Short Assignment 3

In the article “Green Aple”, the problem of cities collapsing due to global warming is addressed. The article does not follow the arrangement that Bacon introduces where the hypothesis is first. The arrangement of the article is to appeal and construct the audience. A low stases is used to construct the audience through questions about how the problem is going to be fixed and if in fact there is a solution.

This article appeals to the ethos of the audience because it threatens city’s safety and uses the shock and scare factor in the beginning. The statistics that are brought forth about New York City cause the audience to question, “what is going to be done about this?”. The article is not outright scientific but does enough explanation through discussion to show that it is a proposal for cities to change. Solutions are proposed about what cities can do to reduce their emissions and global footprint. The order of the article follows the stases process that Secor &Fahenstock present in their article. Instead of a formal proposal with headings such as, Solutions, Problem, and Methods, there is a casual low stases approach to the article’s arrangement.

Why is arrangement important to a scientific article that is aimed at the general public? For a mainstream reader the Baconian arrangement does not introduce the problem in a shocking matter. The rearrangement of order and questions and ending with continual shock motivates the reader to take action. Even though it is in Scientific American, there is a notion that the article wants to appeal to the general public, rather than just science magazine readers. The solutions are spread throughout the article, there is examples for smaller cities in China, to larger cities such as Chicago and New York City. However, these initiatives have made their way to the larger public. The Clinton Initiative recently had a summer project in New York City where they painted roofs white to lower electric bills for residents. These acts could have occurred from knowledgeable articles that introduce solutions to a problem in the introduction instead of having a strict arrangement.

Arrangement and stases relate to one another through breaking the norms set, and constructing the audience through stases. Asking the questions and showing solutions right off the bat in this article take a deliberate tone and action, instead of the Baconian format that most science articles can take.

Short Assignment 2

In a persuasive letter or document the author does not ponder over who is going to be his audience. There is a clear message and audience because without a distinct message and audience it would take away from the document being persuasive. In “Letter to President Clinton on Iraq”, the audience is the President of the United States and the general public that reads New American Century. However if the authors of the letter wanted to persuade the United Nations to take action on Saddam Hussein they would have to take a less opinionated view on the issue and bring empirical evidence on why action must be taken.

Constructing the audience would require research on the issue in regards to all the countries in the United Nations. Instead of focusing just on American policy the writer would redirect the issue to a world issue. If the tone was shifted from an urgent to matter of fact, the audience is more likely to agree that the power removal must take place. The audience is made up of state heads and informed individuals on world policy, the argument must be compelling and appeal to their logos. Instead of disparaging the UN, this letter would have to make larger claims that the world would be threatened. The larger and more solid claim that is given will convince the audience of the message, no mask needed. With such an educated audience facts, findings, and statistics would help the letter show how serious the problem of Saddam Hussein is. With the instability of the Middle East pointed out in the original letter, the new letter could take that focus and enhance it. The UN stands for peace and diplomacy throughout the world. The argument that the Middle East will collapse without intervention in Iraq could be explored more within a new letter to the UN. The writer can call on the responsibility of the world’s largest policy-making agency to fix a problem that is continuous within the world arena.

Persuasive writing, especially in the political sphere, must make distinct claims that back the initial opinion. The audience construction is the most important part of persuasive writing because the audience is what drives writer. Ong would argue that the direct approach of the original letter was a mistake to the audience and its’ intended and implied readers; however the audience would not accept anything indirect at the UN or the White House. The refocusing of the letter to the UN would allow for more compelling statements to be made and be expanded and empirical evidence to show the problem in its’ entirety.

Short Assignment 1

In Studs Terkel’s “Community in Action”, he makes the point that humans fare better when they are together and it is natural and orderly to do so. By appealing to the ethos and the pathos of the audience, the author’s claim is validated through a personal anecdote.

Terkel was raised during the Great Depression and saw how communities banded together for the less fortunate. With a vivid description of the community helping a less fortunate family, the author goes on to create an epideictic argument in regards why a community in action should be the ultimate goal for each generation. When Selzer writes about the effect of personal experience in an author’s work, he demonstrates that it can help the audience not see when an author is being deliberative. However Terkel is not being as deliberative as he is being epideictic and appealing to the readers to try and always be a community. The first distinct movement that Terkel makes is when he relays Einstein’s opinion in regards to Westerners and their individualistic thinking. The audience is pulled back into the side of Terkel when he uses strong rhetoric about what the people of the, “'30s and '40s and the Depression, fighting for rights of laborers and the rights of women and the rights of all people who are different from the majority”. This passage resonates proudly with the audience, as they are Americans reading about what makes and American life, and in turn it appeals to their ethos and nationalism.

There is no restraint in what Terkel is saying to the audience, he does not entertain other schools of thought in individualism. He goes against the notions that being a part of something means a ‘loss of freedom’. However, he expects nothing from the audience; he does not use a forceful tone about what his belief is. Terkel just wants the audience to understand his story and what it means to be a community. The mention of the plumber, carpenter, and electrician as banding together, he paints a picture the audience can only hope they would one day see. His appeal to their pathos is used distinctly through this anecdote; in a way it is what puts the article in perspective. Terkel does it in the very beginning showing that there are no twists and turns, and what he believes is being state explicitly.

When one is presenting their belief or opinion the audience needs something that they can grasp for and relate too, the ethos or pathos as one could put it as. The audience feels no pressure to feel the same way as Terkel but he does compel their thoughts through his story, which demonstrates how his rhetoric is epideictic in the way Selzak portrays it.