It’s hard to imagine that just ten short months ago I was sitting in a classroom building a spaghetti tower with no idea what a rhetorical analysis essay was or what the word anaphora meant. Now, just a couple of months later, I have read and analyzed six different novels, learned to write an argument, synthesis, and rhetorical analysis essay, expanded my lexicon of literary terms, and sat through a three hour AP exam. This class has not only given me the skills to master the AP exam, but it has also given me knowledge to succeed in future English courses and in life. Through this course, I have experienced unparalleled growth in my reading comprehension and writing abilities. Over the summer, we were asked to write a rhetorical analysis essay. I vividly remember reading the prompt and having no idea what to do. At the time, I had only a limited understanding of the words ethos, pathos, and logos, but somehow I managed to write a three page essay on the rhetoric of Cesar Chavez’s article. When we got back from summer vacation, we learned more about how to write a rhetorical analysis. We learned about SOAPStone, which stands for speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone. I applied my knowledge of SOAPStone to analyzing “Two Ways of Seeing a River” and “To My Old Master”. Through SOAPStone, I was able to easily develop an introduction to my rhetorical analysis essays. Next up was learning how to identify rhetorical devices. Through reading Robert F. Kennedy’s
On March 18, 2008, Barack Obama gave a speech addressing racial issues facing America, as well as the reason behind his candidacy. Cesar Chavez, in his speech on November 9, 1984, dissucessed the discriminatory conditions being faced by Hispanics, mainly farm workers, of America. He also includes his plans meant for improving the lives of Hispanics across the nation. Barack Obama, the speaker of "A More Perfect Union" and Cesar Chavez, the speaker of "What the future holds for Farmworkers and Hispanics" present arguments housing claims, reasoning, evidence, rhetorical appeals/devices, and structure, creating similarities and differences amongst the speeches altering the effectiveness of their
Chavez’s speech is rhetorically effective because he uses repetition, ethos, pathos, and logos. First, Chavez uses ethos to persuade his audience
Revolution and radical change seem, to many, to be intrinsically linked to violence. But as proponents of pacifism such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez will tell you, nonviolence holds the true power. Revolution, in the opinion of both these civil rights leaders, should be peaceful. In Cesar Chavez’s article for a religious organization’s magazine, Chavez expresses these beliefs by arguing against the idea of a bloody, casualty-filled revolution. He masterfully develops his case against violent revolution by using the rhetorical devices of allusion, logical cause and effect, and powerful metaphor and language.
From 1954 to 1968, African Americans fought to end segregation in the southern United States through nonviolent protests. As a major leader of the movement, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged this approach. Ten years after MLK’s assassination, American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez published an article to commemorate the great leader and what he stood for. In his magazine article, Cesar Chavez utilizes logos, pathos, and ethos to convey the importance of nonviolence.
In enjoying, as well as closely examining, an article written by Cesar Chavez on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was published in a magazine of a religious organization devoted to helping those in need, it becomes evident that Chavez, through the use of many rhetorical devices and literary tools, feels very strongly on the thought of nonviolence being superior to violence. According to the labor leader and civil rights activist, nonviolence will always conquer violence, which Chavez makes clear through the use of rhetorical tricks such as allusions, specific word choice and sentence structure, strategic tone and by appealing to the values of his audience.
About 85% of churches are not fully active with their community. Statics have higher throughout the years, about 40 years ago Mexicans were being treated unfairly due to poor working conditions. This unbarring situation leads to a fellow leader, Chavez to step up and build a firm foundation to led us Mexican-Americans to success. Chavez had many helpers from different communities, but his own. The Mexican-American organization was let down by their own church. This escalated to such an overwhelming experience. In Chavez’ speech, “The Mexican-Americans and the Church insinuates the catastrophe of the church's involvement. Chavez explains his purpose thoroughly to the audience, uses pathos and has an effective tone to allow him to build his organization.
