Rhetorical Analysis Essay
In today’s society many opposing views have played huge tolls on how people react to certain situations. When it comes to these opposing views many people want to avoid the situation by just walking away without some kind of confrontation. In Deborah Tannen’s “For Arguments Sake” article she uses and expresses many tactics of the rhetoric to get different points across. Rhetoric is the set of techniques a writer uses to persuade an audience. In Tannen’s article she uses personal experiences, counterpoint and contrast, along with narration as rhetorical strategies to get her point across to a tentative audience.
Personal experience is where writers tell about their own experience to gain the readers trust. In her article Tannen talks about a talk show she was airing on regarding a book she had written. Before going on the show she had talked to an expert backstage who had read and liked the book, but had told her that he was going to attack her regarding some of the issues in the book. “We went on the set and began the show. I had hardly managed to finish a sentence or two before the man threw his arms out in gestures of anger, and began shrieking – briefly hurling accusations at me, and then railing at length against women”(Tannen 1). In this quote Tannen uses her personal experience as someone on a talk show and being attacked to prove to her audience that people are compelled to fight about everything. Even when its not necessary, given the correct circumstances, one will engaged to make another person look bad to make themselves look good. Given this situation a rhetorical appeal used to emphasize Tannen’s point is ethical. Tannen uses her title as an author of a book she had written to draw in the readers attention and gain trust to show how her attack wasn’t necessary, but relevant to the issues on the television show.
Another rhetorical strategy used in Tannen’s article is counterpoint and contrast....