My Thesis Proposal for Rhetorical Analysis

Thesis Proposal for Rhetorical Analysis

            Of the four articles given to us to choose from, I have to say that I didn’t enjoy the writers’ views in any of the selected pieces. Standing from the intended audience’s point of view though, I can see the skill by which each of these authors portrayed their opinions. The article I found to be the most effective would have to be A Government in Thrall to Religion by Frank R. Zindler. For this reason I have decided to write a rhetorical analysis on this piece in order to learn how Zindler managed to be so persuasive for his intended audience.

A Government in Thrall to Religion is most certainly the work of an extremist. Its constant sarcastic and ironic references to generally accepted Christian beliefs, along with incredibly strong language, push Zindler to the outer limits of what a lot of people would find acceptable, or even understandable, but despite this polarization, Zindler will find many people to listen to his message. Many with similar or close to similar views will likely walk away from reading this article feeling inspired to act upon what the author was portraying. He does this by first using strong language to reach deep into his audience’s soul to give them the idea that maybe their beliefs are not quite adequate and that they need to listen to him. This is most definitely a tool of pathos. Where Zindler can tread upon the hearts of those he preaches to, and twist them to be inspired by his language, despite the extremity of his writing. I plan to focus on this a lot in my analysis, on how he manages to inspire through the sheer amount of cunning, momentous, and quirky phrases he uses.

I also plan to write on how he portrays the Bush administration as an enemy using, logos type arguments to demonize Bush in the eyes of his audience. This is very clever because it makes him sound like he knows what he is talking about which also gives him a slight ethos approach for his audience as well. I may not like his message at all, but I certainly can see his skill in the art of inspiring a crowd, even if it’s for the wrong cause. I will also expound on this in my analysis and I hope I can learn from this article on how I can better inspire people for that which is right.

Faith in America Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Purpose:

            It seems that the purpose in the writing of Faith in America was to convince as many people in the nation as possible to remember the role that religion played in the founding of the United States of America and to remind others that we must be accepting of religion in our society.

Ethos:

            Mitt Romney is a well-known political figure in the USA today. He was a state governor of Massachusetts and ran for the national presidency. He also is known for his beliefs in God and the role of religion in our society. Though despite his strong opinions to have religion involved actively in our culture, he does not believe that religion should extend into government issues. This belief allows him to truly show that his argument is credible and current for our society today in the USA.

Pathos:

            In the article Romney focused on going through the history of the USA and how important of a role religion played in the making of this nation. How it shaped the American character and still should shape us today. Doing this allowed him to appeal to Americans’ emotions, mostly pride in being a citizen of the country, but also respect for the accomplishments of those that forged this nation out of so little, using religion to help them create the American ideal, which is, freedom for all to do and worship as they please.

Logos:

            The underlying logic behind Romney’s article was that as religion played a fundamental role in shaping our society and culture, it should also continue to do so today even if it is to be outside of governmental jurisdiction. In other words, if religion worked so well to create such a great society today, why can’t it continue to do so today? We should separate religion from government yes, but we shouldn’t separate religion from ourselves, or our culture, for it is fundamental to a better societal future. Also, religion shouldn’t be judged by other religion. The fight for serving God is not an exclusive right to any one religion, it should be shared between all who wish to serve. It also should be respectful to its individual contributors.

Zane Tolman

Writing 150 Section 32

Opinion Editorial Reflections

            The opinion editorial was a great experience for me to return to active writing. It’s been a long time since I’ve needed to write a paper to try to relay a message from my heart to others and I’m grateful for the opportunity that I had to author this paper. In my paper I focused on how in society today there is a rampant lack of control when it comes to taking care of one’s body. The idea of my paper was to persuade others to take care of their bodies, prevent future sicknesses by doing so, and provide the wonderful benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

            After finishing my rough draft I tried to go through and use sentence reconstruction that I learned about on style academy. I felt by doing so I allowed my paper to flow a bit better for the audience that would be reading my paper. I also used a conscience based argument to appeal emotionally to readers. I learned the importance of trying to appeal to the audience emotionally by studying about pathos. I felt that before I may have tried a pure Logos approach, or a logic only approach, that may have been convincing to some, but not as much as if I was using a combination of pathos and logos. I also tried to create an ethos approach by using confident language and stating facts and ideas that only those that have studied the topic would know. This I hoped would allow the readers to be confident that what I was saying was not a stretch in the truth, but reality.

            In the end I felt that my paper was overall a success for me. Was it perfect? No, I don’t believe so at all, but I do feel I matured in my abilities to write a better paper and most definitely learned how to write a better opinion editorial.