Exam 5: Rhetoric,the Art of Persuasion

Provide a critical assessment of the following quotation.Discuss rhetorical flourishes and slanting techniques,if any,including otherizing,demonizing,fear or hate mongering,and forstering xenophobia.Some passages may fit more than one category. "Rogues' gallery:Snowden joins long list of notorious,gutless traitors fleeing to Russia If fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden were to request and receive asylum from Russia,he would find himself in dubious company. Refuge in Russia would put Snowden on a shameful list that includes notorious assassin Lee Harvey Oswald,who aimed a rifle out of a Dallas book depository building and assassinated President Kennedy as his motorcade passed by in 1963." -Leonard Greene,June 24,2013.Headline and article in the New York Post. http://nypost.com/2013/06/24/rogues-gallery-snowden-joins-long-list-of-notorious-gutless-traitors-fleeing-to-russia/

Construct eight sentences,each illustrating a use of this slanter:misleading comparison.

Construct eight sentences,each illustrating a use of this slanter:proof surrogate.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: Libya's strongman,Colonel Muammar Qaddafi,is the kingpin of Mideast terrorism,as Israeli and Western intelligence sources assert.Qaddafi's "who,me?" denials are as believable as would be his announcing conversion to Judaism.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: As if they alone were concerned with clean air and pure water,these self-anointed environmentalists question whether there will be nitrate pollution from the new subdivision and whether Madrone Creek can accommodate storm runoff from the development.Their no-growth ideas are familiar to everyone in the community.

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: From a letter to the editor:"In Sacramento,money talks,which is why our politicians kowtow to the local developers.So much for voting for honest people whose primary concern should be people,not money." -Sacramento Bee

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: The statistics Dr.Swain trotted out to prove that bicycle helmets save lives miss the point that a helmet law for bicyclists infringes on individual rights.

A)Discuss any instances of nonargumentative persuasion or pseudoreasoning and explain any slanting techniques you find in the following passage.B)Rewrite the passage in language that is as emotively neutral as possible but still retains the same informational content. "The U.S.government (that's you and me,by the way)is about to give away a resource that's worth more than any national park or national monument in the land.If the public were to hear that Yosemite or Yellowstone National Park were to be handed over,at no cost,to a major corporation,what do you think would happen? There'd be howls of protest,of course.But an even bigger giveaway is in the works:the awarding of large segments of the broadcast spectrum to the broadcasting systems.They'll be able to turn huge profits from the new resources,and how much comes back to the public? Not one dime.Handouts like this raise the level of corporate welfare to mind-stretching new heights!" -Letter to a local newspaper

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: We clearly can't trust the television networks,not when they've just spent two days interviewing young children on their feelings about the recent shootings at the elementary school.This attempt to wring every drop of human interest from the tragedy is either frighteningly cynical or criminally thoughtless regarding the damage that can be done both to the children interviewed and to children who see the interviews.

A)Discuss any instances of nonargumentative persuasion or pseudoreasoning and explain any slanting techniques you find in the following passage.(We'll comment on features we find obscure,unusual,or tricky. )B)Rewrite the passage in language that is as emotively neutral as possible but still retains the same informational content. Members of the baby boom generation,the generation that is now becoming yuppies instead of growing up,refuse to see the light.After being the center of the universe during the sixties and seventies,they expected to own it by the mid-eighties.They grew up believing they would have tremendous jobs,wonderful houses,exotic travel,great marriages,and beautiful children as well as European "personal" cars,fancy music systems,high-tech kitchens,and wine in the cellar.But it isn't turning out that way for most of them.Having glutted the professional marketplace,they live on depressed salaries;their dependence on immediate gratification causes them to spend like sailors-on the right stuff-driving prices of their playthings through the roof. But they are addicted to their ways.Those who moved to Manhattan can't bear the thought of living anywhere else but can't afford to live there.According to the New York Times,single-room-occupancy hotels that used to house the poor now contain tenants who cart in their stereos and tape decks,their button-down shirts,and their Adidas running shoes.One young woman says her bathroom is so filthy she showers with shoes on. This insistence on doing it right bespeaks a refusal to grow up disguised as a commitment to-what?-"quality of life"? One no-longer-really-young professional says,"It used to be you moved to the suburbs for the children.But on some level we still think of ourselves as children." Peter Pan,call your office. -Very freely adapted from George Will,"Reality Says You Can't Have It All," Newsweek

Isolate and discuss the rhetorical devices that appear in the following passage: "Notre Dame people like to point out that,unlike other [college football] powerhouses,their players must face tough admissions standards,shoulder the regular course load and forget about being red-shirted to gain additional playing years.And,of course,it's a lot more fun to point out those things if your guys are out there stomping on 24-year-old golf-course management majors every Saturday,the way they used to." -Newsweek