Preview

Classical Principles or Arguementation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
796 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Classical Principles or Arguementation
Classical Principles of Argumentation

In the essay “Reminders of Poverty, Soon Forgotten” the author Alexander Keyssar uses classical principles of argumentation. He uses ethos, which is the character of the speaker; he uses logos, which is an appeal based on logic or reason; and he uses pathos, which is an appeal based on emotions. His piece is over poverty and what came from Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath for the people. He also discusses what other events in history have contributed to poverty, and how nothing is being done about it by the government.
He begins in part 1 using pathos, “ There they were on our television screens, the storm’s most desperate victims- disproportionately poor and black, wading through muddy water, carrying children and plastic bags containing a few meager possessions.” This was his view of the people that were left in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In part 6 of his work, “But there is no crescendo of national public opinion about the presence of millions of poor people in our midst, and President Bush has not announced the creation of a national task force to combat poverty.” This part to me shows that he is not happy with what President Bush has not done for the people that are battling poverty. Part 9, “Poverty, however, is not a technical issue, but a deep, structural problem that implicates our values, our economic institutions, and our conception of the proper role of the state.” This shows his views on what poverty is.
This author uses logos starting in part 3 “While taxes were cut, public infrastructure-like the levees- was eroding, and an already frayed safety net was disintegrating.” The author is using the taxes being cut as his appeal to get his point across about the way things were being done, before Hurricane Katrina. These are things that could have been fixed and possibly prevented. In part 4, “Complaints were voiced that the people trapped in New Orleans had only themselves to blame, since they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    An example of Logos in the documentary was at 31:01 when one of the women workers goes into the office of the Labor Board. With Logos the producer is trying to convince an audience by using logic or reason. The scene at 31:01 does just that because the scene is being held inside the office of the Labor Board. This worker that the documentary has been following goes in to talk about her severance pay that Sonya wont pay. Eventually the Labor Board tells her that Sonya said they were only willing to pay $860.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The purpose of this textual analysis is to let people who read the argument to know and feel about the poverty problem and changes the way people see the poor is. George wants people to know who are they helping and what are they…

    • 367 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, Eighner establishes his use of logos by emphasizing his view on wastefulness in today’s society. Eighner communicates in his article, “Because help seldom stays long at these places, pizzas are often made with wrong topping, refused on delivery for being cold, or baked incorrectly. The products to be discarded are boxed up” (714). Here, he is exemplifying his claim that people are wasting away foods over little things, such as toppings on pizzas. Furthermore, Eighner writes “Students throw food away around breaks because they do not know whether it has spoiled or will spoil before they return” (715). This is another example of wastefulness, students discard perfectly good food because they are unaware of the expiration date.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chasing Ice Analysis

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The director of this documentary has gave us many examples where one day we will have made the polar ice caps completely disappear. A scene in the documentary tells the viewers that we need to be more considerate of how we are affecting the world day by day. This is happening but at the same time people aren't aware of what's happening so they aren't changing their ways. If we were to do something about this problem to save the polar ice caps we could keep experiencing them for many more years. A form of logos would also be when the director talks about global warming and how there needs to be change. The director shows how it's affecting not only the planet but humans too. A scene in the documentary shows us how the director is concerned about the climate change and that it's logical to think that there has to be a solution to the…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karl’s use of logo can be found on the second page third in which Compton wrote “General MacArthur’s staff anticipated about 50,000 American casualties and several times that number of Japanese…,” another example of logos can also be found on page two in the first paragraph which he wrote “Compare this with the results of two B-29 incendiary raids over Tokyo. One of these raids killed about 125,000 people, the other nearly 100,000,” even though these appear to be an accurate use of logos because Compton uses words like anticipated, about and nearly these words imply that the numbers used are estimates and not facts because use exacts numbers for example if an author were to say about fifty million each year that would not be a strong use of logos because in reality 55.3 million people die a year. When using logos the facts should be exact because appeal to emotion and trust isn’t enough for some readers most readers base their decisions on factual statements about the topic. Karl does attempt to use factual statements to persuade the readers but doesn’t seem sure of the evidence himself meaning Compton did not use logos…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He uses a serious and stern tone to show how serious the matter of overseas poverty is and how easy it would be to solve this problem. His tone is offensive at times, directly accusing the reader of the death of children outside of our borders, in places such as Brazil. (Singer) Singer shifts the target of the essay to not just the individual reader, but to the American people as a whole. He accuses the American people, who most citizens feel are relatively generous and willing to help people in need, of extreme selfishness, which helps discredit his argument.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Birmingham Level Stuff

