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5.25.09
Logos
Purpose
Logos, the appeal to logic, is probably considered the most respective appeal for arriving at a persuasive conclusion, especially in the academy. But 'logic' and the processes of arriving at logical conclusions are not universal. We will examine different strategies that get used to present oneself logically.
Activity
I –Teaching the Concepts
In pairs you will be assigned one of the following terms...
- Paradigm
- Maxim
- Enthymeme
- Demonstrative evidence
- Moral evidence
Then you will work together to develop a activity for a freshman composition class that teaches students what this concept is and how to apply this concept in their own compositions.
You will have 60 minutes to work on this, and then we will discuss your collective plans as a class.
Discussion–But is it Logical?
As a class, we will address the following questions...
- What questions do you have about the readings?
- What are Aristotle's strategies for arriving at logical conclusions? How does this differ from Campbell's? What would the discussion between Campbell and Plato about dialectic look like?
- In what ways does visual rhetoric influence all of the appeals? Which canon would you most closely associate visual rhetoric with? Why?
Activity II–Would Hire Me?
As a class, we will look at the following CVs of applied linguists.
Then we will discuss the following questions:
- What arguments are being made? what appeals do you see being used to support those arguments?
- How do the visual elements influence the effectiveness of these different appeals?