(Draft 1) Paper #2 Rhetorical Analysis

Paper #2 Rhetorical Analysis

            Rhetoric by definition means “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques”. Inherent in the definition the goal of the author is to persuade. Ways to accomplish persuasion are to appeal to human values. While these very values are subject to individuals bias there are overarching approaches that are more or less effective based on the individual. Ethos is an appeal to ethics, and it is a means of convincing someone that they can be trusted based on their character and reputation. Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience through raising an emotional response while Logos is an appeal to logic. These tools are used in literary settings to argue a point.

            I have chosen a post from the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Based on his personal preferences Trump chooses to utilize the social media site “Twitter” for both personal and political posts. The platform Twitter has a character limit of 140 per post. The character limit effects the way the platform is used. Being limited to 140 characters means that this platform doesn’t have the utility that a book or a blog provides due to the limiting of space. This limit its safe to say forces the user to condense their posts and makes the focus on diction even greater if they are attempting to argue a point that would require more that the allotted space. This point is exceedingly valid by pointing out that while a book or other non-character restricted platform allows the benefit of infinite space to the author in which they could use to construct an effective Ethos, Pathos or Logos oriented argument.

            The post is as follows ““One of the most effective press conferences I've ever seen!" says Rush Limbaugh. Many agree. Yet FAKE MEDIA calls it differently! Dishonest”. This post by President Donald Trump came in response to public and media testimonies that his speech on 17 Feb 2017 was for lack of a better term “bad”. There are multiple levels on which this particular post can be dissected and due to Trumps Emphasis on the “FAKE MEDIA” I will also have to provide context to this accusation, while the context is still on his twitter account it is however on a separate twitter post which I will also provide a link to. To begin Donald Trump Quotes Rush Limbaugh and his opinion on his speech in response to the accusations. In the sphere of politics Rush Limbaugh summarized is a conservative political commentator who works on Fox News (also known to be of conservative leaning) and who’s party alignment coincides with Trump’s own. This is telling in who the audience of this tweet. Rush Limbaugh is a very well-known and respected figure in republican media and as such his opinion would hold significant weight with those who agree with him and have developed a following so the target audience is republicans. This is a tactical move on Trumps part, by actively including Rush Limbaugh he is using his reputation to solidify his own while appealing to their Republican audience! This is a direct example of ethos use.

Donald Trump in the first half of his point defends his speech and himself as I’ve argued and for the second half he employs an Ad Hominem attack on the “FAKE MEDIA”. To build on that first we must look at what an Ad Hominem attacks is. An ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy in which an argument is diverted or ignored by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the “person” making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the meat of the argument itself. President Donald Trump employs this attack to discredit the news outlets involved in covering the negative response to his speech. By employing ad hominem, he discredits them by attempting to call into question their bias and truthfulness. By doing this he can if his argument is accepted invalidate the criticism towards him while turning the tables and being the attacker himself.

Quote Analyzed

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832730328108134402

Context to “FAKE NEWS”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065