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are three examples of logos in his letter with the first being “But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.” Another one would…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poverty is something that will bring you down a dark path if you let it. It’s needs and problems will only pile if you don’t take action. In poverty there will be people holding you up and providing you a platform to grow, but it is up to you if you want to step off of their help and into the life of uncertainty that comes with it. But in poverty the most important thing you can have, is people who will provide you with a good platform and lead you to stay with it, and not people who will stand there and simply not care…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    delineated through the novels, how poverty is portrayed through characters, and also ultimately how there…

    • 1890 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hooks Rhetorical Analysis

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor” written by Hooks, the author addresses on how the society represents, and displays poverty through false assumptions made by the higher class popular culture, and media representations . Hooks uses her own personal experiences to connect with her readers, about the issue on poverty. Also adding to that, she references to a black philosopher, named Cornel West, from whom she learned the difference between being poor and coming from a working class family. Hooks, who was brought up in a working class family, but she was thought to be poor. Many circumstances that occurred in her family, when she was a young child, made her realize that poverty is just seen as show and tell through the eyes of society. With this sense of realization, Hooks argues about the judgments made by the higher class on poverty, and decides to bring a change in the readers’ perspectives. As a result, Hooks wants to create the awareness of poverty in a positive towards the society…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first example of logos that Barack Obama expresses his knowledge about says “A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms.” This example is referring to how strong Hitler’s army was and how it was about impossible to stop with no violence involved. Obama brings Hitler's army to make a connection with the audience about the world around them and how violence is necessary at some point in a situation such as stopping an army.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading “As a Weapon in The Hands of The Restless Poor” one can feel motivated to help those in need. Earl Shorris appeals to emotion when he talks about creating a program to start to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. He starts out the story to say he is writing a book which makes him an author which is an example of ethos because he seems reliable. Shorris then states that the poor have been “Cheated” which is substantially true because the rich were given the opportunity to succeed more as someone who is poor and cannot even afford to feed themselves. In order to help the less fortunate out he has to create a program to help the poor succeed. After a Rhetorical analysis of “As a Weapon in The Hands of The Restless Poor” by Earl Shorris one can conclude that most people take for granted even the little things in life, if one were to open their eyes and see there are many people who do not have a dollar to their name, and we have so much that we tend to lose focus on helping the less fortunate succeed in the world we live in today.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though John Scalzi never reveals his own experience with poverty like Jeanette, his biography tells us that he was spent his childhood in California in poverty and was able to work out of it similar to Jeannette Walls. John takes on a “no tolerance” attitude when it comes to stereotypes about the poor, especially victims of hurricane Katrina that hit in 2005. The reason he wrote “Being Poor” was because of the people asking why everyone did not just leave when they were told to and avoid the hurricane. He answered in his essay indirectly that these poor southern people do not have reliable transportation, live hand-to-mouth, and have nowhere else to go even if they had the means to get there. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States, and the sixth strongest overall. The severe destruction left many losses of life and property damage, but for the poor it was the worst. John Scalzi wrote this essay for the ignorant people wondering why the poor in New Orleans did not just leave when the hurricane came. The details he gives describe on an everyday basis what these families are going through. “Being poor is clutching that box of Raisin Bran and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last” gives many details in one line. Raisin Bran is a simple type of cereal and one that can be off-brand. Trying to make the kids understand it has to last is showing that many times that box might be all a whole family has for a month. This was the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States, and people are asking the poor why they did not leave. Many think that it is easy to move out of poverty, but they have never experienced true poverty before. Many families are single-parent households who wake up and work all day,…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Logos is the appeal to logic and reasoning that supports an argument. It is prominent throughout Kristof’s article; he uses data and statistics that back up his argument. He wrote that firearms should be at “the center of a public health crisis that claims one life every 20 minutes,” and later explains that ladders—with extensive safety regulations and standards—kill about 300 Americans a year; he is stressing that America seems to be less strict with things “most likely to kill.” With numbers such as these, a reader will automatically consider the negative impact that guns can have on society and will be more likely to buy into or listen to Kristof’s ideas. Logos is one of the most widely used appeals because it is relatively impossible to argue against facts and data.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fragmentation of Society

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although his argument toward society is very true, what he does is he generalizes the society as the whole. He especially doesn’t consider the alternative factors for someone who is has excessive individualism and heightened personal isolation.; but his argument towards the widening gap between poverty and wealth and the divide is very true and fragmented because it is at times inevitable.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays