09.22 - Editorial Appeals

For the first part of class today, we reviewed rhetorical appeals by reading an editorial and identifying which appeal (ethos, logos, pathos) was being featured in each paragraph. People wrote these responses in their writer's journal explaining how they knew that appeal was being used in that paragraph. Some paragraphs may feature two appeals.

After everyone had a chance to complete this analysis we discussed students' responses. In this discussion we looked at the overall progression of using appeals where the speaker usually begins with ethos to explain who they are, moves into logos to present the need for their argument and the specifics of their argument, and then works in pathos to show why their argument matters. Towards the end of an argument the speaker may also revisit elements of logos or ethos amid pathos; the idea being that facts are more meaningful in an emotional context.

Next, we returned to looking at former president Bush's "Iraqi Threat" speech for potential logical fallacies. This turned out to be something with which everyone had struggled so we focused specifically on paragraph seven (see below) where former president Bush makes an argument about Saddam Hussein.

First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a murderous tyrant who has already used chemical weapons to kill thousands of people. This same tyrant has tried to dominate the Middle East, has invaded and brutally occupied a small neighbor, has struck other nations without warning, and holds an unrelenting hostility toward the United States.

In this argument, Bush is seeking to prove that Hussein is a real threat to the United States and a larger threat than other, similarly positioned countries. People in class felt that this argument could exhibit the logical fallacy "ad hominem" by attacking Hussein as a "murderous tyrant" or the fallacy "appeal to pity" by attempting to get the audience to feel bad for the people that Hussein had killed. Overall though, people felt the fallacy that is most likely occurring here would be a "red herring" in that the paragraph does not address direct threats against the United States, but other threats and actions that Hussein has made.

For homework, people should focus on paragraphs 8, 12, 13, 14, and 15, and attempting to identify potential fallacies in these paragraphs.

Handouts:

Editorial: Stop Romanticizing Mental Illness

Logical Fallacies

Speech: "President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat"

Homework:

Re-read paragraphs 8, 12, 13, 14, and 15 from the "Iraqi Threat" speech and identify potential logical fallacies in these paragraphs.