reflecting on rhetorical analysis

Throughout the past couple of weeks in our writing class, we’ve been working on understanding rhetorical devices and how they can be used to persuade an audience. By looking at various pieces from prolific speakers like Martin Luther King Jr., or even hip-hop artist, Childish Gambino, we saw firsthand how effective some of these rhetorical practices can be. Mainly, rhetoric is broken down into persuasion via ethos, logos, and pathos. These are used to specifically tap into an audience’s psyche through credibility, logic, and emotions, in order to make them feel or see things from your perspective. One of the main points I took away from our lessons in rhetoric is that unknowingly, we use these rhetorical devices everyday in some shape or form. They can be something as simple as tone, storytelling with emotion, or confidence when speaking to others. These practices can enhance your abilities to convey stories and ideas to your peers in different and more meaningful ways. This is something to keep in mind when looking at Phyllis Mentzell Ryder’s article about rhetorical analysis in a real world setting. They state that it’s not just something used for school papers, but something that can be used to empower conversation when you take into account how things are being said.

For my rhetorical analysis, I wrote about one of my all-time favorite skateboarders, Rodney Mullen, and his TED Talk that was filled with ethos, logos, and pathos. If you look at its surface, you can see that Mullen is able to give a great speech that is engaging the audience throughout. After learning and discussing what it means to be rhetorically persuasive, we can see that Mullen is deliberately trying to use emotional storytelling, analogies, and a charming tone to heighten the connection with his audience. 

For me specifically, I struggle a lot with rhetorical devices in real life. I’ve been in tons of situations where I’m unconfident with a timid and shaky tone, therefore, I’m unable to clearly get my message across. Examples would include social awkwardness when speaking to professors about grades or when asking a peer for a favor. This has gotten in the way of certain opportunities, yet, I’m optimistic in becoming more confident in speech to be more persuasive in general. I think it’s really important to be able to find small advantages that can differentiate your way of speech for the better. Being a confident, persuasive voice in conversations can take you a long way in life. 

Thank you for tuning in this week, I’ll see you soon.