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.