Appeals to Credibility and Character (Ethos)
Which items on page 182 appear in my text?
The author uses word choice, tone and mention of counterarguments in this text.
How and why would the author uses these strategies?
The author uses word choice to impress the seriousness of the issue on her readers. She even brings in the word "legal." In most arguments about physical punishment, the debate is whether or not it is effective or healthy, but she brings it to an even more serious level by bringing in the issue of legality.
Tone is also used to show the importance of the issue. The author, Jessica Samakow, is extremely critical of using physical discipline, and the way that she writes helps show her opposition.
Samakow does mention the other views on this controversy, but she promptly discredits those beliefs. She quotes an outside source that says, "There aren't two sides. There is a preponderance of fact, and there are people who find it inconvenient to accept those facts." This blatant discrediting acts strongly on her argument.
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| Image by MIT OpenCourseWare. "Argument Between A Little Man and A Big Man." Uploaded 9/30/09 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. |
How do these strategies affect the author's credibility?
The word choice and tone help strengthen the argument, therefore, helping the author's credibility.
However, the quote that I listed above could be viewed one of two ways. Because I too oppose physical punishment, I feel even more strongly after reading this quote. Someone who is in favor of using physical punishment might find this statement to be too harsh, one-sided, or not supported enough by the statistics or evidence given.
How do these strategies impact the effectiveness of the message?
Her tone and word choice make the argument stronger. Those strategies added to her use of studies as evidence, make her argument effective and powerful. Her acknowledging the other side makes her opinion seem more logical. While her method of doing so might be harsh, I think she is correct in calling out the lack of evidence that they have to support their side.
Does the author have any bias that might affect her credibility?
The author writes for the parenting section of the Huffington Post, so she has experience in topics that involve child-rearing. This background helps her credibility, but does make her biased in some situations. She makes her beliefs clear in this article, but it doesn't have a negative impact on her argument or credibility.
Appeals to Emotion (Pathos)
Which items on page 182-183 appear in my text?
Samakow, the author, uses an emotionally compelling story, key word repetition, and shocking statistics to appeal to her readers' emotions.
What emotional repossess is the author attempting to create?
The author is trying to evoke horror and sympathy in her readers. She is also trying to make people see the harmful effects of physical punishment and to convince parents not to use it as to teach children how to behave.
Her usage of the statistic that "81 percent of...adults polled believe spanking with a hand should be legal, and almost half think it's an effective form of punishment" is supposed to shock readers. 81 percent of people think that hitting a child is okay?? This statistic should horrify some people, especially those who are looking at the issue from a psychological perspective.
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| Image by krisiGee. "emotions 001." Uploaded 8/3/11 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. |
What is the actual result?
I, as a reader, was shocked by the statistics as well as the Adrain Peterson story. This article made me more opposed to physical punishment than I was, so I would say that Samakow is effective in her usage of pathos.
Are these emotions effective for this particular situation?
This is an emotionally charged controversy, so any argument is going to involve some sort of emotion. Samakow does a good job of blending her emotional appeals with her logical appeals.
How do these emotional appeals affect her credibility?
I don't think that her credibility is affected at all by her use of emotion in this article. This topic requires some acknowledgment of the emotions surrounding it, and she acknowledges them in a way that strengthens her argument.
Appeals to Logic (Logos)
Which items on page 183 appear in my text?
My text uses statistics, expert opinions and clear transitions.
What response is the author attempting to create?
Using logical arguments and evidence, the author is trying to convince readers that physical punishment is harmful to children. While she doesn't outright say it, she is also wanting every parent to stop using physical punishment; saying that directly would likely undercut her argument and make her seem unreasonable.
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| Image by Klotz, Mark. "Logical Fallacies 1." Uploaded 4/25/10 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license. |
What is the actual result?
Because I am not in the intended audience of the parenting section of Huffington Post, I can't say definitively how this article would affect a parent. I personally feel that her argument is reasonable, well-supported, and logical. If I were a parent who uses physical punishment reading this article, I would probably find alternative ways to discipline my children.
Are these strategies effective for this particular situation?
Even though this controversy is an emotional one, Samakow effectively uses logic and evidence to support her opinion. Using an expert helps make her more credible, because she herself is not a psychologist. Having a well organized argument also makes her appear credible and logical.
Her use of statistics is somewhat ineffective for this article, because they somewhat go against what she is saying. She quotes a study that found that "eighty-eight percent of those whose parents used corporal punishment, but only 69 percent of those whose parents did not, said spanking with the hand should be legal." If children truly were harmed by their parents using physical punishment, would they be supporting its legality?
With the exception of that statistic, her argument is strong because of the logic and evidence that she uses to support it.
Reflection:
Kelly's topic was more logos based where mine was more pathos, but we both found how our authors used all three types of appeals. I like that she used bullet points to organize her blog post. My organization might be a little less clear, but I think it's easy enough to see what is a subheading and what is analysis work.
Dylan's topic involves less logical appeals. His article is written by a filmmaker who is incredibly passionate about the issue and uses his standing as a well-known director to convince others to agree with his opinion. Even with the lack of logos, Dylan analyzed why the lack of logos doesn't harm the argument being made.
From the quality of work, I think that all three of us put quite a bit of work into our posts. We have similar amounts of information, and we all covered the main points outlined for post 6.9.
My topic was less controversial and less ethics-based, so the rhetorical strategies used differed between my article and yours. Yours seemed to rely a lot on emotion (pathos) while mine didn't. However, both of our articles seemed to rely heavily on logic (logos) using data to enhance the point. Mine relied more on studies while yours seemed to rely more on statistics.
ReplyDeleteYour article seems very different from mine. The article that I analyzed was based off an interview between the interviewer and a climate scientist. Although bias, the scientist presented in a neutral tone while advocating for the methods of geoengineering. The use of his opinions and his ideas are the basis of the article, much different from the statistics used in yours. As for the emotional construction, my article did not evoke any strong emotions in readers but may cause them to become annoyed or irritated with the views.
ReplyDeleteYour topic is much more emotional than mine, in fact my topic doesn't involve much emotion at all. This made our posts overall very different. Your article clearly tried to evoke a response in the reader whereas mine simply stated the issues on my topic and let the readers form their own opinions on the subject. This made your post very interesting to read and I think you did a really nice job on it.
ReplyDeleteYou did a very thorough analysis of the different rhetorical strategies. It helps to do this because when you have to start drafting, it will be easy to find examples because they are already organized. Although emotional appeal is effective, I don't think it is the best way to present an argument. Regardless, you still have an interesting topic and article.
ReplyDeleteOur topics do differ but I did find that a big portion of similarities in both of our articles was the statistics. I found that in my article the statistics were the most shocking part and that your article used statistics to appeal to emotions.
ReplyDelete