The speech “Address to the Joint Session of the 107th Congress” was delivered the 20th September 2001 in the United States Capitol by the President who was at that time, George W. Bush. In this public statement, the president calls for unity and tranquillity of American people. This paper has as main curiosity that it is an argumentative text full of rhetorical elements. On the one hand, it tries to calm Americans and to soothe the pain of the people affected. On the other hand, it helps to create a feeling of hatred and anger towards Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that carried out the attempt. Based on the document Analysing argumentative Texts and Hugh Rank’s Intensification/ Downplay schema, the rhetorical elements could be more easily scanned. There are intensifier components in this speech such as repetitions, associations and composition and downplay elements which methods used are diversion, omission ad confusion. First, the intensification components which are present in the text help to ingrain an idea that is distorted because the president says and reinforce the key information that he wanted that the country knew. The repetitions have an idea of persuasion behind its use, and the audience finally takes the elements which have been repeated as the truth. In this text there are crucial words such as “Union”, “Leadership”, “I thank you”, “Americans”, “American people”, “friends”, “we”, “I ask you(r)” among others, the main aim of this words is to create a feeling of unity against a common enemy, Al Qaeda. The repetition is not only used to create good feelings, but also to fill with fear and terror into the citizenship. The examples of them are mainly at the second part of the speech, they are very strong words such as “war”, “terror”, “kill”, “hate”, “terrorist” or “terrorism”. The association is also used in order to appeal to the audience’s feelings. There was a passenger, Todd Beamer, he was considered a hero and the president uses his image and his wife’s one for the purpose of making the audience feel empathy with the grieving wife. The president says that Al Qaeda “commands them to kill Christians and Jews, (to) kill Americans” and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children”, using this he reinforces the feeling of empathy and hatred to Al Qaeda because they have attacked to the vulnerable groups. The composition of the speech helps to intensify all that the speaker is trying to express; at the beginning he uses a solemn tone, then, he starts to speak about Al Qaeda and the attack, his words indicate that there is hatred and anger.
Writers use rhetoric to communicate their specific point of view or argument in a speech or text. A reader analyzes the writer’s use of rhetoric to evaluate the effectiveness of the given argument or point of view. In his “Interfaith Prayer Vigil Address,” President Barack Obama argues the need for more restricted gun control by using emotional appeals to compassion and paternalism, collective diction, and structure, which reflect the influence of a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Bush opens his speech by acknowledging the events of September 11, and those that lost the lives of loved ones and to those that gave their life trying to save others in the buildings. He appeals to those that remain strong by saying that, “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.” His use of pathos helps Bush to calm and control the public in order to keep the country together. This
The message, however, showed no signs of the forthcoming attack on Pearl Harbor. The President also creates emotions in the audience through his use of tone and emphasis. His tone is stern yet caring, showing that he believes in the American people. It also shows that while the United States was attacked, he has faith that the American troops, citizens, and government will rally behind him to terminate the impending threat. His emphasis throughout his speech shows his most important points.
President Bush and Prime Minister Blair delivered speeches shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia, which occurred on September 11, 2001. Former President George W Bush utilized pathos, anaphora, and personification in his speech to convey an optimistic tone. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, addressing the same topic, utilized mild invective and parallel structure to express an affirmative tone. Throughout the speech, the former President George W. Bush strives to empower Americans by instructing them to remain resolute, but to “go back to [their] lives and routines”. He uses the personal pronoun we and the common pronoun us repeatedly to indicate that the people of the United States, who either saw the event on television or experienced this event firsthand, were and still are involved in this national tragedy.
General Douglas Macarthur was one of the most well known military figures in the history of the United States. He gave his farewell speech to congress on 19th April 1951 and went into retirement after 52 years of service in the United States army. He was given the chance to address his final message to the US government. This analysis carefully examines his ethics, goals, strategies, strengths and weaknesses. The speech is very famous and highly popular among the American audience. Therefore, we will take into account all factors to critically evaluate the speech and find out what makes it important.
George Washington, the first president of the United States, had written a very important historical speech and document towards the end of his time in office. He had written the Farewell address which focused on helping America understand the importance of preserving unity, acknowledging the rise of political parties forming, strengthening religion and morality, and he stated his position on American foreign policy. He addressed these ideas with strong tone and used incredible amount of dictions that strengthens his tone as well as representing his appeal to ethos to a strong degree. However, today’s society seemed to forget Washington’s position on foreign policy and has created a new form of the policy. But nonetheless as time grew, change occurs. In today’s society Washington’s foreign policy would include many positive and negative manifestations, but it is still a speech and document that will always apply to America.
