RA #12

The speech that I decided to analyze is probably one of my favorite that I have seen on TV. It is from the hit show The Office, when the character Dwight gives his speech to an audience of salespeople. His target audience is obviously the salesmen and saleswomen at the convention that they are attending. In his speech he definitely uses pathos in order to relate to his fellow salespeople and get them excited about the work that they do. He speaks with a lot of emotion and pounds on the pulpit and waves his arms in order to make a statement and use emotion to motivate his audience. His argument is that they must stick together and to work hard in order to be successful. He says, “that it is for together that we shall prevail.” He is giving this speech because he is the salesman of the year and so he is trying to motivate his fellow paper salespeople to work harder and to never give up. I think that his speech was very effective because he used emotion and was very motivating as he gave the speech. His speech was uniting and caused the audience to become involved and become excited about becoming better salespeople and uniting together. Also, since he was the salesman of the year, his speech also included ethos because he was the best so his audience will be very open to what he has to say in order to improve.

RA #11

For this analysis I am analyzing the music video to the song by Michael Jackson called Billie Jean. To be honest I didn’t really get a whole lot more insight by watching the music video but I will make my best attempt. The target audience is most likely the people in his life that he is close to and that he wants to tell this story to. His argument is that he is kind of a ladies man but that he is not responsible for breaking Billie Jean’s heart and being the father of her child. There is also another argument coming from his friends and family that he should not be such a player and that he needs to be careful about what he does. The music video didn’t really help me a lot because most of it was Michael Jackson dancing, but there was also a detective type person that was following him around and trying to take pictures of him in order to get him in trouble. He definitely used ethos because of his celebrity and fame many people have seen this video. Also, he used pathos in the form of music and dancing. He was so influential that his music and music videos will be watched for many years to come. Again I think his argument was effective because his music has been so influential and to this day people still listen to his music and watch his music videos. However, I don’t think that people really understand what he is trying to say because the music video doesn’t portray very much, but maybe that’s what he was going for.

RA #10

The song that I have chosen to do my rhetorical analysis is Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. This is one of my all time favorite songs by Michael Jackson but I have never really stopped and looked at the lyrics, especially to analyze them. It was hard for me to pick out his target audience because he is more telling a story then anything but I decided that his target audience is his family and friends that are pretty close to him. I came to this conclusion because his argument seems to be pretty personal. His argument is that he is not the father of Billie Jean’s son. He says over and over again that Billie Jean is not his lover and that he is not my son. There is also another argument being made to him by his friends in this story. They have continuously told him throughout his life to be careful of what you do and to always think twice. I think that the argument is mostly done in pathos because songs are very emotional and they tend to evoke emotions in a more effective way than many other things. I think that the argument was effective because this was one of Michael Jackson’s all time best hits and has been heard a countless number of times. Whatever it is that Michael wanted to get across, which may or may not be what I mentioned, will continue to be heard for years to come.

RA # 9

The main argument for my first paper is that members of the Church should not be so hostile towards the theory of evolution because it does not go against the religion of Mormonism. I feel that after learning extensively about the topic throughout my BYU experience as a biology major that the theory of evolution is a very sound scientific theory that can coincide with our faith. Mainly the paper argues that learning about evolution is a good thing and can enhance our understanding of the planet. The target audience for my paper A is LDS adults who reject the theory of evolution. Generally there are too many people in the LDS Church who blatantly disregard the theory of evolution as anything credible and say that it is contradictory to our religion. I would say that I mainly appeal to logos in that I give many examples why the theory of evolution does not contradict anything within the teachings of the Gospel. I logically break it down for my audience and let them know how evolution is not a bad thing and is not against our religion. I think I also appeal to ethos by giving my audience quotes from the scriptures and from the First Presidency, which are both very important and credible sources from my audience. I feel that my argument was somewhat effective but it did have many flaws. First off, I unintentionally made them feel ignorant and somewhat unintelligent for not thinking the way I think. I could have gone about this in a much better way. Also, some of my paper was not contributing to my overall argument and could have confused my audience. I do feel however that I made some very solid points that would make my audience reconsider their position on evolution. I feel that I have some very credible and persuasive points that can be used in a better way to convince my audience of my argument.

RA #8

One of my sources for paper B is an article put out by ABC News in 2005 called “Do Video Games Make Kids Smarter?” This article mainly talks about studies that have been done in order to make the argument that video games can actually make children more intelligent. They are arguing that even though some video games may be violent, there are benefits that outweigh the negative effects that many seem to argue. I would say that the audience is mainly parents with children old enough to be able to play video games. Also, the audience may include those who are against video games and say that children should not be allowed to play many types of games. I would say that they make the argument in this article mostly by way of logos because they present many stats and studies that prove their point. They make the good point that with technology advancing so much in our present time, our children are learning invaluable skills while playing these types of video games in order to succeed in this world. I would say that they also play a little bit to the pathos because he explains that playing video games help children to learn essential learning skills that can help them throughout life. This is pathos because I’m sure most parents want their children to be smarter in any way. I do believe this argument is effective because it shows some very convincing evidence and studies that are very interesting. It also makes parents think more about how video games can benefit their children. At the same time, I am sure that there are some parents that no matter what the study or evidence, they completely disagree with the violence in video games and would not approve that their children play them.

RA #7

For the rhetorical analysis on a movie trailer I chose a new movie that is in the theaters right now called Body of Lies. The target audience for this trailer is probably all Americans but it definitely appeals much more to adult men more than anyone else. I came to this conclusion because almost the entire trailer consists of action shots and things being blown up, which are things that men tend to like. I would definitely say that I am part of the target audience. The argument for this trailer is obviously to come and see the movie because it is awesome. The argument in this trailer is being made mostly through pathos because it appeals to men’s emotions by showing lots of cool action shots that guys like to see in movies. It also appeals to our emotions with the music. The music is exciting and upbeat and definitely makes you feel like something cool is happening. Also, the argument is made through ethos because of the big time actors that appear in this movie. Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio are two very good and highly respected actors and are two of my actual favorites. I think that most people would agree that having both of these actors in the movie would make it very hard to not be a good movie. I think that this movie trailer was very effective because being part of the target audience it really makes me want to go and see it. It is very well designed and put together and has some really cool lines and scenes that makes it very appealing.

RA # 6

For the encounter RA I will be analyzing a sales experience that my wife and I had with a car salesman at a mazda dealership. We drove up in my 2006 civic and started to look at the new Mazda 3 series that they have. The salesman quickly appeared and started to inquire about our interest in a new car. His audience of course was me and my wife but to be even more specific, he definitely treated us like a new married couple with a tight budget. However, he treated us with a decent amount of respect and interest. His argument of course was that his Mazda 3 was our best option in terms of quality and price. He quickly compared his car to many other competitors and stated the specifications that were highly superior to the other cars in its class. He used a variety of techniques in order to persuade us to buy the car, which I am actually very familiar with because I have been in sales for a few years now. He definitely appealed to logos in that he described why the Mazda was a better choice by identifying its strong points and the weaknesses of his competitors. He told us that the Mazda 3 was the most popular car in America right now and that many have been sold every month. I think that he also appealed to pathos when he offered to let us test drive it because he wanted us to feel the car and be able to experience how it drives. I do believe that he was effective because even though we didn’t end up buying a new car he made us feel important. He also made us get excited about getting a new car by showing us all the cool options that it had. He also showed us how we could afford it through financing or a lease. It has been interesting to analyze a sales pitch when I was the audience.