rhetorical devices

I had heard of rhetorical devices before but never took the time to purposefully search for them until class Monday. I never realized how often they are used and how I get sucked into them.

One rhetorical device that I noticed being used quite frequently was the appeals to emotion. Though there are many used in everyday commercials and especially during the political debates the appeals to emotion is used A LOT.

The website your logical fallacy explains the appeal to emotion as “to manipulate an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument”  (Richardson, Smith & Meaden, 2012)

Richardson, J., Smith , A., & Meaden, S. (2012). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/

*Example one: This was mentioned in class but was one of the first that I thought of. That is the ASPCA commercials where they play sad music and show the sweet little faces of animals in cages or right after being rescued from abusive situations. They show the pictures and then ask for donations. (how can you possibly say no to that!)

*Example two: The starving children in Africa or those few commercials that show the hungry children in our country. They show starving children then ease right into if you give ___ a month you will save __# of children’s lives.

*Example three: During the presidential debate Obama would be asked a question and would begin his answer with a sad story from his past then ease into answering the question. Though that can be quite annoying (whether it be Obama or Romney doing the same thing) it does work in many cases.