devices as she speaks. Using Logos, Pathos, and Ethos, the people of America jump on board with Clinton's ideas.
David Foster Wallace, author of the essay “Authority and American Usage*,” praises and advocates for “good” writers who have a strong rhetorical ability, which he defines as “the persuasive use of language to influence the thoughts and actions of an audience” (Wallace 628). To have a strong rhetorical ability, an author needs to be aware of whom their audience is, in order to present their information in a way that will be influential on their audience. Wallace recognizes that an author who applies a strong rhetorical ability will be able to connect with the audience so that they respond “not just to [their] utterance but also to [them]” (Wallace 641). An author needs to take into consideration not just content, syntax and grammatical structure (their “utterance”) but also how their character will be perceived by their audience. A positive tone will make the author seem more pleasant and relatable, whereas a negative tone connotes arrogance and pretentiousness. That is why it is crucial for an author to recognize that an audience will respond to “them” and not just their “utterance,” as an author’s appearance to their readers can also shape how impactful their writing is.
Rhetoric is something that we use constantly in our everyday life. Unbeknown to us, we have been using the persuasive appeals of pathos, ethos and logos even for the most mundane things. Rhetoric can be seen everywhere in our everyday’s lives in form of media, religion, politics, government propaganda, historic references and social media. We should learn to identify and appropriately use the different categories of rhetoric expressions in an effective manner. Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing in order to convince the audience or the reader. It is sued to convince the audience to think in the same way as the arguer or the presenter.
These devices can be applied more effectively by verbal communication. Firstly, face-to-face communication allows speaker to show his persistence, determination, establishing trust and constitute a strong emotional bond on audiences. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is an accurate masterpiece of rhetorical devices. In his speech, he quotes from the Constitution of the United States and builds up his own credibility, refers to the religious and patriotic documents by drawing attention on emotional values of many people. Additionally, he makes some rhythmic repetitions, which enriches the power of his words such as “Let freedom ring from”, “One hundred years later” and “Now is the time”. These strong traditions of verbal communication support political leaders in public speaking.“Anyone who has heard the speeches of Martin Luther King, such as are still available in recorded form will recognize the rhetorical features that lay behind such powerful words.” (Furniss, 2004, P. 88) Speakers who use paralinguistic features and rhetorical devices appropriately can give the message without isolating at the time of oral argument, while understanding the reactions of audiences and leading the
In that light, it is interesting to analyse what it is that made these artistic words such a difference. A difference that persuaded people to change their behavior. Thankfully, human history has created a term to define these great speeches. It is called rhetoric. In this essay we will try to determine whether rhetoric is an art, or merely a
In the book Metaphors We Live By, authors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson address the traditional philosophic view denouncing metaphor's influence on our world and our selves (ix). Using linguistic and sociological evidence, Lakoff and Johnson claim that figurative language performs essential functions beyond those found in poetry, cliché, and elaborate turns of phrase. Metaphor permeates our daily experiences - not only through systems of language, but also in terms of the way we think and act. The key to understanding a metaphor's effect on behavior, relationships, and how we make sense of our environment, can be found in the way humans use metaphorical language. To appreciate the affects of figurative language over even the most mundane details of our daily activity, it is necessary to define the term, "metaphor" and explain its role in defining the thoughts and actions that structure our conceptual system.
In Francine Prose’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read her purpose is to inform the audience that books presented to high school and college students are not to study the language, words, and value of a text, but to study and bring up discussion on other topics such as racial discrimination and human nature. She does this through the use of long sentences, which are separated by commas and dashes, and appositives. Prose effectively achieves rhetoric because she appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos.
While it cannot be argued that Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” (Address) and Emily Dickinson’s masterpiece known as the “Success is Counted Sweetest” are timeless pieces in literature, some could debate on their placement in the literary categories. Generally, Abraham Lincoln’s Address is labeled as rhetoric while Emily Dickenson’s “Success is Counted Sweetest” is considered to be a poem. The best way to distinguish one from the other would be to go through the elements of rhetorical discourse and see where the literatures show similarities, or otherwise express their differences in their style.
Clark (2016) suggests that rhetoric isn’t limited to oral communication, but currently has a permanent foothold in written works: magazine or newspaper excerpts, novels, and scientific reports. Not only written
Rhetoric, the art of speaking, is vital in everyday life. Whether it is to convince others of one’s worth as Sojourner Truth does in, “Ain’t I a Woman” or to pledge to a larger audience like Martin Luther King Junior in his “I Have a Dream” speech, rhetoric plays a significant role because it is the key that unlocks the door to self-expression. Without it, nobody would be able to convey his/her message or to get any thoughts across. A silent world, lacking communication, would therefore emerge. Trust would not be present as there would not be any words for someone to convince their beloved ones of his/her sincerity. Proper diction and syntax must be employed in order for one to effectively get others to share his/her beliefs, or at least to respect them.
Tan has proven herself a master of rhetorical appeals as well as proving her point, that language can have drastic affects on the users. She has judged and been judged by her language, and has seen her mother disrespected because of how she speaks. Speech is important, as it is used as a tool to determine the limitations of your thoughts.
As the quarter progressed, these ten weeks into the course, writing 39C had taught me a lot about the true meaning of Rhetoric and Research. Earlier, in this course, I acknowledged that “Rhetoric” is the art of persuasion that is endeavored by the human beings to persuade individuals with their words. Moreover, as I acquired additional information about the research and rhetoric in this course, I also identified that rhetoric is always around us, but most of the time we do not happen to see it. We are always already in the rhetorical situation which we have used the rhetoric since the day we start living our first moment of our life. There is always someone who is trying to persuade us in some way. After few weeks of learning “what rhetoric