As society continuously expands, building new structures, light pollution becomes increasingly problematic. Paul Bogard addresses this problem and argues against the increasing light pollution in his writing, “Let There Be Dark.” Through his use of the ethos and pathos, Bogard attempts to persuade his audience of the beauty of natural darkness. Bogard first introduces his argument through ethos, using an anecdote to establish his credibility among readers. In his anecdote, Bogard recounts how the night sky looked when he was away from the city’s lights. In sharing this experience, Bogard opens up to his audience, allowing them to trust his viewpoint to a certain degree. Furthermore, his use of personal pronouns, such as “I” or “We” strengthens …show more content…
In his emotional appeal, Bogard primarily uses diction to create a subtle emotional feeling within his audiences. Using strong phrases such as “bulldozer” or “wrecking habitats and disrupting ecosystems” in describing light pollution, he is able to mold the reader’s feelings into having a negative opinion towards this problem, whether the reader is conscious of it or not. However, when discussing natural darkness, he uses lighter phrases such as “beauty” or “irreplaceable value” that capture his reader’s hearts and assists in convincing them of preserving the darkness. Moreover, personal pronouns continue to come in play as they provide the emotional connection with the audience. By using the pronouns such as “we” or “our,” Bogard goes beyond making this a personal problem and demonstrates it as a problem that everyone shares. He makes his audience become involved as he reveals the detrimental impact light pollution has on them and their environment. By doing so, his audience can be more easily persuaded to share his viewpoint as they do not want to agree to anything that can harm them or their children. Through his use of pathos, Bogard links his audience to his viewpoint, persuading them of the beauty of the world through their emotions. In conclusion, Bogard
... methods that all rely on pathos. Nikiforuk’s article successfully grabs the reader’s attention and emotion from the beginning and maintains it throughout the text by his skillful use of rhetorical strategies.
“Consider the lobster” by David Foster Wallace and “Letters from Birmingham Jail” by MLK Jr. apply rhetoric such as pathos, logos, ethos, and diction in order to create a firm persuasive essay. In Wallace’s article the audience is questioned about the morality behind killing and cooking a lobster, while in MLK’s article we are persuaded to take action about social injustice and inequality. Both authors try to prompt their readers with different types of rhetoric, but together they apply pathos more than ethos and logos.
In the “180” movie Ray Comfort outstandingly used rhetorical appeal throughout his argument in a thorough way to further grasp his audience’s attention. He used pathos, ethos, and logos during the course of his dispute of abortion and the Holocaust. Comfort uses pathos more frequently than the other two appeals, to plea to the audience’s heart strings. An example of when pathos was used was when
Throughout his preface of the book titled Why We Can’t Wait, which entails the unfair social conditions of faultless African Americans, Martin Luther King employs a sympathetic allegory, knowledge of the kids, and a change in tone to prevail the imposed injustice that is deeply rooted in the society—one founded on an “all men are created equal” basis—and to evoke America to take action.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
Using pathos, Kelley makes a strong appeal to the reader’s conscience. She urges her audience to identify with the victims that suffer from the lack of labor laws. Her speech affects one on a personal level with the statement, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.” The use of personal pronouns creates a more intense a more intense reaction in the reader. In utilizing this device, readers empathize with the victims which, in turn, motivates the listeners to vote to
David Foster Wallace, author of the essay “Authority and American Usage*,” praises and advocates for “good” writers who have a strong rhetorical ability, which he defines as “the persuasive use of language to influence the thoughts and actions of an audience” (Wallace 628). To have a strong rhetorical ability, an author needs to be aware of whom their audience is, in order to present their information in a way that will be influential on their audience. Wallace recognizes that an author who applies a strong rhetorical ability will be able to connect with the audience so that they respond “not just to [their] utterance but also to [them]” (Wallace 641). An author needs to take into consideration not just content, syntax and grammatical structure (their “utterance”) but also how their character will be perceived by their audience. A positive tone will make the author seem more pleasant and relatable, whereas a negative tone connotes arrogance and pretentiousness. That is why it is crucial for an author to recognize that an audience will respond to “them” and not just their “utterance,” as an author’s appearance to their readers can also shape how impactful their writing is.
This essay showed a wide variety of rhetorical devices that led the reader to fully grasp the author’s idea, and at the same time interpret it as their own. It conveyed many emotions and ideas that were best conveyed with the usage of logos, pathos, and personal anecdotes. Whether or not you agree with the author, one thing pretty evident. Things have changed, maybe not for the
In Paul Bogard’s article “Let there be dark” he’s making an argument to persuade his audience to preserve natural darkness. Bogard builds his argument in a different ways. Bogard uses a personal story, he appeals to emotion, and he states benefits of having natural darkness, and no artificial light.
Paul Bogard gradually builds the essay with details and a variety of claims which help the argument be established and analyzed in different perspectives. His knowledge of the subject helped the audience gain an idea of his perspective and an overall concept on why natural darkness can be though of as a benefit to us.
To begin with, the evindence Paul Bogard used in his article to explain darkness value. The evidence shows how too much light leads to sleep disorders, diseases, and depression. In “ Let There Be Dark” paragraph 3, sentence 1 he writes “ the American Medical Association has voiced its unanimous support for ‘ light pollution reductions efforts and glare reductions efforts at both national and states levels.” He use this to tell us that this is a problem and some people are beginning to address it. He also says inside of “ Let There Be Dark” paragraph 3, sentence 2 “ our bodies need darkness to produce the hormone melatonin , which keeps certain cancers from developing, and our bodies need darkness for sleep”. He explains how we can prevent certain diseases and how we need sleep and darkness to survie.
He first discusses the evolution of the concept, second he looks at various decisions that Kenneth Burke makes on the theory, third he explains how Burke combines form, substance, idea and audience appeal into a single, critical principle, and fourth he argues that his theory is important because it provides rationale for combing language, idea, and appeal.
When looking up to the night sky in today’s world, the Milky Way does not appear in sight. Instead, a blanket shrouds the night sky. In Let There Be Dark, Paul Bogard builds an argument in order to persuade his audience that natural darkness is essential to everyday life. He builds his argument that natural darkness should be preserved by using evidence, reasoning, and stylistic or persuasive elements.
To begin with, Paul Bogard uses a personal experience as a start for his argument. He writes, “ At my family’s cabin on a Minnesota lake, I knew woods so dark that my hands disappeared before my eyes. I knew night skies in which meteors left smoky trails across sugary spreads of stars.” His beginning sentence describes the
Online news website, The Journal, presents the contrasting views of the public issue of chugging. Users ‘RL’ and ‘KM’ weighed in on the opinion piece published by an anonymous writer on the 6th of October 2013. Outlining the effect chugging has on the average shopper, the writer’s audience is the broad public. The writer highlights the many shortcomings of chugging – the shortened form of the phrase ‘charity mugging’ - anecdotally and emotively, then shifting to a more logical and reasonable tone, demonstrating their shared focus on not only the problem, but also solutions. User ‘RL’ similarly shares their experience with chugging as well as highlighting a solution, however user ‘KM’ advocates for chugging by appealing to the reader's sense of guilt by empathising with chuggers.