Cultural Rhetoric

There is an article written about albinism in Malawi and the dangers that they have to face. Those living with the condition of albinism are living with the risk of being hunted for their bones It is believed that the bones of an albino will bring wealth, happiness and good luck. This article begins with both appeal to fear and appeal to pity, starting directly with the title of the article: “Hunting for humans: Malawian albinos murdered for their bones”. As the article begins its opening, readers are met with an introduction of Agness Jonathan. The introduction goes on to describe the situation of the girl; Agness is hunted, along with the rest of the albinos of Malawi for her bones. The writer of the article uses both appeal to fear and appeal to pity in such a way that captures the attention of the reader and brings them to continue reading. Throughout the article, while still using fear and pity to attain attention, the writer of the article uses relevant information of the situa...

Recently I watched a TED talk done by speaker Alex Kipman on the topic of modern technology, more specifically the topic of holograms. He went on about how today’s society, despite being as advanced as we currently are, are still like the cavemen, first discovering charcoal and making markings on cave walls. No one in today’s day of age wants to be behind on the latest and newest technology, so by claiming that we are still living as though ancients, people are more motivated to listen and acknowledge. Continuing in his presentation, Kipman proceeds to demonstrate the Microsoft HoloLens. By doing so, he provides the audience with visuals of what technology can really accomplish. Although while this was occurring, I found myself more focused on the holograms being displayed rather than what the speaker was actually presenting, leading me to simply assume the speaker was saying relevant and intelligent things. Upon rewatching the presentation, I focused more on what Kipman was sayi...

Recently I had attended a church service where the priest discussed 1 Corinthians 13. This is a very common topic of discussion when it comes to services and masses, but the priest that presented the chapter of Corinthians seemed to use many different versions of rhetoric to move his main idea across the mass’ attendance. When he first began his homily, he appealed greatly to the credibility of the Bible and used ethos to explain how God is the author and creator of all things, in which case we should therefore listen and follow this passage. The priest then went on to explain that if we do not strive follow the passage in the way that we love and act, then we would not be virtuous followers of Christ, presenting us with the bifurcation fallacy. Near to the end of his homily, the priest began to use pathos by trying to pull at the spirits pf the audience only to uplift them. He told the congregation that if they do not always look to live in such a way as 1 Corinthians 13, they would...

I was once on my way to a hockey game and my friend and I drove past a billboard that made us somewhat confused. The billboard said, “Embarrassment can’t kill you. Colon cancer can. Get a colonoscopy.” Featured on the billboard was an office woman whose dress was tucked into her undergarments. The company that created this advertisement was trying to imply that if anyone in the audience that that situation happen to them, they would be embarrassed. The problem with this ad is that embarrassment has nothing to do with colon cancer. These two instances have nothing to do with each other. It is true that embarrassment cannot kill you, but that does not necessarily mean that a person will get colon cancer and die, whether or not it is in the best interest of the audience to get a colonoscopy to prevent colon cancer. The photo on the advertisement grabs the attention of the audience, but the photo is completely irrelevant to a person’s connection to colon cancer. I believe that the billboar...