KWB115 Lecture Notes - Vibraphone, Lleyton Hewitt, Pathos
2 Jun 2018
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KWB115: Persuasive Writing
Week 5 Lecture - Arguments of Character and Values
Values – shape our perception and we generally accept them
• Tend to hold our values close – aware of what they are
Objectives
• Recognise the features of character and value
• Analyse instances of both
• Evaluate the use of evidence in character and value arguments
Assessment One
Formatting:
• 1.5 or 2 line spacing
• 12 point fault – Times New Roman or Arial
• Name and student number in header
• Page numbers
• Stick to PDFs or Word documents when submitting
• If looking for an extension, do it as soon as possible
• General feedback will happen in lectures → issues that most people have
Questions:
• You can use external ideas about persuasion but it won’t necessarily better
your argument → make sure you still have clear ideas
• You can use different weeks readings for different weeks topics
• You can use the videos → this form will probably be prevelant in later years
• How do you know if you’ve valuated? Have you made a statement and a
claim? Need to look at which audience’s will benefit – identify what kind of
reader you are (could be negotiated or oppositional reader), point out if the
intended reader would be persuaded, need to talk about why you did or didn’t
like it – acknowledge the intended audience, consider audience factors about
who wil and won’t be persuaded
Video – you can talk about design elements and how they may persuade audiences
Character arguments
• Saw that ad hominem was a logical flaw last week
• Away of diverting attention
• Attacking the person making the argument rather than the terms of the debate
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Logical fallacy because you are playing the person but not the bull
• Sometimes the person is the case – biographies, memoirs etc
• Sometimes you make a case about the individual when you want the readers
to think about a person in a particular way – shaping people’s view of the
person
• E.g. I, Tonya, Darkest Hour – different biopics/films/ documentaries focus on
different versions of a persons character to make the point they want to
Epideitic
• Ceremonial rhetoric
• Heaping of blame or praise on people
• Common in funerals → usually praise
• Repurposing flaws as good things
• When you want to blame someone or create a scapegoat is a version of this –
political
• You can run a country when your personal life is a mess – irrelevant character
argument
• E.g. 7th president – would challenge people to duels
• Also seen in invective, where an argument is presented that someone is a
bad person, or by extension represents something negative
•
Mother Theresa’s documentary
• Looks at good and bad sides of people
• Roles of persuasion?
• Writer has an opinion about a person which they want to pass onto other
people
• Writer must marshal arguments and present evidence to show that their
interpretation is the valid one – convinces readers why they must make that
assumption
• Some people are so far beyond redemption that there is no way to fix their
reputation e.g. Hitler, Stalin
Character arguments
• This is the main feature of biography and memoir
• One person steps forth with an idea and presents it – regardless of whether or
not the subject likes it or agrees with it
• You need to have an opinion on them
• What kind of evidence can use?
• Best evidence comes from the person themselves – quotes etc
• The more prominent the person, the greater the amount of record
• Look for writing, speeches, public acts etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
