Steven Cindric's Weblog

Part 1
1.)Ethos- the establishment of authority in your argument, but also an open mindedness to the opposite sides opinion.
Pathos- the use of emotion in an argument that persuades the audience to pay attention to what you are saying.
Logos- the use of logic in your argument, often paired with one of the other persuasive elements.
2.)A couple strategies to get the readers trust in your authority are by learning about the argument before writing and implementing what you learned in the essay, by doing this you will seem like you know more about your side of the argument then you really do. Another way to establish authority is to not come off too strong on your side of the argument, keep an open mind to the other side epically the obvious arguments by the opposition. If the reader trusts what your saying in your argument then they will be more likely to choose your side.
3.)One way to appeal to a readers emotion is draw on something that will inflict an emotional response from the reader, but in a way that they will be more inclined to listen to what you are arguing. In advertising through commercials the advertiser tries any way to make a commercial more memorable to the watcher, to do this many advertisers use humor to get the viewer to pay more attention to the commercial.
4.)The problem with with too much emotion in an argument is that the reader will be more interested in the overwhelming emotion then the argument. In commercials that are too funny the viewer will only remember the the funny part of the commercial and not the item that was being advertised.
5.)The way that you can use logic in an argument are by providing facts and actual numbers that show that your side of the argument is correct. It is important to use logic in an argument because if the reader sees something that makes it obvious that your side of the argument is correct then they will believe your side of the argument.
6.)All three persuasive appeals are connected and are much more powerful when they are used as one in an argument. If you first establish authority and let the reader that you know what you are talking about, then give a little emotional reason to get the reader involved, then hit them with the statistics your argument will be much stronger.

Part 2

For the article we have to analyze I choose to use Michale Crichton’s “Environmentalism as Religion Run Amok. When Crichton starts the article he uses logos to try to establish a connection between the Christian religion and environmentalists. By doing this he tries to say that peoples love for the environment has become almost like a religion to them. Towards the middle of the article he tries to do this again by comparing the people on the street that predict the end of the world with the people who make predictions to when the population will reach a certain point( and other things of that nature). This is effective because it makes you feel that the people that make these predictions also don’t know what they are talking about. The next thing that he does is try to prove that no one really wants real nature, they want a cabin in the forest where they can watch nature and not really get too involved. He does this by using logos along with pathos by giving examples of how shitty it is to really be in nature all alone, and often discuses the fact that you would die if you were pitted against nature(which is the emotional part. Crichton establishes some authority when he is talking about all of the lies that have been told about our environmental situation. The fact that he brings up that they lie about the environment also brings an emotional side (the feeling of betrayal) and a logos side (the discredits his oppositions side). Crichton uses all three of the persuasive styles into his article and writes a compelling argument for his side.

Part 1
A claim is the bases or the side that you take in an argument.
Support is the information that that author gives that persuades the audience to choose the side that he/she is arguing.
Evidence is facts that will help prove that your particular claim is a correct one.
Explanation is the way that the author explains the evidence to support his/ her side of the argument.
Part 2
1. My first response to this article was that I thought that Crichton was quite well versed and made a very convincing argument to his side of thinking. While I was reading the article I felt melancholy because if what he wrote in this article was in fact the truth then I was quite mislead by the media about the state of the environment and if I was mislead then I’m sure that others were as well. After reading this article I know the truth, or at least something closer to it, and I felt sad that others who feel the same way that I did about the environment will not have a chance to read this. What really stuck out to me was the part that Crichton covered all of the lies that have come out about the environment; I couldn’t believe that some of the things that I hear all of the time were untrue.
2. The tone that Crichton uses in the article is sometimes a sarcastic one, like when he talks about parts of religion, but it is mostly a serious and hurried tone. I think that Crichton feels very strongly about this topic and wants to make the reader feel that something needs to be done soon about the problem. The reason that he makes the reader feel this way is to make the problem seem urgent, and hopefully that will make the make more people agree with his side of the argument.
3. The main claim that Crichton makes is that people should not faithfully follow environmentalism, but that science should be more involved in environmentalism. This is not his only claim though, he makes many others.
4. He supports his claim in a few different ways. One of the most effective ways that he uses is by telling all of the stretching of truth and downright lies that environmental groups have made about the environment. He also tells about the different predictions that have been made incorrectly and compares them to the crazy people on the street who predict the time that the earth will end. The evidence that he uses supports his claim well.
5. The reason that Crichton does not cite his sources he says is because there are only a few people who have read the articles that they come from even though they are in highly respected scientific magazines. I do accept that he didn’t cite anything but it does make me skeptical, if he had the sources why he didn’t just cite them (other than the fact that it is a pain in the butt). I think this not citing greatly hurts his argument.
6. I think that the argument is a strong one and that he wrote it in a very convincing way, the only criticism that I have about the article is that there is no proof that anything he says is true, he could just be lying about all of his “facts”.