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In the “Means of Persuasion”, the essay discussed the four different types of appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos. However, in “A More Perfect Union”, which was a speech given by Barack Obama during his campaign, he demonstrates all of these appeals. Although all three of these appeals were used, the ones that stood out most were pathos and ethos. Pathos is an ethical appeal, while ethos is an emotional appeal. This address was very heartfelt and sympathetic. His use of pathos throughout his speech painted the picture of a proud American, and the use of ethos allowed us to be able to look deeper into his life and story. It is important to understand why the speech was written. Due to some racial comments that his pastor made, this speech was given because of all the controversy surrounding it. Obama did not directly address his pastor comments and state whether they were right or wrong, but he did paint a picture of himself for the world to see, and let everyone know where he stood as an African American citizen in the U.S. His pathos and ethos played a role in describing his diversity and his background, and his pride in being American. This was a very relatable speech, he didn’t speak necessarily like a politician, but like a citizen.

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In both readings, the authors use the techniques ethos, pathos and logos in order to sway the readers in different ways. I found it more prominent particularly in Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" that the ethos, pathos, and logos are organized in a more fluent way. I find that in "Means of Persuasion", the way its written is more examples and how to incorporate the techniques. However, they both use the techniques and get the audience to listen how to use them to sway a group of people listening to the message. Barrack Obama's speech was very heartwarming, credible, and makes the audience understand how he personally feels. I think Obama's genuine feelings really reach me personally, and it's helpful that he knew how to use all his persuasive techniques in different ways, naturally.

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In both readings, “Means of Persuasion” and “A More Perfect Union” by former president Barack Obama, both contain strong examples of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech does well at using all three different appeals, but I feel that wat really drove it home was his many uses of pathos. In the speech two examples come to mind, that show strong uses of pathos and ethos. When he lets his audience know how lucky he feels to be in America, “I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.” This also let’s Obama catch the attention of the other races, as he is not only running for the black community. When Obama explains that if we do not act now, there will always be a distraction that keeps us from talking about the problems that really matter, “That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, ‘Not this time.’” Similarly to Barack Obama’s speech, in “Means of Persuasion,” we are given good examples of ethos, pathos, and logos but they are a lot more focused on individual tactics to appeal and persuade your audience. 

The End of the Blogs

After reading "Means of Persuasion," it was very compelling to analyze the extensive use of emotional, ethical and logic appeals from former President "Barack Obama's Speech on Race." President Obama begins his speech with logical appeals, as he explains the the roots of slavery and its presence within the constitution. The president then smoothly shifts his speech into emotional territory, and his use of pathos almost seemed to be an ethical appeal as well, due to his sympathetic and passionate way of speaking. He then adds to his ethical appeal with background information of his family and life, and he explains his racial background and what effect is has had on his life. This speech is very interesting all around because of its use of these appeals. Present Obama smoothly used all three appeals in a cohesive manner to help persuade the audience in an effective way. His appeals seem to all be working together, as a group that is laying out the methods of persuasion, rather than as single independent units. I found that looking at the appeals in this way is eye-opening, and it helps me gain an understanding the influence and importance of appeals while trying to persuade a reader or audience.

The Final Blog

Throughout both readings, each author uses ethos, pathos, and logos in order to properly persuade readers into thinking a certain way. In Barack Obama's speech, "A More Perfect Union," he issues an amount of credibility, emotion and logic in order to persuade Americans into coming together and ending on going racial conflicts. He's credible when he brings up Jim Crow laws, Brown vs. Board of Education, and other examples of segregation that took place during the Civil Rights Era. He issues a great amount of emotion throughout every piece of this speech, as his whole self-image was involved. A brief example of his emotions was when he stated, "I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country." Lastly he offers a tremendous amount of logic as well when he analyzes and explains the controversy that occurred with Reverend Wright. President Obama has always delivered great speeches, and a key attribute to his abilities has to do with the use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

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Both readings used logos, pathos, and ethos in ways to persuade or just to simply grasp the reader's attention and communicate. Obama's "A more perfect Union" speech utilized all three appeals easily. He spoke at a great intellect from the jump but his communication skills are so well it seemed as if he was just having a normal conversation between two people; He appealed to our mind and intellect when he said "unless we perfect our union by understanding that we have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction -towards a better future for our children and grandchildren." He also uses pathos throughout his whole speech in which the passion and tone he speaks you can hear the anger that is sometimes displaced or the care for which he is saying. He also appeals to himself in which he explains his background and what's that meant throughout the election for him. Overall his entire speech appealed to the audience and himself.

A More Perfect Union

In his “A More Perfect Union” speech, Barrack Obama is very good at using emotional appeals to relate to his audience. One way in which he does this is by comparing and contrasting his life experiences. For example, he talks about how he has both African American and white ancestors, as well as how he has “gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations”. By doing this he is able to establish common ground with a wide variety of people. He also appeals to people’s morals by suggesting that we treat each other the way that we would like to be treated. He does a great job at attempting to get people to see things from a different perspective by explaining the viewpoints and anger that both African Americans and white people face. For example, after explaining the problems that face both African Americans and whites, he explains that “Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze.” He then goes on to advocate not exercising anger in the face of injustice, but instead emphasizes the importance of unity in dealing with these problems. Obama also uses logical appeals to establish his authority and relay his message to the American people. One way he does this is by speaking from personal experiences that he faced growing up. Obama defends Reverend Wrights aggressive remarks by appealing to his 20+ years of knowing him, and explains that although Wright may have slipped up and been perceived as racist, those words do not define who he is. Overall, Obama does a good job at using both logical and emotional appeals to engage with his audience, while also establishing his credibility and relating to people in a way that everyone can understand. 

