Jarod Tuffelmire

Reading For Rhetorical Proofs

1. The first idea that struck me were the paragraphs under Using Emotions to Sustain an
Argument on page 34.It first goes on to talk about how you can use emotional appeals
to support a logical standpoint. Personally in my writing, I usually stay as far away from
emotions as possible and try to use as much ethos and logos instead to persuade my
reader. After reading this however, and learning that by adding emotional appeals you
can further support your logical statements just like most news stations do, I will
definitely by trying to incorporate them more into my writing.
2. The second part that I enjoyed and that really made me think was the last paragraph on
page 38 that spills into page 39. It states that Writers and Journalists routinely use what
are called human-interest stories to give presence to issues or arguments. You can do
the same incident to evoke sympathy, understanding, outrage, or amusement. Take care
though, to tell an honest story. What I understood this as was that they will try to make
you think on their side before the actual story is revealed. By telling a true story and by
adding in key phrases and statements you can get the reader in a specific mindset
before the actual story begins. I will definitely be looking out for that from now on.
3. The third analysis that evoked pondering on my behalf are the paragraphs on the pope
and his ethos skills on page 41 and 42. They state several examples of when pope
Francis used his words or his actions to make the people feel a certain way about him.
The most interesting one that I saw was his analysis on the response to the reporter
asking about the Popes opinion on gay priests in the church. He responded with Who
am I to judge? This shifted the entire tone from a disapproving one with tension in the
air, to one that is more open and less tense. This was deliberately done this way by the
pope to make the people understand his side and personality better than just telling
them ever could.
4. The fourth thing that stuck out to me was the analysis of J.K. Rowlings speech at
Harvard on page 43. She uses humor in her speech to make a personal connection to
the listener and make it so that every word she says turns from just a boring speech
where the words are long and half of it is not relatable, to one that even while using the
same exact words afterwards, will create a different response where the listener will
hang on every word because this person has shown her human side by appealing to
emotions.
5. The fifth thing is the quote from Fortgangs article on page 47. This quote goes on to
address the situation that many will already attack him for by setting the basis of the
argument up and then using his word choice and his experiences and lineage in order to
further support his stance. He uses the power of ethos in order to show just how hard it
was for his family before him while still bringing up the point that people try to attack him
for about his privilege. Fortgang does an excellent job of removing himself from the
situation but instead looking at what led to him in order for him to be so successful and
shows that the story is not one of luck or ease, but instead of perseverance and
hardship.
6. The sixth thing that I reflected on were the tips for writing your own ethos statements and
arguments on page 49. It is a well put together checklist to make sure that your ethos
arguments are as strong as they can possibly be. These include whom are you
addressing and what is your relationship with that person? What knowledge are you
expected to have? Is it appropriate or expected for you to demonstrate that knowledge?
What tone is appropriate? And remember: politeness is rarely, if ever, inappropriate.
These are less of what to do and more of things to keep in mind when writing one in
order to make sure that your argument is informative enough while also being
appropriate while also giving everything away to your audience.
7. The seventh thing that I chose was the analysis of the images on page 51. Instead of
just talking about the specific characters traits and what makes them memorable and
how that correlates to the furthest right image, they instead analyze the logos present in
each character and how that applies to the right image. They go on to explain things that
I never even thought about when looking at the characters they showed. Of course it
makes sense that Sherlock is all about looking at things logically, but just from that
image I would not have known that that was what they were trying to convey.
8. The eighth that I found intriguing was the chart on artistic proofs versus inartistic proofs
on page 52. This chart by aristotle puts logos into these two separate categories. I find it
interesting that even though you can appeal to logos through common sense and
reasoning, this is classified differently than providing quantifiable data in your support. I
would have thought that they would have worked together but I guess one is created
while still being true while the other was pulled from somewhere else and is able to be
proven time and time again.
9. The ninth thing that I liked reading was the section about Statistics on page 57. It talks
about how numbers are quantities and that the numbers, as accurate as they may be,
can still be lying if in the wrong context or interpreted the wrong way. Numbers by
themselves without an exact explanation of what the numbers mean can be manipulated
to support any narrative. Even numbers that are interpreted the right way can be made
to seem more or less drastic depending on the words that the author writes around them.
10. The tenth thing was the section on Surveys and Polls on page 60. By using the surveys
and polls to a writers advantage, they can gain trust from the reader that they are in fact
using a random sample size in an area and that these numbers are most likely a general
representation of the population. This however is not true most of the time due to the
voluntary nature of polls and surveys and that people that are too busy doing something
else will not participate in them. In addition, if they are in person in a city, the city will
have differing views than those in another city. If it is online then it is whoever has the
time and will to click the survey and complete it. Either way it is not a true 100% random
sample and the author can use these numbers to their advantage.
11. The eleventh thing that I decided to chose was the examples of enthymemes on page
65. Before this, I had no idea what an enthymeme was. Now that I do I can see that they
are used nearly everywhere when describing certain in order to make it less wordy while
also containing the same inferences that you can gather from the full wording itself.
People dont even think before saying and typing some of them now because it has been
 so heavily used that everyone will understand what you are saying even though you
arent saying the same thing.
12. The last thing that appealed to me in this reading is the excerpt on precedents on page
69. It states that If motorists in most other states can pump their own gas safely, surely
the state of Oregon can trust its own drivers to be as capable. Its time for oregon to
permit self service gas stations. As it goes on to explain later in the next paragraph, the
way that this quote is structured makes it evoke a certain response. It starts with the
precedent that is simple and easy enough to understand, that people almost everywhere
else can safely fill up gas. Then it goes on to make a glorified version of, are we too
stupid to do that here, are they calling us stupid? It makes you feel like it is a stupid idea
for them to not have self service pumps in Oregon