Parliamentary Parentheticals as Rhetorical Strategies Essay Example

Rhetorical appeals are the mode of persuasion in rhetoric that categorizes the speaker's appeal to the audience. There are three types of rhetorical appeals; ethos, an appeal to the authority of the speaker, pathos, an appeal to the audience emotions and logos, logic appealing. (Ilie and Cornelia) In the "This is Water," David Foster Wallace's graduation speech delivered to Kenyon college's graduation in the year 2005 persuades the graduates to view the world not individually but as a whole. The speech is intended for a young and educated audience who were about to enter the adult world. The speaker points out that not only the world revolves around only our needs but also to the needs of others people. However, he argues that everybody chooses how to view the world. Throughout the speech, he uses his personal experiences and examples that employs all the three rhetorical appeals; ethos, pathos, and logos but pathos is used in most arguments.

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David Wallace, the speaker, portraits his credibility through the use of ethos and coming up clean that the reader should not oversee him. Naturally, he does not want the audience to feel that they are listening to a higher authority person instead of an average person. In the start of the speech after giving a narrative of two young fish who does not know the water is he states that "if at this moment you are worried that I plan to present myself here as a wise old fish explaining what water is to you young fish, please do not be." He undermines his authority to prevent alienating himself from his audience.

He keeps the reader interested in his narration since he does not want to be though by the reader as a bossy figure by commanding what to do. He lowers himself and even narrates his imperfections to make his audience see him as an ordinary human being like the rest. Wallace admits his flaws openly when he points out that "a huge percentage of stuff I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded." The author also establishes credibility by demonstrating his experience in what he is talking about when he states that "I tend to be automatically certain... I learned this in a hard way".

Through Wallace expression of humility in the essay, it shows the readers his real personalities since he does not want to be someone he is not. He admits to his imperfections and gives information about past mistakes, personal experiences, and thoughts.

The author also uses the logical approach, which is logos to build on his argument. The logical approach is used to show the audience that they have the choice on how to view the world. He proves that anybody can choose on his actions when he argues that "look, if chose this way [....] to be a chose". He points out that people should be reasonable with others instead of viewing them as their way.

Wallace argues that people's world views are often centered on somebody, money or material things. However, the individual is the one to choose to view like or not in the phrase "that you get to decide how you are to try and see it. You get the consciously decide the meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship..." the author states one of the only truths. He logically views the world as a choice and also wants the reader to do the same. Although logos are not mainly used in the text, Wallace provides the reader on how to live logically and reasonably.

The essay is built on pathos usage. Wallace narrates an incident where he was stuck in a traffic jam and was cut off by a car. This situation rendered him angry but reflected on the situation when he says "may be driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he is trying to rush to the hospital, and he is in a way bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am." In this context, he views the situation positively by paving the way for the car so that the son could get medical attention. The personal example is used to persuade the reader to choose a better idea of life.

Another example is when Wallace tells the story lady holding her husband hand who is dying of bone cancer. "Maybe she is not usually like this. Maybe she's been up for three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who is dying of bone cancer". In this contest he is trying to gain the sympathy of the audience making them critically analyze the situation of the lady, appealing to their emotions.

Conclusion

Through the use of the three rhetorical appeals in the essay, David Wallace successfully presents his arguments. His arguments want the reader to view the world with other people's needs included not just individual interests. The author uses pathos in personal experience to persuade the reader. Also, strong emotions are used in persuasion. Effectively the essay impact both judgmental and optimistic aspect to the reader. It makes the reader stop judging people of first glance. Through this, the reader is able looks at every situation positively rather than dwelling on the negativity.

Work cited

Ilie, Cornelia. "Parenthetically speaking: Parliamentary parentheticals as rhetorical strategies." Dialogue Analysis 2000: Selected Papers from the 10th IADA Anniversary Conference. 2003.