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Functions and characteristics of rhetoric
Mass media and shootings essay
The nature of rhetoric
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In this writing project I will be presenting a rhetorical analysis of the core reading “Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shooters? Actually, No.” I will identify its rhetorical features, how these features affect the intended audience and why the author may have chosen these features in his writing. My personal audience is my instructor, Mrs. Hughes, and my fellow classmates in our Ivy Tech online English class. I hope to show my audience how the author of this article used certain rhetorical features to prove his opinion to his readers. There are several key rhetorical features embedded into this article. The article begins with a strong rhetorical feature placed right into the title itself. “Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shooters? Actually, No”. The author places his …show more content…
Several examples show that these armed civilians merely detained the suspects once the shootings has already occurred. Yet, other examples gave light to these arms civilians becoming wounded or even killed themselves when attempting to intervene. The author included no situations in his examples that led to an outcome that actual prevented these shootings. This further directed his audience to agree with his point of view in these instances. The author was showing his audience time and time again how these armed citizens failed to prevent mass shootings. This would slowly persuade his readers that his opinion is correct as they read on through the given examples. My favorite rhetorical feature of this article is the title itself. The Author starts off with a bang by placing his own opinion directly into the title. This gives his readers a clear picture of the message he is trying to portray to them. They can see his position on the controversy before ever reading a word of what he has
Heinrichs begins by explaining the art of rhetoric and laying out the basic tools of argument. He emphasizes the importance of using the proper tense to avoid arguing the wrong issue. Furthermore, he introduces logos, ethos and pathos and shows how to “wield” each rhetorical tool. In Part 2, Heinrichs discusses common logical fallacies as well as rhetorical fouls. He remarks rhetoric’s single rule of never arguing the inarguable and demonstrates how ethos helps to know whom to trust. In Part 3, Kairos becomes an important tool for knowing the right time to persuade one’s audience. In Part 4 of the novel, the author provides examples of how to use rhetorical tools previously introduced in the
Olson, Annie. “An Introduction to Rhetoric.” Le Tourneau U, May 2006. Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
In his article “Gun debate? What gun debate?” Mark O 'Mara discuses the controversial issue of gun control. O’Mara takes the tragic school shooting in Oregon as an opportunity to voice his opinion on the debate of guns. He clearly states his position and explains that gun violence has increased enormously because of the lack of command by the government and support from the public to speak out against it. O’Mara claims the issue is no longer a debate because it is so evident that guns have become a significant problem in this country and therefore actions must be taken to control and govern gun laws. In his article he attempts to raise awareness to the severity of the issue and tries to persuade his readers to take a stance against gun violence
The Stases and Other Rhetorical Concepts from Introduction to Academic Writing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. PDF.
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
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.
he evaluation of the overall rhetorical effectiveness for intended audience was a failure starting with the ethos of having no much credibility for the author, pathos, no real connection to emotion to aid the doctor, and not being able to see the real problem, and with the lack of logos to explain how to be able to obtain aid and help the student improve. As a result, in the editorial the authors had no success in persuading all the audience. For that reason, college students should be able to see the correct way to write their essay and the effective method for them to pass class with excellent essays.
Over the last decade or so, the United States of America has been shaken by an epidemic of terrifying mass shootings, devastating slayings of unexpecting victims, and unnerving annihilations of the innocent. There is no specific target, no explicitly sought-out group, nor definite individual. From a classroom of first-graders, to a crowded movie theatre, to a U.S. Naval yard, the location seems at most, random, other than that it is almost always a public place. The perpetrators responsible for these horrific murders also vary, and often surprise those who thought they knew them. However, while the occurrences of mass shootings are unpredictable and always shocking, most have one thing in common: the use, or rather misuse, of assault weapons-automatic or semiautomatic military style rifles. To ensure the safety, security, and well-being of the people of the United States, the government should ban assault weapons.
It is interestingly sad how debates on gun violence and gun control is being handled in our society by our top leaders and lobbyist. Gun control has become a serious issue and a national epidemic, however, the debate is far from over. In the article “under the gun” by writers Rottenberg, Rice and Franich, for entertainment weekly, the writers discussed the failing of gun control laws and the increase in gun violence. By setting sides of their argument, the writers discussed violence in movies, TVs and videogames and how this violence impact our society, thus allowing their audience to decide for themselves.
Student's Book of College English: Rhetoric, Reader, Research Guide and Handbook. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2012. 402-405.
...t is our job, as citizens, to at least be prepared for the criminals’ attack and to be able to defend ourselves in time of need. At the Virginia Tech shooting, the responding police officers took approximately three minutes to reach the school, but about five minutes to break through the chains binding the doors together. Cho fired rounds off for about nine minutes. Out of those nine minutes only four, or less, could have happened, if a professor or other college personnel stopped the aggressive action before the tragedy was completed. Police cannot get there fast enough sometimes to save a life; citizens must be prepared for the worst. One thing is for sure, one would rather have it and doesn’t need it, than need it and doesn’t have it. People often ask themselves, “Why should I have a gun?” Well guns are needed when seconds count, and the police are minutes away.
The AP Language and Composition course is purely designed to help students excel in their own stories, but more importantly, become more attentive to their surroundings. A conscientious goal, that would properly be attained through the collection of nonfiction paperbacks. Because of the purpose of this course and the current state of today’s children, one must undeniably agree that in selecting the “perfect book”, the overall idea of self-reliance would hold a prominent factor. This curriculum not only focuses on the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts, but it attempts to make students distinguish how the world plays with the dialectic of persuasion, also known as the art of rhetoric. In doing so, this course aims at making students aware
The author’s main argument in “Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making” is that rhetoric does not need to be complicated if writers incorporate certain elements to their writing. Downs further analyzed the elements that contribute to rhetoric such as symbols and signals, motivation, emotion, ecology, reasoning and identification. The author emphasized that writers can learn how to deliver their writing effectively once they are more aware on how rhetoric works. Downs constantly assures that rhetoric is quite simple and does not need to provoke fuzziness. Even though the term rhetorical is applied to everything, the author of the article made it clear that the “rhetorical” thing is situated. The example provided by the author in this article, further guides our understanding on what rhetoric
In his article “Our Blind Spot about Guns,” Nicholas Kristof argues for making guns safer for the people who use them by bringing up the comparison of guns to cars; “Cars don’t kill people. People kill people,” (261). Kristof’s purpose is to address the fact that guns are not as safe as they should be and are the cause of thousands of deaths each year. Although his ideas for increasing gun safety are interesting, there is a shortcoming in the comparisons he used. In order to make a stronger argument, one must use literary devices. In this case, Kristof used ethos, pathos, logos, and additional rhetorical devices.
The author begins his argument by retelling the story of his youth to build his ethos but the results are poor as it presents more questions on how he is a credible source on this argument as his only evidence is his own story. However, through the same means his pathos is built as his anecdote conveys feelings in the audience, making them more willing to listen. Graff finally, gives a call to action to schools to use students’ interests to develop their skills in rhetoric and analysis, which reveals the logic behind his argument. The topic about how students are taught rhetoric and analysis brings interest but with an average argument only built on pathos, a low amount of logos, and questionable ethos it can fall on deaf