Persuasion

In his article, Writing for Teachers, Peter Elbow talks about the many difficulties a student faces when writing for a teacher, and also the obstacles that both the parties involved must overcome. Elbow points out that students are often asked to write for the teacher but are supposed to address a general audience – “a creature blessed by intelligence, a certain amount of education (“general”), and an open mind”, but one whom they have no information about. They are rarely ever told the…

Introduction The speech I am critiquing is a sermon that was given at a conference. The person who gave the sermon was Dr. Ray Owens, and the sermon was entitled “The Power to Climb a Mountain”. In his sermon he provided two different contradictory attitudes: the mountain mentality, which is an attitude that embraces challenges, and the Molehill Mentality, which is an attitude that prefers to take the easy way out. Throughout the sermon, Dr. Owens provided different examples and used different…

1.) Speaking to persuade is much more difficult than speaking to inform. When you are speaking to inform, you are simply relaying information to the audience. However, when you are speaking to persuade, your goal is to relay information and you must change the audience’s mind on the matter. You are attempting to change your listener’s attitudes, beliefs, or actions, and are trying to get them to agree with you. When you are speaking on controversial topics, this becomes even harder to…

Reflective Paper I chose to reflect on my persuasive essay on why girls should make the fist move towards guys. My paper was addressed to college aged, heterosexual females. I definitely believe that I selected the right audience. I felt that addressing my paper to all females would have been extremely broad due to the fact that not all females are interested in men. Likewise, I feel like I definitely geared my paper towards my selected audience. I feel like I gave situations that are realistic…

In order to avenge Caesar, Mark Antony turns a shocked, confused crowd of mourners into an angry mob of rioters by using persuasive techniques. The main component of Antony’s speech, Pathos, appealed to the commoners by striking an emotional spot inside them, trying to turn the fickle crowd against Brutus. Antony displayed the persuasive technique of Pathos by repeating words, showing them Caesar’s body, and presenting Caesar’s will. In the beginning of Antony’s speech, he spoke of Brutus as…

The nerves in my legs were shackling at every moment I saw the teacher walk by me in the classroom. I could feel my breath getting heavier and heavier. I looked up and the teacher said “Everyone focus on your test paper or it will not be marked”, then proceeded to write my test. All the answers were written on my hand and my eraser. Two weeks earlier before this dreaded moment, I was locked up in my room playing the latest Call of Duty Black Ops game with my friends on my brand new Play Station…

A quality debate or discussion is characterized by the use of rhetoric and the three appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos—which are considered the building blocks of rhetoric. According to Webster’s dictionary, rhetoric is “The art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force”. Rhetoric is powerful, it gives a person power to change another one’s stance. Rhetoric has not always been used for good however, things like, the Nazi propaganda machine, hate speeches and morally wrong agendas, have…

In Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter and speech, there is both emotional and logical text. The one that is more emotional would be his speech. His letter would be more logical then. The reason why the letter is more logical or logos is because it has facts and data but also it uses testimony. He used more logical language in his letter because he was trying to get this point across to certain people, he wanted to use truthful information to back up everything he said. The reason the speech has a…

When you see someone you want to get to know, you usually think about going up to them and talking to this person. If you want to pursue this person and possibly find them attractive, you can use two different approaches; the direct approach and the indirect approach. The direct approach is obviously something that is very direct and the person will often know that you are hitting on them. The indirect approach, however, is very subtle and casual. In this project I had to use the indirect…

The persuasive essay is devoted to proving a point of view and convincing its readers to side with the author’s opinion. In order to write a strong persuasive essay, you should choose your stance and express it explicitly both in the thesis and throughout the essay, using logical reasoning and provoking readers’ emotional response. The persuasive essay usually has a five paragraph essay format, though the number of the paragraphs can be increased if necessary. The introduction should seize the…