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. This use of literary techniques allows him to ignore the
attacks on himself while creating the narrative that he is correct and his
position unshaken. Thus it is safe to say that by analyzing just a few of trumps
tweets we can formulate that he has a firm grasp on rhetoric and employs it to
suit his needs in his life and business
Quote Analyzed
Context to “FAKE NEWS”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065
I have really enjoyed how your piece is coming together it really goes into depth over what this posts true meaning is. I think that your conclusion is great it ties everything about your character together on how he uses the media for his personal gain. That leads me to say that your last paragraph is now strong, and the ending is now a clear sum up of everything. As time goes on it is getting harder to critique your paper when there are so many good details working out for you. But, it seems that you used only one appeal in your essay, and in class Professor Reyes had discussed about how many appeals to use and she said that two was required for this paper, but it seems you only have Ethos appeal that leaves either Logos or Pathos to choose from. I think you could review the last paragraph, to maybe consider adding another appeal into this part of your essay. I also think something you could possibly work on through your essay is what our professor said about keeping the focus on how your character constructs and writes his identity within each section of your essay.
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