Cesar Chavez is best known for using non-violent methods to fight for the rights of migrant farm workers. It is people like Cesar Chavez that give people hope to continue, regardless of the situation. Cesar Chavez is also remembered for all of his very powerful speeches that made a difference in this world for Mexican-Americans. For instance, in his address to the Commonwealth Club of California, Cesar Chavez used diction and different types of rhetorical appeals and details to help change American history for Hispanics in order for them to gain better pay and working conditions.
Martin Luther King Jr. is known throughout history as a symbol of protest and equality. His nonviolent strategies were effective in furthering the civil rights movement. Cesar Chavez, a labor union and civil rights advocate commends King’s actions. In his article, Chavez utilizes meticulous diction, rhetoric, and syntax to support his argument.
Cesar Chavez shows us in this piece just how upsetting violence actually is. The author relates to the audience through pathos and logos. Chavez also uses diction in such a beautiful way and he also makes a great deal of connection with his readers.
A continuation of the political movement groups was the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) fight for a better working environment and equal working conditions as the workers toiled in the fields harvesting grapes. In Cesar Chavez’s speech, “Proclamation of the Delano Grape Workers for International Boycott Day,” the plight of Mexicans, Filipinos, Africans, and others for humane working conditions, protection from pesticides, and collective bargaining, is advocated. The NFWA was supported by the American Federation of Labor, which we had learned early in the semester, was a skilled workers union created back in 1881 for workplace reform. The boycott was similar to other protest movements by using peaceful methods instead of violence. By doing this, they were able to make their protest more appealing like Civil Rights protest had done earlier. The boycott was not isolated to only grape workers, crucial to its success was the participation from grape consumers. The consumers rallied behind the cause, withholding their patronage from stores that continued to
Cesar Chavez was an important man who helped with the freedom of farmers. His family lost their farm when Cesar was only 10, and were forced to become migrant farmers who worked in the fields for hours. In addition, they had to work while planes released harmful pesticides on him and his farmers. Cesar finally had enough and striked back to the government in multiple ways.
In my junior year, I took AP English Language and Composition, which was a transformative experience and nothing like the many literature-centric English courses I had taken before. Instead of analyzing tragic heroes, falling action, and motifs, we delved into the art of discourse. Through debates about justice and philosophy and modern-day controversies, I learned that rhetoric is in everything. I have always enjoyed English as a subject, and though I prefer reading and writing to quadratic formula problem sets, I never found deconstructing a denouement even half as compelling as analyzing an argument. The small class size lent itself to unique, intellectual conversations that taught me how to push myself into the unknown and survive there.
In the past year taking Ap language and composition has improved my writing in fields of analysis, composition and research of an essay.
This course has helped me enhance my writing abilities and display the rhetorical purpose of my essays. Coming from Lebanon, this course has definitely been a challenge, yet I believe I have learned a great deal this semester. This course encouraged me to engage in ideas of my own that I discovered throughout my writings. The articles I have read challenged me intellectually allowing me to view a writer’s perspective on a specific topic. The engagement with my classmates and the feedback given during this class gave me the opportunity to extend my thinking abilities. The two main techniques that I have learned this semester is; identifying the purpose of my writing, integrating evidence from my articles and supporting my statements.
Writing college rhetoric analysis essays is a learning process that takes some time adjusting to from writing high school British literature essays. As a former British literature student, the adjustment was hard because the concept of rhetoric analyses was completely new. Just listening to my teacher and doing the assigned work wasn’t enough for me to fully grasp the concept. I had to go to another resource: The UAB Writing Center. Visually, seeing what I was doing wrong and having one-on-one help was what really help me improve my writing. Throughout my second semester as a UAB student, I have learned that for me to improve my writing, I need to take advantage any available time at the Writing Center and to allow my classmates to help me peer review my earlier drafts of the paper I am turning in. Throughout this semester, I have greatly improved my writing from my English 101 class. In this English 102 class, I have learned to be flexible with writing more than five standard paragraphs in organizing my papers, how to research more in-depth using more advanced resources, how to expand upon one topic to compose multiple essays about it, and how to develop my writing from academic to public audiences.