Logical Appeals Practice

First listen to Mayor Booker respond to a question about marriage equality.

Second, in groups of 3-ish (see Canvas), analyze the logical appeals in Mayor Booker’s response:

  1. First, what type of discourse is this (juridical, deliberative, epideictic/ceremonial)? Be able to explain your answer.
  2. Very quickly note key pathetic appeals. Don’t linger on it, but do be able to identify the pathema (what the rhetor does to prompt an emotion in the audience), the emotion it is designed to prompt, and how prompting that emotion helps the rhetor’s case.
  3. Discern the logical appeals in this speech. Be able to point us to specific logical appeals and indicate whether the Mayor uses argument by example (hypothetical? fictional? historical?), analogy (hypothetical? fictional? historical?), contrary, sign, cause, testimony, and/or narrative. Be able to identify in the speech where the logical appeals are and how they work.
  4. What’s the main claim?
  5. What are the grounds for that claim?
  6. What are the warrants?
  7. Graph this argument as an enthymeme with Major premise (generalization), minor premise (specific to this case), and conclusion.

At the end, share with the class.