This discussion helps you demonstrate your understanding of the assigned readings in Chapters 2 and 3 to illustrate what arguments do. You’ll use this information throughout the semester, especially in Essay 1. You’ll need to indicate the article you selected as the title/subject of your response.
Select one of the materials (the video or the article) below to analyze. Write a short response (200 – 300 words) using specific references to the textbook (citations required) to illustrate what the argument does. Identify the following in your response:
1. Occasion of the argument
2. Why the author is making the argument
3. Kind of argument
4. How does the author establish their ethos (chapter 2) and pathos (chapter 3) as someone qualified to speak on their subject?
5. Potential audience
Materials for Discussion:
How The Media Helps Killers Inspire Killers
Referance: https://youtu.be/gA-4QNVkH2g?si=lOqAn1t8mtI6bjDq
EXAMPLE RESPONSE (233 words):
Kristof’s article, “Fleeing to the Mountains”, is trying to convince and inform readers (Lunsford & Ruszkiewicz 9) that the wild lands should be saved for personal enjoyment and not used for commercial purposes as President Trump proposes. Principally, as Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz suggest, Kristof’s argument would be considered an epideictic argument because it explores current values of society (17) by discussing the virtues of America’s publicly owned wilderness areas. The author’s argument can be thought of as a proposal argument (23) because in the end he proposes that “everyone run to the mountains” to get in touch with nature and experience the value such spaces offer. The beginning of the article is clearly meant to appeal to readers emotions, or pathos as a way to build a bridge between his experiences and readers (36). Kristof is able to establish ethos because he does two things in the essay, he claims authority (51) with his years of hiking experience and he comes clean about his motives (54) in wanting to keep access to wild lands in describing the outdoor experience. The image of him hiking adds to his authority to prove that he is indeed a person that would enjoy the outdoors. Finally, the potential audience for the article would be involked readers (25) not familiar with the changes Trump is proposing and convince readers to not accept the changes the Trump is proposing.
Works Cited:
Kristof, Nicholas. “Opinion: Fleeing to the Mountains.” The New York Times Sunday Review, The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/sunday/hiking-pacific-crest-trail.html.
Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Everything’s an Argument. 8th ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2019.