It's been real English 1320

In “A More Perfect Union”, addressed by former President Barack Obama, contains numerous examples of each appeal. This man knew what he was doing! He especially conveyed Pathos, or emotional appeal, when talking about his family history and how no where else in the world would it have been possible to have a childhood like his. Obama addresses several points in which his audience is moved emotionally, enhancing his likability. Of course, as Aristotle said, no argument is complete without using “all available means” of persuasion. Obama’s speech utilizes each appeal to its full extent and they all come together to create a strong, hopeful argument. “A Means of Persuasion” delivers to its readers the three appeals and how to use them accordingly, as well as how to identify them in text and examples of each. This text was more along the lines of a guide, rather than President Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech. Both readings use each appeal, but they are revealed differently. Barack Obama’s speech discretely uses appeals in every corner, where as the textbook tells you exactly what each appeal is and shows an example of them after each explanation. Both sources are incredibly useful in determining how to persuade my audience, especially for this upcoming presentation. As this is my final blog post, I'd like to take a moment to thank whoever reads these things and wish you all success in your future! What a unique group of people this class is and it has been a pleasure getting to know you all. 

Peace out girl scouts... 

Gabi Harkrider☮

THE FINAL BLOG

In A More Perfect Union, Barack Obama uses ethical, logical and emotional appeals to talk about the controversies facing him and his campaign for president. The speech is more thoroughly embedded with emotional and ethical appeals, however there are some logical appeals. Mainly those in which he states historical facts of the constitution and slavery in the past. You can see his ethical appeal when he gains his credibility on the subject when he speaks of his parents, one white and one black. Also, when he talks about the commentators who dub him either “too black” or “not black enough”, clearly speaking of the racial tensions he deals with daily. However, his emotional appeal is stronger based on the way of his word choice and the way he talks about his own life experiences and others he has encountered along the way. All put together this speech is one of the most well-known and is used vastly in the educational world because of its use of all three appeals very well and its successful persuasion of the audience. In my opinion it is his ethical appeals that really were the selling point for me. In order to have a formidable argument ,one must have credibility in the subject. Unfortunately there are many people in todays society that talk about a topic that they nothing about. When you can prove that you are credible enough to talk about what you are talking about, then it is a lot easier to convince people. It allows for people to further look into your emotional and logical appeals and help them understand the topic or argument better. In terms of the issue , without unity in anything , nothing can be accomplished. No matter what it is , you must be able to work with others to obtain any type of success. This concludes my final blog post , now comment on this shit because I stayed up to do it , and may god be good to you on finals.

Persuading the Union

Both readings, "Means of Persuasion" and "A More Perfect Union," use logos, pathos, and ethos through what they are trying to present. What makes them different is the way they use them. Barack Obama's speech, "A More Perfect Union," uses these three appeals in order to convey a strong and moving speech while "Means of Persuasion" provides the ideas of how to successfully use logos, pathos, and ethos. The text "Means of Persuasion"has the purpose of informing readers on how to use the three appeals in an argument and the speech "A More Perfect Union" has the purpose of persuading the reader to agree with his viewpoint on slavery. Obama's strong use of ethos throughout his speech is what really allows the audience to connect to his speech on a personal and emotional level. Through pathos, he shows a lot of anger towards racism and uses heartfelt diction to portray his argument. He uses logos when he explains to the audience his past experiences to give logic as to why he would have the opinions he does. Obama also uses ethos to show the ethical reasons as to why slavery is wrong. The whole argument on slavery is applying the ethos appeal by reinforcing our negative outlook on slavery and how it is unethical of us to treat a fellow man that way. On the other hand, "Means of Persuasion" gives the reader a very tangible definition and use of each of these three appeals. It describes ethos as a means of the appeal to ethics. It shows the credibility to persuade the reader or convinces the reader of the character. Pathos was illustrated as a means to appeal the emotions and how an argument can be strengthened by inducting an emotional response. And lastly, it describes logos as a means to appeal to logic and is a way to persuade the audience through reason. These three used together result in an argument which intensely reaches out to the audience.

A More Perfect Union 4/26/17

In Barack Obama’s speech on race, A More Perfect Union, he uses emotional, ethical, and logical appeals to persuade his audience on a controversial topic. In his speech, he builds common ground with his audience by telling us about his diverse background making his speech universal and making an ethical appeal. When Obama talks about his background of being split between a father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas it appeals to his credibility and opens the conversation as he continues to talk about race and his experiences. In this speech, Obama also uses emotion to appeal to his audience by influencing hope and change for our country by the end of his speech, also throughout his speech. Obama doesn’t use logical appeals as clearly as the other appeals but he does use them by stating the journey to the declaration of independence and telling his personal experiences. All of the persuasive techniques are used in this speech to appeal to the audience with an abundance of emotional appeals of hope and change.

            I think that this speech’s emotional appeals worked for me because in the end there is hope and our country can be perfected while still being imperfect. I agree with what Obama said about not becoming a victim of your past and to insist on justice and binding our grievances to the aspirations of all Americans. I think that this speech includes all Americans in the fight for change and shines a light on the need for the children to have a way to prosper because they are the future no matter the color of their skin or where they come from. I like this speech and think Obama did a good job at appealing to his audience and turning a controversial topic into a message for change.