Obama Speech Ethos Logos

Improved Essays
Many writers and speakers use rhetorical devices to make their argument stronger. President Obama, elected in 2008 and 2012, addressed the American People in response to the Oregon Shooting. Transcribed by the New York Times, Obama uses a variety of rhetorical devices to further his point. At first Obama discussed the tragedy in Oregon, but as his speech continues, Obama turns his focus to gun laws. Obama uses elevated diction and sentence structure in the form of ethos, pathos, and logos to further his argument and make it stronger.
Throughout President Obama’s speech he references powerful American symbols to create ethos and pathos. Obama repeatedly mentions the Constitution and Freedom. For example, Obama creates ethos with repetitive diction,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    As stated by Cesar Chavez, "a new study shows pesticides used in growing may be responsible for the illness over 300,000 of the nation's 4 million farm workers. " Chavez created a speech encouraging people to boycott the grapes because of the pesticides. Chavez used rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, and metaphors in order to provoke and inspire the consumers to stand against the pesticides. Throughout Chavez's speech, he uses pathos to alarm consumers about the dangers of pesticides. For example, he says, "What statistics are important to Adrian Espinoza 7 years old and dying of cancer with 8 other children--whose only source of water was polluted with pesticides" (Chavez, Wrath of Grapes).…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tom Toles appropriately uses various techniques to use his illustration to spearhead a worldwide criticization of the Nobel Committee. Initially, as observable, he uses appeal to authority to simulate a nearly identical situation. Here, the sprinter, showcasing then President Barack Obama, receives the gold medal before the beginning of the race by a person who portrays the Nobel Committee. As observable, he carefully satirizes the biasness of the Committee in deciding the winner. According to the accusations, the Committee did this to show their “appreciation” to the President.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetoric permeates our lives through everyday television, messages, advertisements, politics as well as speeches whether we realize it or not. A well-known speech, The Gettysburg Address, fuses many distinctive types of rhetoric such as diction, syntax, rhetorical devices along with the rhetorical triangle into a brief yet compelling speech with a lasting impact on the nation. The speech barely took one minute to deliver with only two hundred and sixty seven words, however Lincoln’s rhetoric accomplished so much with so little. Strategies in use in The Gettysburg Address are diction along with syntax, Lincoln manipulates these strategies in a way in which acts as extremely effective. The speech incorporates seventy four percent of one-syllable…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1830s John Downes’, a weaver, explores America where he is currently an immigrant from England who took a job in America so that he could earn money to enable and persuade his family to emigrate to America. Downes uses first person to express his tone of the letter. He uses rhetorical devices, pathos, and conversational diction in relation to his family matters and American experience. Downe’s American experience sets an example for his immigration from England to America.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Logos: A Great Speech

    • 58 Words
    • 1 Pages

    it shows that the students are about to leave Harvard and step out into the real focus on the sentence structure, we are forced to really try to understand the message. which makes a sentence that (at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts) Persuasion Techniques Ethos: Logos: A 'great speech' is one that should inspire and motivate its audience.…

    • 58 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In addition, it is at an emotional and critical time, such as during the economic crisis. However, there does not seem to be logos because the speech does not concentrate on logical fallacies. Persuasive and informative language are included, such as how people should be confident of Obama and informing others how serious the economy suffered during the crisis. He uses different features to try to connect with the audience, such as body language and tone of voice. After listening to Obama’s inaugural address, I found out that he used an abundance of…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Although Aristotle seemingly devalues pathos, Aristotle eventually acknowledges the necessary and supportive role that pathos possesses as an available mean of persuasion. However, the rhetorical devices, pathos, logos, and ethos, are designed to interact with each other, not to stand alone. The appeals to emotion are rampant and isolated throughout the inaugural address. The isolated emotional appeals throughout Trump’s Inauguration Speech are problematic for the orator and Aristotle; furthermore, Aristotle would criticize Trump’s heavy reliance on pathos given the composition of Trump’s audience.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Examining Barrack Obama’s compelling speech “A More Perfect Union” given during his candidacy, much of this speech has become a notable moment during Obama’s run for presidency and America at the time. Through rhetorical analysis it can be seen that in preparation during the time it was written, Obama’s writing techniques used in expressing what he wanted to speak on were done with precision and intent on how his speech would be put together. In Obama 's speech elements of rhetorical framework are existing, as appeals, devices, and context, construct the overall tone and purpose of the content. Being able to write and present it the way it was, a positive reception was the result of the purpose of the material. At the time while the speech…

    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    According the Forbes article, Barack Obama: A Master Class in Public Speaking, that discusses three public speaking techniques that captivate his audiences; transcendence, repetition, gesture and voice. Transcendence allows President Obama to “transport us to another place and actually paint a portrait that we can see in our minds’ eye”. Being able to captivate and paint an image during a speech helps individuals dissect the messaged that he or she is trying to convey and also helps speaker become more relatable to the audiences. In the President’s victory speech from November 7th, Obama spoke using concrete details and spoke about the individuals that supported him and campaigned for him. For example, in his speech he stated.…

    • 1895 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Voice is characterized by the theme of freedom in speeches both past and present. This is demonstrated in Barack Obama’s speech when he explains that “ we can say what we think,write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock at the door”(paragraph…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Luntz has the courage to state that the way Obama uses his language could be an example of “political plagiarism” however Trump does not do this at all. The one thing that Trump has done throughout all of his speeches is been truthful and as precise as he can be. Trump decided to tell the audience “For those here today illegally who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and only one route: to return home and apply for re-entry under the rules of the new legal immigration system that I have outlined above”. While Trump has hope that he can make America great again, he also has expectations that gives the audience who supports Trump a sense of trust. Ethos is also a mode of persuasion that Trump uses to speak to his supporters and put more of himself on the spot.…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The language style is emotional and motivating, because he uses pathos and ethos to achieve. He uses the pronouns “we” and “our” a lot, which gives the audience a sense of inclusiveness. It gives them the feeling that the speaker, Barack Obama, and the people aren’t so different, and that feeling gives the audience an unconsciously pride, and that makes them start to admire him and take his side. The analysis reveals that Obama uses the elements of Ethos and Pathos in his speech quite frequently. This could be, because he was very interested in motivating and persuading people by appealing to their emotions instead of their intellect, as it is easier to persuade people emotionally, at least in this context.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In this video he First Lady, Michelle Obama, used the rhetorical appeals to persuade audience to believe in the American Dreams and the President Barack Obama. Most of the time, she used pathos and ethos appeal. She didn’t use logos appeals at large. Pathos: She used pathos a lot in her speech by telling stories about her family, and her husband’s family to make the audience feel that their families seem more like all of us.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Barack Obama expressed an effective and touching inaugural address with the help of allusion and comparison. His genuine and trustworthy words significantly spoke to the…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Obama’s Farewell Address, was his final speech as President. Obama’s purpose of his Farewell Address was a way for him to say goodbye and to thank the American citizens but to also remind the citizens about all the improvements he made and how it should be continued. In order, to get his message across to the American citizens he used two of Aristotle’s modes of persuasion such as, pathos and logos. Obama used the genre pathos to invoke emotions from the audience in order for them to feel apart of the speech and he used logos to remind the citizens of his improvements and persuade them to continue his changes without his Presidency.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays