How rhetorical conventions produce an effective message.

Anyone who has ever had to construct a logical argument knows how important rhetoric and diction are to the effectiveness of the point they are trying to get across. Whether it be through word choice, using rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes, allegories, and personification to prove a point or using an antithesis, oxymoron, and paradoxes to disprove a point the result remains the same: One must use appropriate language and analysis to construct an argument.

                In Susan Welch’s blog  In Diversity, India Seeks to Rise Above Caste, Color she starts her blog stating of with giving statistical analysis of India’s ethnic background.  She uses empirical facts to appeal to her readers’ logos.  Welch states, “India represents a large swath of people. Roughly three-quarters of its roughly 1.17 billion people are Indo-Aryan, and Dravidians make up another large chunk. But the remaining 3% is divided among 2,000 ethnic groups. Hindi and English are two of the 18 recognized Indian languages.” to describe how diverse the country is and how it is breaking traditional social barriers such as the cast system which has plagued India for so long. She does this throughout her entire blog to show that there is an increase in women in education, but also an increase in discrimination against darker skin colors due to the increase in skin whitening products, and a decrease in age discrimination due to a rise in people under the age of 25 in the country.  These tactics Susan Welch uses are a great way for her to convince people she is right, since facts are empirical.

                In What Are We Searching for? By a blogger who only uses the name Katrina, uses allegorical examples by appealing to ones pathos. Describing how social medias attempt to appeal to people’s emotions by stating “All those postings on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever internet site your hanging out on, will not fill the void. (Before anyone stops reading, I have accounts on Facebook and Twitter), I’m just saying they’re not a substitute for the deeper longings. More time on the internet is not going to stop the yearning, it’s a band-aid, not a cure.” She uses many examples of diction, and logical paradoxes to sway her reader.

                Both writers attempt to use their own form of rhetorical devices to sway their readers through pathos and logos.