Rhetorical Activity #3: Appropriate Appeals

Appealing to people’s natural emotions is beneficial in many rhetorical situations. The art of manipulation through exploiting emotional responses is delicate, but effective. An appropriate use of appealing to anger would be to rally a group of people to act on something. As a member of the Associated Students’ Government, I have used this tactic many times when trying to gain students’ interest in issues they should be gravely concerned with. Last year, ASG put together a rally on campus to get a student voting right on the Board of Governors because we felt students should have a voice in the search for the new Chancellor. (If you have not heard, we are currently advocating for a student voting right with the Colorado state legislature. Our voices do matter.) To get students’ attention, prior to the rally we talked to our classes and to students we saw around campus about the atrocity of not being allowed a vote with things regarding our financial investment. The topic that generated the most appeal to anger was the second rally at the state capitol regarding proposed budget cuts to higher education. We researched the statistics and passionately emphasized the financial toll it would take on our education. We roused the classrooms and generated interest on campus that perpetuated into student activism in Denver. Appealing to anger was incredibly beneficial to achieving something wonderful for the students of Colorado State University-Pueblo.

An appeal to shame would be most effective in any position of authority. Parents use shame to generate positive results from their misbehaving children, oftentimes with nothing more than a disapproving look. Teachers use shame to inspire slacking students to work harder with facial expressions and tone of voice portraying disappointment and encouraging higher expectations. Churches—most notably and with which I have the most experience, Catholic churches—use shame to encourage moral rightness by explicitly laying out commandments and promising eternal damnation if the sins are committed and not atoned for. The manner in which I use the appeal to shame most is during my piano lessons in my role as teacher. One student came to lessons claiming to have practiced their goal of thirty minutes per day. By reaching their goals, (at that point; I have since restructured the system) the students would get a reward. As promised, this student got a reward. After the lesson, it was blatantly obvious that the student did not practice nearly as much as stated. I politely asked with my best teacher look, “Did you really practice this much?” The student guiltily looked at the practice record and as if suddenly struck by new memory responded, “Oh, I meant to only put twenty minutes on that day. I thought I did thirty, but I guess I didn’t get it.” The student slowly returned the reward. Ever since this incident, the student has always been completely truthful with the amount of time practiced.

Appeals to compassion are effective in efforts to help people. Late night television frequently displays advertisements showing poor, innocent children living in horrendous conditions. These images bring pity to the hearts of people which result in compassion for those less fortunate. Similarly, natural disasters and images related to the aftermath of the earth’s fury appeal to the compassionate side of humans to do everything they can to make a difference and help.
An example of this appeal in a composition:
We spend each day without taking the time to really appreciate what we have in our lives. We drive to school or work, not thinking that in an instant this all can be gone. We say goodbye to our families in the morning, noting that we will see each other when the day’s tasks are done. These are some of the thoughts that went in people’s minds not too long before the devastating earthquake shook Haiti to its core. Smiles were replaced with tears of agony and despair. Fighting erupts just to gain simple day-to-day items like water, food, and shelter. We need to stand up and engage in helping this nation rebuild their foundation.