1 David Baxter Professor Marisue Coy English 1302 February 12, 2013 Appeals in Arguments As the old adage

says, opinions are like bottoms; everyone has one, but no one thinks theirs stinks. People may express their opinions through a strongly worded essay, an editorial in a newspaper or even a striking visual image. Each of these three contain different aspects that allow them to reach audiences in different ways. How the audience interprets each opinion, however, rests outside the hands of the author or artist. They must rely on their use of logos, pathos, and ethos (Logical, emotional, and ethical appeal, respectively) to pull the audience toward their point of reasoning. A smart audience member will not blindly accept what they see for fact, but will utilize critical thinking skills to determine if the presented argument is valid. In Anne Applebaums essay entitled The Torture Myth she discusses the effectiveness of torture as a means of forcing information from prisoners of war. The essay begins with Just for a moment, lets pretend that there is no moral, legal, or constitutional problems with torture. (35). Applebaum continues setting up a scenario in which people would be placed in a quandary to either allow many innocent people be killed in an explosion or to torture someone to find out where the bombs are located. I find this initial statement to be confusing and almost completely unnecessary. If torture, or anything for that matter, were morally

2 acceptable, legal, and constitutional, no one would be troubled by it. This sets a weak foundation for the rest of the argument. Later, the essayist attempts to strengthen her argument by telling the story of retired Air Force Colonel, John Rothrock, who admits to using not nice methods to convince a POW to give him information he needed in a similar ticking time-bomb situation. He paints the picture of forcing on prisoner to watch the death of a comrade. if [you] take a Bunsen burner to the guys genitals, hes going to say just about anything (36). This striking image grabs the readers attention to trigger their emotion. This part of the argument utilizes emotional appeal (How did that poor man feel when they forced him to watch the death of a friend?), and ethical appeal (Well that Colonel experienced this firsthand, so he must be right!), to tackle the big question of the ethics of torture. Our new age way of thinking that America has to use nasty methods to rid ourselves of nasty people will be our downfall, Applebaum concludes. All in all, her essay was well structured and does its job very well: To inform the readers on the negative outcomes of torture for everyone involved. Everyday we see advertisements, be it on television, in a magazine or even on the side of our facebook page. Ads use striking visual images meant to persuade everyone who sees it to feel one way or another. Figure 1, an ad for Nicorwell nicotine patches, presents a woman at a birthday cake we understand to be hers. Birthdays are usually a happy occasion, right? Not in this picture. The advertisement presents us with a woman who is quite obviously much older than 42 celebrating her birthday. We then see that she is lighting a cigarette with the candle on the cake. At the bottom of the picture you can read Smoking causes premature ageing. This

3 surprising image leads one to believe that if you smoke cigarettes, you will have white hair, wrinkles and liver spotted hands by the age of 42. However, implied is the idea that if you use their nicotine patches, you will be just as healthy as people who do not smoke.

Figure 1 Ad against smoking presents a vivid image on the negative effects of smoking. (designlessbetter.com)

Emotionally, this is a strong argument. No one wants to look sixty-something at the age of 42. Heck, no one wants to look 42 at 42! Someone who is very concerned with his or her physical appeal would quickly be turned off to smoking after looking at this ad. This ad is also very strong logically. We all know that cigarettes contain many harsh chemicals and poisons to can cause one who smokes to age quicker than another who does not. The maker of the advertisements expects his or her audience

4 to understand that smoking will most likely not cause you to look that old at the age of 42, but may definitely cause more advanced effects later in life. The ethical aspect of this image lacks something to be desired. The Nicowell brand is not a very well known one. If the ad had been for Nicorette or NicoDerm, the ethical appeal would have been much stronger because many people use and trust those brands and are well recognized. Tina Rosenberg wrote into the New York Times Opinion Page with an editorial about the allure of smoking to teenagers. For [teenagers] Rosenberg states, a cigarette is not a delivery system for nicotine. Its a delivery system for rebellion. Kids only smoke to appear cool and part of the in-crowd. They know about the dangers of lung cancer and other sicknesses that can come from smoking, but that is what makes it most appealing. Teenagers are invincible. The only way to prevent teenagers from smoking is to make it uncool in their eyes, continues Rosenberg. She goes on to tell the emotionally stirring story of Florida suing the tobacco companies and rallying up 46 other states to do the same. These lawsuits forced tobacco companies to release information incriminating them of targeting teenagers in their advertisements, which they had previously denied. Rosenberg, successfully, intended for this to illustrate that the big tobacco companies are lying to us and are not to be trusted. She utilizes logical appeal by laying out the fact that 90% of smokers start smoking by the age of 18 but fails in the ethical aspect. This is to be expected in editorials and opinion papers, since anyone can write into a paper and have their opinion published.

5 These are but three well structured examples of arguments, and many more can be found everywhere. However, to decide on ones own the validity of an argument, he or she must understand ethical, logical and emotional appeal while remaining aware of pitfalls many writers use to trick one into thinking a certain way. This

6 Works Cited Applebaum, Anne. "The Torture Myth." The Seagull Reader Essays. Ed. Joseph Kelly . 2nd. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company , 2008. 35-38. Print. Public Health Ads. Digital image. Blogless-Design and ethics, thrice weekly. 14 OCT. 2009 Rosenberg, Tina. For Teenage Smokers, Removing the Allure of the Pack. York Times, Opinions Page, 12 Aug. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2013.