Final Blog April 26th

Both the “Means of Persuasion” article and President Obama’s speech have similarity in that one describes what the other is putting to use. “Means of Persuasion” discusses how different appeals such as logos, pathos, and ethos can be used to influence people to feel a certain way whether it be in writing or in speaking. Meanwhile, Obama’s speech uses those same appeals as its structure. We can simply look to where Obama tries to reach his audiences sense of emotional by saying things such as, “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 shows the reader that Obama himself is just like us emotionally. He loves his family, and so do we, and through this we immediately view him as more trust worthy and more credible. This is not the only use of appeals that are discussed in the article from the book either. Obama’s speech is constantly attempting to appeal to its listeners or readers in diverse ways. He appeals to our ethics by describing the history of slavery and we know that it was inherently and ethically wrong. He appeals to logic by informing the reader of his past so that we can see a more logical view of why he is saying the things that he is saying. No appeal is looked over or left out of the speech, and it is very clear because it is so powerful. Without the use of appeals his speech would not have been able to touch the audience any more than him simply standing at the podium and looking at them. As our book opens the article with, “good arguments make us of all the available means of persuading” and that is exactly what the speech did.