Rhetorical Analysis: The Death Penalty

“There is more than one way to skin a cat” is a quote that explains just about everybody in some sense. Everyone has their own way of doing things, there is not just one set way of completing a task. This is exactly the same with authors. Authors use different types of styles, as well as appeals throughout their writing. These uses of appeals allows a certain point to be made and presented to its reader and/or audience. In his 2015 article, Brad Bushman uses a variety of appeals in order to get his message across: the death penalty is flawed. The first use of appeal he makes is pathos. He grabs the audience’s attention by claiming that the death penalty sometimes takes an innocent person’s life. He writes in his article: “ It is difficult to know for sure how many innocent people have been executed, but it appears at least ten have.” These words would pull at the heart strings for some readers, knowing that at least ten innocent people have lost their lives for no reason other than it being a mistake. Russ Feingold does the exact same thing in his article in order to argue against the death penalty as well. He writes: “Krone had spent the last ten years of his life in prison for a crime it is now most certain he did not commit.” This line might cause some readers sadness, which would be …show more content…
Bushman uses a huge amount of statistics in order to defend his argument. He writes about the percentage of ethnicities in death row, the amount of false killings, and even the top five countries with the most capital punishment. This really defends his argument and allows his reader to know that there is a sense of logos in his paper. On the other hand, Feingold does not have a fair use of statistics. Feingold primarily uses the sense of pathos by providing upsetting stories of those on death row. Both Bushman and Feingold use different appeals in order to get their point