Rhetorical Analysis: Straight from the heart, does it get
the job done
In reading Tom Collins commentary on Marie Fatayi-Williams
speech I find myself thinking he did both good and bad. Firstly, let us start
with the good.
Tom had made some very astute observations about the speech
and used many kinds of persuasion techniques and context lexical ties. As I was
reading the article there was one paragraph particularly meaningful to me,
paragraph number six.
Tom writes, “Her words are as free from hatred as they are
free from self-interest; it is clear that no man can give her her heart’s
desire- her son.” He is giving a perfect example of the strong pathos use in
Marie’s speech. This woman has almost certainly lost her son yet appeals to all
of us hearing her voice; senseless violence gains no victory and what cause
could someone have that is solved by the loss of life. At a time when most
would be angry at the world, demanding justice, she appeals to our emotions to
help her find her son and stop the violence. Tom summed that up in one line.
Lastly if there was one thing I did not like about his
analysis, it was too lengthy. Every paragraph was good and had meaning, but it
was so long I fear it lost most people. In his revision process he may want to
trim down unnecessary rhetoric not needed to get across his meaning.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Tim Collins did a great job using pathos throughout his piece analyzing Marie Fatayi-William’s speech. I completely agree that the analysis was lengthy. However, he thoroughly covered Marie’s speech. It was probably a little long for most reader’s enjoyment. You did a great job with this blog post! You have a nice vocabulary and your images were very helpful.
Jason, great on on this post! I really benefited from reading your opinion. I, like Sara, agree that the analysis is very long. This did not bother me as much as I anticipated it would when I saw how long it was. When I started to read, I became interested in what he had to say. This is one of the ways I knew that it was a good piece. Otherwise, I would have grown bored of reading it.
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteTim Collins did do a great job on using emotions, I'm pretty sure that everyone felt the heartache that this women had for her son. As a parent I never want to experience that pain. I remember when I was getting ready to read this piece thinking, wow this is long but I had to read it. I agree with you on how long it was and that I did indeed lose interest before finishing. Good Job.