Skip to main content

The Paradox of Finding Motivation through Fear

This blog theme of this quarter is about news broadcast or articles, so I looked through lots of articles in newspapers and magazines. Finally I found an article I like in New York Times. I was attracted by this article's name, it called "The Paradox of Finding Motivation, Through Fear." And then I read this seems like a funny article, the author used some ethos, pathos and logos in it.

The author was thinking about a question that his friend asked:“How do you stay so motivated and so excited about things."Because at first he told his friend a new book he is working on, a article he is writing and a hobby of adventure motorcycling in the desert. He had not considered that 'why'. Then he realized that the one aspect of these projects had to make him so motivated-the common thread -was the feeling of being in just a little over my head." Then he starts to persuade his opinion.

I think his argument was reasonable. He used a concept called hormesis. Then uses the National Institutes of Health to explain it. Here he used Ethos. Next is logos, he gave us an example, it's well documented that the way to grow muscle is to rip the muscle tissue, and then give time to regrow. This is a good example for helping readers to understand his main point.

I think I agree with him. First he used some evidences from reliable sources, and many examples or common sense in our real life. Second I personally feel the same way as he said. I always want to try something new because it makes me staying motivated about life.

Comments

  1. The blog post could have been written better in the fact that it doesn't really explain what the article was fully about. However it does show the use of the means of persuasion but not in a specific manor.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open Happiness

While at the movie theaters to see The Maze Runner , I saw a commercial that featured rhetoric. The commercial begins with a young woman named Jess purchasing two Coca Cola drinks in a convenience store. One has her own name on it, and one has the name of her friend Alisha on it. The cashier watches her forlornly as she leaves, hinting that he has a crush on his customer. Jess gives the Coke with Alisha’s name on it to her friend, and together the two friends drink them. Later, Jess, Alisha and two other friends come back into the store to buy more Coke, then leave and have a good time together. Jess keeps coming back to the store with more and more friends, each time purchasing Coca Cola with their names printed on the labels. The cashier smiles and watches, but it is clear that he wishes he was with Jess.  Finally, as the cashier is closing the store for the night, Jess shows up at the door with a Coke that has the name Chris on it. She smiles and hands the drink to the ...

Lift Off: Harvard Graduation Speech

Donovan Livingston graduated from Harvard University in 2016. He was asked to speak at the graduation so he did. Donovan wrote a poem called “Lift Off”. In it he spoke of his life. His ancestors and slavery. He spoke of a new hope. A hope that kids can have to reach for the stars and to be up with them. He spoke of how each and every person has the ability to succeed and to exceed any expectations set for them. In his closing line, Livingston said “They say that the sky's the limit, but it is only the beginning. Lift off.” His speech was one of power and he used many rhetorical devices. Livingston was a Harvard graduate and to establish himself more as a speaker he talked about how he had given a similar type of speech at his high school graduation. He used pathos when talking about his life. About what he was like in school and how his teacher used his energy to make him a great speaker. The logos used was that he was one of the top members in his class and so he knew what he ...

Marilyn Monroe's Shampoo

While browsing on Google I found an old advertisement.  The ad was for Lustre-Crème Shampoo. It featured Marilyn Monroe, known for her beauteous looks and her parts in different movies. One of her movies was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lustre-Crème was attempting to sell their shampoo through the use of fallacies. By saying that Marilyn Monroe that tells you nothing about the actual product: it simply attracts you to the pretty face in the picture. Using this as an argument of why someone should buy your product is quite illogical. Just because Marilyn Monroe uses it doesn’t provide assurance of its abilities. They attempt using snob appeal by trying to make the audience believe that they could be like Marilyn Monroe if they use the same product as her. They use appeal to illegitimate authority by using Marilyn Monroe to promote their product. Although she herself is a customer, this is still rather irrelevant. She herself has no type of expertise in hair products and knows nothing t...