One of the speeches we had to analyze was the " I Have a Dream" speech, where we discussed the profound impact of the speech and how Martin Luther King Jr. utilized his rhetorical abilities to convey his message to all Americans. Our group was responsible for finding the element of deductive reasoning in his speech; one of the quotes we chose was towards the end of his speech where he says, “...when we allow freedom to ring….we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men,..., will be able to join hands and sing in the words,...., Free at last!...”. This really hammered home the message of the impact a united nation has on every one versus a divided nation. In addition to his use of reasoning in his speech, King used the setting of his speech, at the Lincoln Memorial to establish kairos.
Having the techniques to make a speech successful is important, but another equally important piece of knowledge that is important in creating a good argument/speech is what you need to avoid when creating an argument. One of the things you should avoid, and is ironically used most often in arguments, are logical fallacies. When it comes to logical fallacies there are many, but the ones that interested me were the straw man fallacy and ad hominem fallacy. The reason I was interested in these two was because I see them most often in "arguments" on news channels. Attacking a person's character (ad hominem) has come almost instinctively when another side fails to back up their argument and the straw man fallacy puts them, in what they feel to be, a better position. I see these most often when the opposing side themselves have questionable logic and fail to address the issue.
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ReplyDeleteWhen looking to form an effective argument, I believe that analyzing an argument like Dr. King's "I have a Dream" speech is extremely important. For example, the last part of Dr. King's speech was probably one of his most powerful lines. It not only was one of the most effective parts of his speech, but it exhibits a huge part of pathos.
ReplyDeletePathos is, as Sami stated, a persuasive appeal that plays off of people's emotions, and with Dr. King's speech I feel like he played off of African Americans continuing tiredness of being mistreated and unequal. His example of police brutality was one of the most prominent examples in my opinion. Around the time this speech was created, police brutality against African Americans was a gigantic issue. I believe that Dr. King knowing this allowed to him to further persuade and make his argument more effective and known. People wanted equality as well, and as I stated earlier, his last paragraph at the end of his speech played off of that, which further secured his persuasiveness. This large audience that he was speaking to, helped establish kairos as well.
Overall, I completely agree with what Sami stated about his other topics. Logical fallacies make an argument weak, especially when exhibiting ad hominem. Attacking a person not only promotes immature behavior, but it shows that you really don't understand what you're explaining, or you have an ineffective argument and don't know how to defend against your opponent's argument. Avoiding these types of speech will help not only make you a more persuasive person, but a more effective writer in general in my opinion.
Arguments, as you stated, are an exceptionally important part of our everyday lives. Without arguments, we would simply take everything at face value. Pre enrollment in this course, I had written numerous essays; however, I had never fully taken into account the importance of rhetoric. Being able to effectively use rhetoric helps to increase “credibility” of sorts. Each of the speeches, especially Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, examined in the course used rhetoric in their own way.
ReplyDeleteIf we are to focus simply on the “I Have a Dream” speech and the way in which it used rhetoric, we could conclude there is more than one way to effectively persuade an audience. I believe the “I Have a Dream” speech had a massive impact due to the social mood of the time and additionally because it reflected the situation that was at hand. Martin Luther King Jr. gave hope to all of the African American individuals; he showed them a vision for the future. If King had not used rhetoric, it is possible the words would not have struck the hearts of all. King’s use of words struck the hearts of African Americans and made many whites ashamed of their actions.
While rhetoric is important, one could also examine the structure of the speech. Structure is something we discussed numerous times in the past week, so it is something good to address. The structure of this speech was meant to appeal to three different audiences those who were discriminated against, the whites who were discriminating, and those who were attempting to change the situation. Overall, the speech used rhetoric in a way such that it could impact anyone who read it, and it helped to spark a movement for change.