Project...thoughts?

I'm not exactly sure what I would like to research for this project.  But as far as the rhetorical aspect, I am really interested in pathos, ethos, and logos and how they are used to persuade an audience.  As far as a topic? Maybe how the two presidential candidates present the same issue in (possibly) different ways to their audience in ad campaigns, debates and speeches.

Vote Our Future

This ad uses a lot of logos that is intended to raise awareness to the issues and financial problems that our generation will face in the future if changes are not made.  I like this video because it introduces these problems in the kind of "I'm really excited to be living with my parents again!" (said no one ever).  But behind the humor and smiles, its pretty obvious that the issues they're talking about are extremely serious. It breaks down the real issues that should be important to this generation of students and workers and places them in relate-able settings.

Pathos is also being used as a means to make the audience more concerned for their future financial outlook, which some students may not even know about.

I think it's an effective ad for college students and those who are recently out of high schools.

A=Obama

B=Clean up the mess (of America)

C=Make the right choice


Sooo, here goes nothing...

(A) Obama = (B) Making the right choice
(B) Cleaning up the mess (of America) = (A) Obama

Therefore...
(B) Cleaning up the mess (of America) = (C) Making the right choice

I'm not entirely sure this works???

Maybe, though....

Enthymemes and Syllogisms

The video I posted has a couple of examples of enthymemes and syllogisms.

The enthymeme that I found works like this A=Mitt Romney, B=Believes in America, and C=Running for president (vote for me).  This is found in the later part of the video..around 50seconds.

So this is how I think it works:
          A=C, Mitt Romney=Running for president (vote for MR)
          B=A, Believe in America=Mitt Romney
     Therefore...
          B=C, Believe in America=Running for president (vote for MR)

I could be totally wrong, but I think it works....

And for the syllogisms, basically I found Romney stating, "Your children will have a better life" (If you vote for me).

"Will restore opportunity and freedom" (because Obama ruined it)

And after looking through some of the posts that you all have made, it's clear that pathos is the most popular use of rhetoric for many of the campaign ads.

 

Campaign Ad

"The greatest and most important of all things in an ability to persuade and give good advice is to grasp an understanding of all forms of constitution and to distinguish  the customs of legal usages and advantages of each."

This video plays a lot with pathos. The video gives snapshots of America and all the different types of people that live in America, doing the things that Americans do (all generalized, obviously).  It starts off with the sunrise and the Statue of Liberty, which is very strong imagery as the statue is a staple of America.  During the beginning of the speech he reminds the audience that immigrants came here for a better life, because anything was possible - maybe to give a sense that this is no longer possible, but it could be if he were president.

The video shows a lot of diverse people in diverse settings which helps connect with a broader audience, rather than just one main set of voters.  I also noticed that they show him doing "American" things, like the chili cook-off.

At the end, the soldier and the graveyard of American soldiers is used to reiterate that the believes in America and recognizes the importance of the foundational values that it was built on.

Friday, September 14

Aristotle defined chance as "those things whose cause is undefined and which do not occur for a purpose, and not always, or not usually in some ordained way." (86)  I'm all about the life motto about it all working out in the end, but I'm still not convinced that *chance,* as Aristotle describes it, truly exists.  I don't believe that anything in life just happens for absolutely no apparent reason at all.  Nobody becomes poor for no reason, nor does anyone prosper without some defined cause.  Sure miracles happen, but there's a defined cause.  I guess what I'm getting at is does chance exist? And if so, where and what are some examples of the undefined causes happening?

Presidential campaign

I would say that this one is playing mostly with Ethos and Pathos.  Ethos because it is questioning the credibility of the speaker, President Obama, in is statement of "doing fine."  I would say that it is using pathos because the use of "fine" is not a very powerful word, or one that should be used to describe the economy, so Romney is using this statement to his advantage in order to get emotion out of the audience.

Questions for Friday

Socrates says to Gorgias, "If he is ignorant, you who are teacher of rhetoric will not teach him--it is not your business; but you will make him seem to the multitude to know them, when he does not know them; and seem to be a good man when he is not."

Throughout history, rhetoric has been used to convince people to believe or buy into whatever the leader of their nation or country is *selling,* no matter how wrong or awful the message or product is (I'm thinking of Hitler).  What is it of rhetoric that makes it capable of having such an overwhelming effect on people that they forget their own personal morals and beliefs?

Introduction

Hello!

My name is Jodi and I'm a writing major.  I will finally be graduating this December! After that, I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing with my degree, but I'm not to worried about it *yet*.

I have always enjoyed creative writing and wish to one day create a memoir (which can sometimes be considered creative) or novel of some sort.

Rhetoric is actually very interesting to me.  I think politicians are the best at it, whatever it actually is - but so are kids who know how to con their parents into getting that iPad for them.