Author: Daniel Libertz

Pathos, the appeal to the audience’s values or emotions, is one of the three general types of rhetorical appeals described by Aristotle. It is used to create an emotional bond with the audience. Emotional appeals can be very powerful as they can galvanize an audience by playing on their innate beliefs, while simultaneously causing them to discount other truths.

The topic I would use this rhetorical appeal for is the critique of government funded school vouchers and education tax credits. This issue is not as prevalent or as known as climate change or health care so the focus should be to inform as many as possible rather than to aim the piece at Congress. This topic would mainly be targeted at parents with kids currently in primary and secondary education as they should have the greatest vested interest in this discussion, but it would also be applicable to every working American as it would be using their taxed incomes to fund this expenditure. Since the intended audience is large, the text has to clearly explain the points in manner that is understandable and convincing without being overly complex. This might best come in the form of a website, news article, blog post, or brochure.

The best way to use pathos would be to focus on the ineffectiveness of the vouchers and the segregation and inequalities they would create in the education system. Readers would be urged to take action and to contact local policy makers if they are strongly convinced. Bowden and Scott state, though, that excessive use or misuse of pathos can create distrust and alienate audiences. The message I intend to impart on my audience could come off as airy and preachy without reinforcing it with undeniable facts. A way to combat this would be to combine pathos with logos. Logos is another form of persuasion discussed by Aristotle that appeals to the audience’s sense of reason by using well-supported facts. An emotional appeal is strongest when it is based on logic and reasoning. By blending pathos and logos, a writer can weaponize facts to build a strong narrative that audiences are more likely to take to heart. This would require presenting and debating the opposing arguments in a fair, yet critical fashion.

The topic I am considering writing about this session (which I will probably tweak) is a constitutional amendment that banning any campaign donations for federal legislators, candidates, or political action committees from sources outside of their district (in the case of House Representatives) or state (for Senators). Two terms that stood out to me in the reading were the two different audiences: invoked and addressed. To me, the former is simply the audience that I want to reach and hopefully persuade. The latter is the audience that not only engages the reading, but uses it in someway. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s used as a foundational document for a political movement, but it could be just one resource for someone who wants to decide on an informed opinion.

I can promote this idea across a fairly broad spectrum of media, which might be contingent upon research looking into the consumption habits of constituents most likely to lobby or contact their legislator to support the amendment. Although, considering the upswing in populist support during the 2016 presidential campaign, particularly for Senator Sanders and then-candidate Trump, there may be  or more activity from diverse demographics going forward that will necessitate a greater variety of media. There will be challenging limits to the usefulness of projecting or relying on the invoked and addressed audiences. I will have to prepare literature that is data dependent-enough that I can show that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, while simultaneously not treading so deeply into wonk world that the layman won’t understand, or lose interest, or feel like the solution excludes their potential contribution. I can only prepare to an extent with regards to audience, so creating the most accessible pieces possible will be my greatest concern. I understand style as a major component in accessibility. Since my invoked audience will likely be broad, the language I use will have to reflect its diversity.

This semester I would like to write about the importance of immunizing newborns. I would mainly like to target expecting parents. There are five constituent parts of rhetoric that classical rhetoricians have distinguished including style, memory, delivery, invention, and arrangement. One of the most important rhetorical terms for this topic is style. It is crucial for first time parents to understand what they are reading. If the text is too demanding, too complicated or unclear, the writing will not be effective. It is important to have the readability to be at their level (maybe less than a medical professional). This term of style might limit how much detail can be placed within the text. Some examples of texts might be brochures, emails, websites, or news articles.

Another rhetoric term that is important is memory. If the audience is able to read and comprehend the piece, all is lost if the audience cannot recall what they read. Many rhetoricians believe there is an inclination of persuasion related to rhetoric. In this case, I would like to convince my target audience of the importance of immunizing newborns for their safety and health. Memory is important so that expecting parents can act upon this issue. Expecting parents might also already have an opinion on this issue, so it is necessary to address their concerns in an appropriate manner.

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of rhetoric is delivery. After all, the quality of the piece is irrelevant if it does not reach its target audience. Each topic will have a different most effective mode of delivery. For the immunization of newborns issue, the most effective delivery modes include, but is not limited to, brochures, emails, websites, and news articles. Each method will reach a slightly different portion of the expecting parents population.

Invention refers to the actual message of the piece. It consists of three subsections: rhetorical analysis, three appeals, and research. All the data, research, and studies relating to newborns’ immunization will fall under this term of rhetoric. This is important because of the amount of negative information towards this topic. Not only does the positive information have to be accurately relayed, but the negative information has to be adequately disproved. It is possible that this is confusing to expecting parents, which is where delivery and style come into play.

Arrangement is the final constituent part of rhetoric. This refers to the organization and formatting of the piece. Arrangement helps the target audience understand the writing in its entirety. Clearly, the five components of rhetoric all hold great significance. With only one of these parts deficient, the piece will be lacking and will become less effective.

People who enter a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) face many challenges, and women in these fields face challenges from before their career even begins.  From a very young age, girls are not encouraged to pursue their interests in math and science in the same way as boys their age.  From the beginning, girls who are interested in STEM fields are at a disadvantage.

This semester, I will focus mainly on the audience that is given information to help women succeed in STEM careers and why the intended audience is often never given the information.  This is due to larger sociocultural contexts of the communities where these women live.

I will use pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotions and values.  I want them to see that everyone deserves the same opportunities, and everyone is capable of achieving anything they want.  I will also use logos to appeal to the audience’s sense of reason.  I want the audience to realize that women are given less opportunities.  I hope this opens the audience’s eyes to their everyday comments and actions that could discourage young girls from reaching their full potential.  Although these terms will be a helpful tool to communicate the topic to my audience, they are limiting what I do because there are more effective ways to change the minds of the audience.  But I do not agree with using techniques such as violence or threats to get my point across.

To address this topic with my audience, I think pamphlets and a social media campaign would be most effective.  This topic is not technical, so I think it would be best to give the most people some information that they could research more on their own.  The pamphlet could have internet resources on it that would help in the audience’s research.  I think a series of tweets would be a very effective way to get the information out to a large audience.  This is because people could retweet the entire thread or just a single tweet that they agree with.  This would reach all of their followers, and then their followers would also be exposed to the information.

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