Bush demonstrates that with the use of metaphors, personification, and also repetition. Using metaphor, he compares America to steel, saying that America is like steel, but not pliable. Portraying that whatever dangerous act comes to America, America will stay strong and not move. Personification is to explain the reasoning behind the terrorists’ operations and the motives behind this move. Bush gives feeling and visualization traits to the nation, consequently putting it in the nation’s point of view, highlighting what the nation felt and saw. Repetition is to bring America together and strengthen everyone. It is to show that this heartbreaking event did not just affect the victims, but it affects the entire country. The way Bush uses repetition to get the people of America together makes America stronger because the more a country is together, the more power and strength it will possess. As a final point, President Bush’s usage of these three rhetorical devices grabs the attention of the people and helps Bush express the type of tone he wants to get
In today’s society the word “terrorism” has gone global. We see this term on television, in magazines and even from other people speaking of it. In their essay “Controlling Irrational Fears After 9/11”, published in 2002, Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris argue that the reaction of the American officials, people and the media after the attacks of 9/11 was completely irrational due to the simple fact of fear. Chapman and Harris jump right into dismembering the irrational argument, often experienced with relationships and our personal analysis. They express how this argument came about from the terrorist being able to succeed in “achieving one major goal, which was spreading fear” among the American people (Chapman & Harris, para.1). The supporters of the irrational reaction argument state that because “Americans unwittingly cooperated with the terrorist in achieving the major goal”, the result was a widespread of disrupted lives of the Americans and if this reaction had been more rational then there would have been “less disruption in the lives of our citizens” (Chapman & Harris, para. 1).
In 1947, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment, which states that no president can be elected to more than two terms in office. Amendments are created and ratified because they are applicable to most of the general public; however, only one man had ever “broken” this new rule. Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as president during some of America’s roughest years: the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and World War II are just a few big events on the list. The public re-elected Roosevelt to serve four terms as America’s 32nd president, however, his legacy began with his Inaugural Address he delivered to the public in 1933. Throughout the speech he proved his credibility and authority as president, found a common ground with his audience, addressed the nation’s issues, and discussed the decisions he would make to fix them.
Throughout history leaders of nations worldwide have utilized different methods of persuasion to try and influence peoples’ thinking or justify their actions. The way a leader addresses a nation is crucial in times of war, hardship, or traumatic events and this may play a role on the outlook of the people. The terrorist attacks that took place on September 11, 2001 prompted two U.S. Presidents, George Bush and Barack Obama, to take steps that were meant to protect the American people and U.S allies. Both Presidents waged war, which so far has spanned three presidential terms, on people who were thought to be terrorists and many lives were lost. The purpose of this blog is to examine the methods of persuasion used by both Presidents in their effort to justify their actions and the ongoing need for U.S troops in the Middle East.
Client A is a 22 year old college student experiencing intense fear and worry of social situations (e.g. parties, dating, sporting events, group activities) or situations where she will be the center of attention (e.g. birthday party, public speaking, answering in class). Client A describes racing thoughts, intense upset stomach, rapid heartbeat, trembling, and sweating when she considers being part of the above stressful situations and ultimately often avoids these situations. She stated she became a homebody during high school when she began feeling uneasy around others and worrying about what they would say about her or something bad will happen. Client A desires to be more involved with friends, activities, and clubs; she believes her intense fear and anxiety are affecting her academic and occupational goals. Her good friend recently teased her about rarely leaving the dorm room which encouraged Stacy to seek help.
Rhetoric is something that we use constantly in our everyday life. Unbeknown to us, we have been using the persuasive appeals of pathos, ethos and logos even for the most mundane things. Rhetoric can be seen everywhere in our everyday’s lives in form of media, religion, politics, government propaganda, historic references and social media. We should learn to identify and appropriately use the different categories of rhetoric expressions in an effective manner. Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing in order to convince the audience or the reader. It is sued to convince the audience to think in the same way as the arguer or the presenter.
“Cognitive-behavior therapy refers to those approaches inspired by the work of Albert Ellis (1962) and Aaron Beck (1976) that emphasize the need for attitude change to promote and maintain behavior modification” (Nichols, 2013, p.185). A fictitious case study will next be presented in order to describe ways in which cognitive behavioral therapy can be used to treat the family members given their presenting problems.
In that light, it is interesting to analyse what it is that made these artistic words such a difference. A difference that persuaded people to change their behavior. Thankfully, human history has created a term to define these great speeches. It is called rhetoric. In this essay we will try to determine whether rhetoric is an art, or merely a
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs talks about several different treatments, and how they work in this article. Two of the major treatments that the US Department of Veterans Affair speaks about are cognitive processing therapy, and prolonged exposure therapy. With cognitive processing therapy, therapists teach you how to find your triggers, stressors, and feelings for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and control them. Cognitive processing therapy teaches the trauma victim how to destress and cope with the world around them, and how to not place the blame on themselves which can cause bad episodes, and flashbacks. Prolonged exposure therapy is where therapist have you bring up traumatic memories from the past. The therapist can have you