Blog Post 1

1. By displaying teeth as dice, pathos is used because it relates to the emotions gambling makes one feel. Gambling is luck with never a clear win. “There are some things you just can’t afford to gamble with.” This makes one feel that Crest will be the safest option that delivers results. This ad also displays logos in that it says “Crest has prevented 523 million cavities since its introduction in 1955.” This is a fact that helps show that Crest is influential in cleaning teeth. Crest is labeled as the “dentist’s choice for fighting cavities.” Dentists have credibility when choosing toothpaste which is persuasion through logos.

2. Exigence, Audience, and Constraints are all part of a rhetorical situation. A rhetorical situation in particular would be the death penalty debate. Lloyd Bitzer describes an exigence as an “imperfection marked by urgency.” The exigence of this situation is that the death penalty is seen as immoral, yet is also seen as retribution. This debate is a problem society has continued to face. The audience is a group of “mere hearers and readers” who are “mediators of change.” In the death penalty debate, the audience is the general public because the citizens are directly affected by this. A set of constraints are needed to “constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence.” A constraint of this issue is that each state votes on whether to allow the death penalty as punishment or not. 

3. In a few words, rhetoric is persuasion. It is how one persuades the reader. However, rhetoric is not only found in written novels or speeches; it can also be seen in a painting or any visual representation. It can even be found in hand gestures while talking to a friend. Pathos (emotion), logos (logic), and ethos (ethics) are forms of different rhetorical persuasion. We should study rhetoric because it is all around us. It will be easier for one to understand a piece of writing if he or she understands the rhetoric of it. One makes rhetorical choices everyday, including choosing what shampoo to buy. Learning about rhetoric allows one to communicate better with others and to prepare for an economic world.